Association football – commonly known as football (or soccer in the United States and Canada) – is a popular sport in

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

. The Cayman Islands Football Association – the territory's football governing body – organizes the Men's and

Women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

national teams and administers the territory's professional league the Cayman Islands League. As members of

Caribbean Football Union The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) is the representative organization for football associations in the Caribbean. It represents 25 FIFA member nations, as well as 6 territories that are not affiliated to FIFA. The Union was established in Januar ...

teams are eligible for the Caribbean Club Championship and the territory's membership in CONCACAF allows teams to participate in that organizations club and national team competitions. The Cayman Islands are also a member of

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

and is therefore eligible to play in the World Cup.

History

Modern football in the Cayman Islands is generally attributed to the efforts of local school teacher, and later principal, Timothy McField in the late 50s and early 1960s. With the help of a road builder named Mike Simmons, the two constructed the islands first competitive pitch, known originally as the Annex, from swamp land near the school in George Town. The field played host to Jamaica the day after it was completed. The territory's football governing body, the Cayman Islands Football Association, was founded in 1966 and became an associate member of CONCACAF in 1988, gaining full membership in 1990. The national team made its CONCACAF debut in the

1991 Caribbean Cup The 1991 Caribbean Cup (known as the Shell Caribbean Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the third edition of the Caribbean Cup, the football championship of the Caribbean, one of the CONCACAF zones. The final round of the competition was held from th ...

. The territory joined FIFA in 1992 and played their first World Cup qualifying match at home against Cuba on 11 November 1996, losing 0–1.

FIFA corruption case

Jeffrey Webb, Former president of CONCACAF, Cayman Islands Football Association (CIFA), and

vice president, was arrested for corruption charges on 27 May 2015 by

Swiss police Law enforcement in Switzerland is mainly a responsibility of the 26 cantons of Switzerland, who each operate cantonal police agencies. Some cities also operate municipal police agencies as provided for by cantonal law. The federal government p ...

acting at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice on charges of

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and of ...

, wire fraud and

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conspiracy. In May 2015, he was banned by

FIFA Ethics Committee The FIFA Ethics Committee is one of FIFA's three judicial bodies. It is organized in two chambers, the ''Investigatory Chamber'' and the ''Adjudicatory Chamber''. Its duties are regulated by several official documents, most importantly the ''FIF ...

. After originally pleading not guilty to the charges, he pleaded guilty in November 2015.

League system

Professional football in the Cayman Islands is organized by the national federation and currently consists of two leagues. The

Cayman Islands Premier League The Cayman Islands League is the top association football league in the Cayman Islands and was created in 1980. Despite being a league competition in CONCACAF since 1992, no team participated in the CFU Club Championship until the 2010 CFU Clu ...

has been the highest level of football in the territory since it was first organized for the 1970–1971 season with the Cayman Islands Division One comprising the second tier. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between the leagues.

References

{{League systems