Caribbean Football Union

The formation of the Caribbean Football Union is credited to former Trinidad and Tobago national footballer Patrick Raymond. In 1976, he approached Phil Woosnam, the Commissioner of the North American Soccer League (NASL), about ownership of a Caribbean franchise within the NASL, and instead, Woosnam proposed the formation of a Caribbean Professional League. Acting on Woosnam's advice, and with assistance from former England player-turned businessman Jimmy Hill and his company World Sports Academy, plus the recommendation of former FIFA President Sir Stanley Rous, that a Caribbean regional governing body as a sub-group within CONCACAF be the first order of business, Raymond introduced the initiative in August 1977 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, that eventually led to the formation of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU). The CFU was inaugurated on January 28, 1978, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as the Caribbean region's governing football body and a sub-group within CONCACAF.

A previous effort to establish a Caribbean regional governing body was the British Caribbean Football Association (BCFA) in January 1957, with the Trinidad & Tobago FA's President Ken Galt as the BCFA's president, and the TTFA's Secretary Eric James as General Secretary, and in 1959, a representative BCFA team toured the UK.

In May 2013, under the direction of Damien E. Hughes, the CFU relocated their offices from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad to Kingston, Jamaica.^[1] In August 2015, Hughes was replaced by Antiguan Neil Cochrane. Cochrane announced that several jobs would be moved from Jamaica to Antigua and a smaller headquarters would be rented.^[2]

The union was embroiled in a scandal in May 2011 after several representatives of Caribbean Football Associations had been given brown paper envelopes containing US$40,000. The incident was reported to the CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer. The next day, footage from a private meeting between CFU officials was leaked to the public. This footage showed President Jack Warner informing the delegates who had received envelopes that the funds within were for their personal use, stating,"If you're pious, you should go to church."^[3] An investigation initiated by FIFA examined the actions of over 30 CFU representatives and resulted in the resignation of the CFU president, the suspension of the organization's vice-presidents and staff, and the resignation of several national football association staff.

The CFU Championship was a tournament for national teams in the region active between 1978 and 1988. It was sometimes referred to as the CFU Nations Cup. The Caribbean Cup was the international cup for the Caribbean between 1989 and 2017; the top 4 teams in the tournament used to qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The Caribbean Club Championship was the championship for Caribbean club teams. The winner qualified for the CONCACAF Champions' Cup from 1997 and until 2008, and from 2008–09 until 2016–17, the top 3 clubs qualified for a preliminary round of the CONCACAF Champions League. Since 2017, the winner of the rebranded Caribbean Club Championship qualified for the knockout stage of the CONCACAF Champions League.

The CONCACAF Caribbean Cup is the latest announced regional competition.

Previously the CFU had organised a pan-Caribbean league, the Caribbean Professional Football League; it was active between 1992 and 1994.

Competition		Year	Champions	Title	Runners-up		Next edition	Dates
National teams
Caribbean Cup		2017	Curaçao	1st	Jamaica		TBD
U-23 Tournament		2015	Haiti	unknown	Cuba		TBD
U-20 Tournament		2016	Haiti	unknown	Antigua and Barbuda		TBD
U-17 Tournament		2016	Haiti	unknown	Cuba		TBD
U-14 Tournament		2022	Haiti	—	Puerto Rico		TBD
Futsal Championship		2016	Cuba	unknown	Curaçao		TBD
National teams (women)
Women's Caribbean Cup		2018	Trinidad and Tobago	unknown	unknown		TBD
Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament		2015	Trinidad and Tobago	unknown	Puerto Rico		TBD
Women's U-20 Tournament		2017	Jamaica	unknown	Haiti		TBD
Women's U-17 Tournament		2017	Haiti	unknown	Bermuda		TBD
Girls U-14 Tournament		2023	Puerto Rico	—	Aruba		TBD
Club teams
Club Championship		2023	S.V. Robinhood	1st	Cavalier F.C.		2024
Club Shield		2023	S.V. Robinhood	1st	Golden Lion FC		2024

¹No outright winner or champion emerges from this competition as it is not a competitive championship.

A Caribbean national team has played several exhibition fixtures. In 1987 a Caribbean XI entertained Brazilian São Paulo FC and a year later a 'Caribbean Selection' played against the national team of Trinidad and Tobago. Since the formation of the CFU, games have typically taken place in Port of Spain.

16 March 1987

Caribbean	0–2	São Paulo
	Report	Netto 72' Pita 76'

National Stadium, Port of Spain

Attendance: 30,000

Referee: Albert Allman

21 July 1988

Caribbean	0–2	Trinidad and Tobago
	Report	Jones 73', 87'

National Stadium, Port of Spain

22 May 1990

Caribbean	2–2	Crystal Palace
Lewis Elliot-Allen	Report	Wright

National Stadium, Port of Spain

In August 1993, CFU President Jack Warner ruled out the possibility of merging the Caribbean nations into one national football team, similar to the West Indies cricket team. He said: "There seems to be some myth outside there that a Caribbean team is the answer to football in the region. I have never heard anything so ludicrous," said Warner, "If to reach a [FIFA] World Cup have to be considered by size, why haven't China ever made it. The simple fact is, we must take whatever seems to be our liabilities and make them our assets. Being small is never a liability in this sport".^[4]

