2018 Caribbean Club Shield Explained

Tourney Name:	CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield
Year:	2018
Dates:	13–21 April 2018
Country:	Dominican Republic
City:	Santiago de los Caballeros
Venues:	3
Cities:	1
Num Teams:	12
Associations:	12
Champion Other:	Club Franciscain
Count:	1
Second Other:	Inter Moengotapoe
Third Other:	Real Rincon
Fourth Other:	Nacional
Matches:	19
Goals:	75
Top Scorer:	Stefano Rijssel ^[1]
Nextseason:	2019

The 2018 Caribbean Club Shield was the first edition of the Caribbean Club Shield (also known as the CFU Club Shield), the second-tier annual international club football competition in the Caribbean region, held amongst clubs whose football associations are affiliated with the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), a sub-confederation of CONCACAF. The tournament was played in the Dominican Republic between 13–21 April 2018.

The winners of the 2018 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, as long as they fulfill the CONCACAF Regional Club Licensing criteria, would play against the fourth place team of the 2018 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship in a playoff match to determine the final Caribbean spot to the 2018 CONCACAF League.^[2]

Club Franciscain won the inaugural CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, and later defeated Central in a playoff to qualify for the CONCACAF League.

Teams

The CONCACAF Council, at its meeting on 25 July 2017 in San Francisco, California approved the implementation of the following two-tier competitions for affiliated clubs of Caribbean Member Associations starting in 2018:

The Tier 1 competition, known as the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship, is contested by the champions and runners-up of the top professional and semi-professional leagues in year 1 (2018), and open to only fully professional leagues in year 2 (2019) and onwards.
The Tier 2 competition, known as the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, is contested by the champions of the top leagues in Member Associations that have no professional or semi-professional leagues in year 1 (2018), and open to amateur and semi-professional leagues in year 2 (2019) and onwards.

The new two-tier format of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship and CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, as well as the teams participating in each tournament, were announced by CONCACAF on 15 December 2017.^[3] Among the 31 CFU member associations, 27 of them were classified as non-professional leagues and each may enter one team in the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield.

A total of 12 teams from 12 associations entered the 2018 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield.

width=250	Association	width=150	Team	width=350	Qualification method
	Nacional	2016–17 Aruban Division di Honor champions
	Weymouth Wales	2017 Barbados Premier League champions
	Real Rincon	2016–17 Bonaire League champions
	Bodden Town	2016–17 Cayman Islands Premier League champions
	Centro Dominguito	2017 Curaçao Sekshon Pagá champions
	Hard Rock	2016 GFA Premier Division champions
	USR	2016–17 Guadeloupe Division of Honor champions
	Guyana Defence Force	2016–17 GFF Elite League champions
	Club Franciscain	2016–17 Martinique Championnat National champions
	Cayon Rockets	2016–17 SKNFA Super League champions
	Avenues United	2017 NLA Premier League champions
	Inter Moengotapoe	2016–17 SVB Topklasse champions

Associations which did not enter a team

Venues

The Dominican Republic was announced as the host nation on 15 February 2018.^[4] Host venues, all located at Santiago de los Caballeros, were:

Estadio Cibao FC
PUCMM
Universidad ISA

Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 15 February 2018, 11:00 EST (UTC−5), at the CONCACAF Headquarters in Miami, United States,^[5] and was streamed on YouTube.^[6] The 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four without any seeding.

The winners of each group and the best runners-up advanced to the semi-finals.

All times local, AST (UTC−4).

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Ranking of group winners and runners-up

Knockout stage

Bracket

The semi-final matchups are:

Best Group Winners vs. Best Group Runners-up
2nd Best Group Winners vs. 3rd Best Group Winners

Semi-finals

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Final

Winners advanced to CONCACAF League playoff against the 2018 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship fourth-placed team for a place in the 2018 CONCACAF League.

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Stefano Rijssel	Inter Moengotapoe	6
align=center rowspan=2	2	Romeo Kastiel	Inter Moengotapoe	align=center rowspan=2	5
Yann Thimon	Club Franciscain
4	Djénhael Maingé	Club Franciscain	4
5	Stéphane Abaul	Club Franciscain	3
align=center rowspan=9	6	Joël Baja	Inter Moengotapoe	align=center rowspan=9	2
Steeve Désert	USR
Donnegy Fer	Inter Moengotapoe
Romano Holtuin	Inter Moengotapoe
Samuel Matheus	Centro Dominguito
Devis Oliveros	Nacional
Kenroy Ranger	Nacional
Yurick Seinpaal	Real Rincon
Romano Snagg	Avenues United