Caledonia AIA of Morvant/Laventille will begin defence of its T&T Football Federation FA Trophy against Queen’s Park Super League unit when the round-of-32 takes place on November 15.
The draw for the most prestigious knockout tournament held by the T&TFF was made at its Dundonald Street, Port-of-Spain, head office yesterday. However the venue for matches will be determined later in the week. Last year in the final, Caledonia defeated W Connection 3-2 in the final for its first national title in the club 30-year history.
This time around, Caledonia faces another tough battle as former FA winners, Joe Public (2001& 2006), Clico San Juan Jabloteh (2005 & 1998), and W Connection (1999, 2000 & 2002) also enjoyed favourable draws in the competition which carries a first prize of $80,000, the FA trophy and 25 gold medals.
Joe Public, which has already won the Digicel Pro League and “Big Six” titles will face Grand Lagoon of the Eastern Counties Football Union; Jabloteh will tackle Queen’s Park Northern Football Association squad and W Connection will come up against FC South in the lone all-Pro League clash.
The “Eastern Lions” as Joe Public is know will also be represented by its Super League and Eastern Football Association clubs, making it the lone club with three representatives in the competition while Defence Force has two, its Pro League and Super League line-up.
The runners-up will get $40,000 and 25 silver medals while the losing semifinalists will each collect $15,000 and the qualifiers for the last-16, $1,250 each. The “Most Valuable Player” of the tournament will get $2,000; Most Goals $2,000 and the Fair Play winners, $5,000.
At the end of the round-of-32 another draw will take place for the last-16 on November 16 followed by the matches on November 22; The quarterfinals are slated for the November 29 while the semifinal and final will be played on December 6 and 9 respectively.