There have been three presidents (and three acting presidents) of the CFU since its foundation:

• André Kamperveen (1978–1982)
• Jack Warner (1983–2011)
• Lisle Austin (2011) (acting president)^{[Note 1]}
• Yves Jean-Bart (2011–2012) (acting president)
• Gordon Derrick (2012–2017)^{[Note 2]}
• Randolph Harris (2017–2018) (acting president)
• Randolph Harris (2018–)

There have been seven general secretaries of the CFU since its foundation:

• Jack Warner (1978–1982)
• Ivan Barrow (1983–1993)
• Harold Taylor (1993–2005)
• Kerry-Ann Alleyne (2006)
• Angenie Kanhai (2007–2011)
• Damien Hughes (2012–2015)
• Neil Cochrane (2015–2018)

As of 23 July 2016^[update]:^[5]

Nation	Association	National team	Year joined the CFU [6]	FIFA status	Island group	Geographical region
Anguilla	Anguilla Football Association	Anguilla	1996	Member	Leeward Islands
Antigua and Barbuda	Antigua and Barbuda Football Association	Antigua and Barbuda	1978	Member	Leeward Islands
Aruba	Arubaanse Voetbal Bond	Aruba	1988	Member	Leeward Antilles
Bahamas	Bahamas Football Association	Bahamas	1978	Member	Lucayan Archipelago
Barbados	Barbados Football Association	Barbados	1978	Member	Windward Islands
Bermuda	Bermuda Football Association	Bermuda	1978	Member		North America
Bonaire	Bonaire Football Federation	Bonaire	2013	Non-member	Leeward Antilles
British Virgin Islands	British Virgin Islands Football Association	British Virgin Islands	1996	Member	Leeward Islands
Cayman Islands	Cayman Islands Football Association	Cayman Islands	1992	Member	Greater Antilles
Cuba	Asociación de Fútbol de Cuba	Cuba	1978	Member	Greater Antilles
Curaçao	Curaçao Football Federation	Curaçao	1978	Member	Leeward Antilles
Dominica	Dominica Football Association	Dominica	1994	Member	Windward Islands
Dominican Republic	Dominican Football Federation	Dominican Republic	1978	Member	Greater Antilles
French Guiana	Ligue de football de la Guyane	French Guiana	1978	Non-member		South America
Grenada	Grenada Football Association	Grenada	1978	Member	Windward Islands
Guadeloupe	Ligue Guadeloupéenne de Football	Guadeloupe	1978	Non-member	Leeward Islands
Guyana	Guyana Football Federation	Guyana	1978	Member		South America
Haiti	Haitian Football Federation	Haiti	1978	Member	Greater Antilles
Jamaica	Jamaica Football Federation	Jamaica	1978	Member	Greater Antilles
Martinique	Ligue de football de la Martinique	Martinique	1978	Non-member	Windward Islands
Montserrat	Montserrat Football Association	Montserrat	1996	Member	Leeward Islands
Puerto Rico	Puerto Rican Football Federation	Puerto Rico	1978	Member	Greater Antilles
Saint Kitts and Nevis	Saint Kitts and Nevis Football Association	Saint Kitts and Nevis	1992	Member	Leeward Islands
Saint Lucia	Saint Lucia Football Association	Saint Lucia	1988	Member	Windward Islands
Saint Martin	Comité de Football des Îles du Nord	Saint Martin		Non-member	Leeward Islands
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	1988	Member	Windward Islands
Sint Maarten	Sint Maarten Soccer Association	Sint Maarten		Non-member	Leeward Islands
Suriname	Surinaamse Voetbal Bond	Suriname	1978	Member		South America
Trinidad and Tobago	Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation	Trinidad and Tobago	1978	Member	Windward Islands
Turks and Caicos Islands	Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association	Turks and Caicos Islands	1998	Member	Lucayan Archipelago
U.S. Virgin Islands	U.S. Virgin Islands Soccer Federation	United States Virgin Islands	1998	Member	Leeward Islands

Saint-Barthélemy became an overseas collectivity of France in February 2007, the same political status as Saint Martin.

Following the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010, the public bodies of Saba and Sint Eustatius could become eligible to compete as separate entities within the Caribbean Football Union. Bonaire, which also has this political status, became a CFU member (and CONCACAF associate member) in April 2013. (Bonaire became a full member of CONCACAF in June 2014.) Each of these areas is an integral part of the Netherlands.

The islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon are in the North American region, like Bermuda (a CFU member), but are currently not affiliated with either FIFA or CONCACAF. However, the French overseas collectivity has the same political status as French Polynesia, who play in the Oceania Football Confederation as Tahiti. The islands competed as Saint Pierre at the 2010 and 2012 Coupes de l'Outre-Mer. As such, it would appear that Saint Pierre is not precluded from joining CONCACAF and potentially, like Bermuda, the Caribbean Football Union.

• CONCACAF
• UNCAF
• North American Football Union (NAFU)
• North American Football Confederation (NAFC)
• Confederacion Centroamericana y del Caribe de Futbol (CCCF)

• (in English) Official website