The Montserrat Championship is the top

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

division in

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

. It was created in 1974 but has been competed-for only sporadically since then, partially as a result of the

Soufrière Hills The Soufrière Hills are an active, complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. After a long period of dormancy, the Soufrière Hills volcano became active in 1995 and has continued to ...

eruption causing widespread devastation to the island in 1997. Between 2005 and 2015, no league was played in this country at all. The league restarted in 2016, but has not been played since 2018.

History

Football was first brought to Montserrat during World War 2 and grew in popularity during the 1960s and 1970s at which time the championship and

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

were established, The first iteration of the national championship was held in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

and was won by the

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 ...

. A second season was played the following year, won by

Bata Falcons Bata Falcons are a team from Montserrat founded in 1974 and are currently one of the most successful teams in Montserrat. Honours Barclays Knockout Trophy-1974 Montserrat Championship-1975 History Montserrat 1974 League: Police Cup final (Bar ...

, but following that there are no records of any form of organized competition until

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, when the Police team again won the championship. Just as organized football on Montserrat was beginning to get going, a major eruption of the

volcano caused widespread destruction of large parts of the island, with many villages being abandoned. As a result, the 1996–97 season was abandoned part way through and no formal competition was held on the island until

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, when the competition was again won by the police team. Further competitions were held each year until

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, when

Ideal Ideal may refer to: Philosophy * Ideal (ethics), values that one actively pursues as goals * Platonic ideal, a philosophical idea of trueness of form, associated with Plato Mathematics * Ideal (ring theory), special subsets of a ring considere ...

became only the third team to win the championship in its history. This was the last recorded season of formal competition on the island until 2016 when the competition occurred again.

Current clubs

Source: Most league games took place at the 1,000-capacity

Blakes Estate Stadium Blakes Estate Stadium, is a soccer stadium in Montserrat, near the village of Look Out. The stadium holds 1,000. On 2 April 2002, the officially named MFA Inc. Complex was completed using FIFA funds. Tenants Blakes Estate Stadium has several ...

. *

* Elberton *

Jolly Roger Jolly Roger is the traditional English name for the flags flown to identify a pirate ship preceding or during an attack, during the early 18th century (the later part of the Golden Age of Piracy). The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly ...

Little Bay Little Bay is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Little Bay is located 14 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Randwic ...

* Montserrat Volcano Observatory Tremors * P.C. United FC *

Royal Montserrat Police Force The Royal Montserrat Police Service is the police service of the British Overseas Territory island of Montserrat in the Caribbean. The current Commissioner is Steve Foster, JP, BSc, CPA., a native and career police officer of Montserrat. ...

* Seven Day Adventists Trendsetters * St. John's

Previous clubs

Montserrat Secondary School The Montserrat Secondary School, often referred to for short as MSS, is the only pre-16 years of age secondary school on the island of Montserrat. The school's campus is currently located in Salem. Prior to 2004 it was responsible for Montserrat' ...

* Salem FC

Previous winners

Topscorers

2016 champions

References

Montserrat Championship Football competitions in Montserrat Top level football leagues in the Caribbean Sports leagues established in 1974 1974 establishments in Montserrat {{Montserrat-stub