THE 2019 Women’s Football League will open today, with a clash between the respective champions of the 2018 Premier and First Division Leagues.
Club Sando, winners of the Premier Division, will clash with Police FC, who triumphed in the First Division.
The opening day though will commence with a match between St Augustine FC and Queen's Park from 4 pm. Both matches will take place at the UTT (University of TT) O’Meara campus ground in Arima.
While Police FC would have been promoted to the Premier Division this year, there will only be one division in the competition for 2019, with one round of football to be played among the 12 teams registered. This is attributed to a number of factors according to TT Women’s League Football (TTWOLF) PRO, Shari John.
“Ideally, we want more football to be played with teams categorised according to their strength. However, the new TTWOLF executive would have inherited the debt of the past executive and we therefore need to consolidate our finances,” said John.
John explained that 2018 prize money is still outstanding, as well as a few other debts, which must be cleared before the organisation can move forward.
The other factor contributing to one round of football is the mandate by FIFA to have all clubs registered online in order to participate in any competition. Teams were required to submit all requested information in order to be registered.
John explained that while most teams did, some were unable to in time for the start of the season. This reduced the number of teams in the competition.
Nonetheless, the season is expected to be highly competitive with teams being strengthen by their foreign-based members on summer break. TTWOLF also intends to host other events moving forward in order to grow the women’s game locally.