The Trinidad and Tobago League Cup, or commonly known as the First Citizens Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

style

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

competition open for

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

teams competing in the country's

TT Pro League The TT Pro League (formerly known as the Professional Football League) is the Trinidad and Tobago professional league for association football clubs. It is the country's primary football competition and serves as the top division in the Trinidad ...

. Similar to the

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

, it is played on a knockout (single elimination) basis in September and October towards the beginning of each Pro League season. Unlike the FA Trophy, where 36 teams enter each season from the top three tiers of the

Trinidad and Tobago football league system The Trinidad and Tobago football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in Trinidad and Tobago. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegatio ...

and the Secondary Schools Football League, only teams from the

compete in the league cup. The knockout tournament was inaugurated in 2000 and is currently sponsored by

First Citizens Bank First Citizens Bancshares, Inc. is a bank holding company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Its primary subsidiary is First Citizens Bank. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States. As of December 31, 2019, the company operated 57 ...

. Although the league cup is one of the three major domestic trophies attainable by

league teams, it is perceived as a lower priority than the league championship and the

. The current theme is ''Where Winners Reign'', with TT$110,000 to the winner, TT$20,000 to the runners-up, semifinal winners receive TT$7,000, quarterfinal winners receive TT$5,000 and Play-off round winners receive TT$3,000.

W Connection W Connection Football Club is a football club from Trinidad and Tobago, which currently plays in the TT Pro League. The club plays its home games at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella. The club's offices are based at the Point Lisas Industria ...

is the most successful club in the league cup having won the competition eight times, including five consecutive cup titles in 2004–08 and are the current holders of the league cup having defeated Defence Force in the

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final.

History

The competition began in 2000, under the name of the League Cup, with

San Juan Jabloteh San Juan Jabloteh Football Club is a football club located in San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago that plays in the country's TT Pro League. The team plays its home games in Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, Trinidad. History The club was founded ...

winning the inaugural tournament by defeating Defence Force 1–0 at

Marvin Lee Stadium Marvin Lee Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Macoya, Trinidad and Tobago which is housed together with the Dr. João Havelange Centre of Excellence. It is used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of Joe Public F.C. The stadi ...

. In 2001,

began to sponsor the league cup and was officially branded the First Citizens Cup.

and Defence Force claimed their club's first cup title in 2001 and 2002 respectively. The ''San Juan Kings'' became the first club to win the title twice having won the league cup again in 2003. W Connection were crowned champions for five consecutive years in 2004–08. However, in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, Defence Force claimed their second title and their first trophy in six years with a 1–0 win over Joe Public. The ''Eastern Lions'' exacted revenge by defeating Defence Force 3–0 on

penalties Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

after the match ended 1–1 the following year in

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to claim their first league cup title.

Caledonia AIA Morvant Caledonia United (formerly known as Caledonia AIA) is a professional football team in Trinidad and Tobago's top-level TT Pro League. It is based in Morvant; its home stadium is Hasely Crawford Stadium. History The Caledonia AIA Football ...

claimed two consecutive league cup titles in

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and

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Format

The competition is open to all clubs of the

and is divided into three rounds consisting of single-legged matches. Along with the expansion of the league in 2003 and

, the league cup added additional rounds of competition to narrow the number of teams to eight before the quarterfinals. During the first ten years of competition, teams were seeded as determined by their league position at the time of the quarterfinal pairings announcement. However, in

, the competition underwent a major format change with the introduction of a group stage and knockout phase. The change was made due to having only six clubs able to enter the competition. Defence Force and

Police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

were unable to compete due to being called into service for increased crime in portions of the country. The group stage featured two groups of three teams competing in a single round-robin. The top two teams in each round advanced to the semifinals of the knockout phase. However, the group stage and knockout phase would only last one season. Beginning in

, the competition returned to a knockout tournament with pairings for each round drawn at random. The draw for each round is held at the First Citizens corporate box at the

Queen's Park Oval The Queen's Park Oval is a sports stadium in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, used mostly for cricket matches. It opened in 1896. Privately owned by the Queen's Park Cricket Club, it is currently the second largest capacity cricket ground in ...

Port of Spain Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...

and is not made until after the scheduled dates for the previous round. The draw also determines which teams will play at home. Matches in all rounds are single-legged played for 90 minutes duration, at the end of which if the match is still tied, a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

is used to determine the match winner. Although the current match rules have been place since

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, the competition began with the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds played as two-legged encounters, whereas the final was decided by a single match. In 2004 each round was converted into single-legged matches played into

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

if the two teams were drawn following regulation.

Sponsorship

The League Cup has been sponsored since 2001. The sponsor has been able to determine the competition's sponsorship name. The list below details who the sponsors have been and what they called the competition:

Finals

Results

Results by team

References

External links

Official Website
RSSSF.com ''(see the section "FCB Cup")'' {{National football (soccer) league cups

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

National association football league cups Recurring sporting events established in 2000 2000 establishments in Trinidad and Tobago