Professionalised Caribbean leagues – Harris

If Caribbean clubs are to take full advantage of the new Concacaf Champions League (CCL) format, they will have to work assiduously to improve their professional structures, Caribbean Football Union boss Randy Harris told STAR Sports.

Concacaf recently announced the expansion of the CCL to 50 teams, of which 10 Caribbean clubs will qualify directly to the group stage, starting in 2023. The 10 clubs will be determined based on their domestic results and their performance in the new Caribbean Cup competition, which will replace the existing Caribbean Club Championship and the Caribbean Club Shield, its secondary tournament, in 2022.

The new structure guarantees that a club from the region will consistently qualify for the tournament's knockout phases. However, Harris says that regional football will require greater investment to elevate their respective domestic leagues in order to consistently compete in the tournament.

Commercial sectors

"The fact that we have Caribbean teams in the round of 16 is important, but we have to be realistic. Our Caribbean teams have to do a lot more in terms of their professional status of football in the region," Harris told STAR Sports. "We need more support from our governments and/or commercial sectors in order to build this kind of quality if we are really to compete and perhaps win the championship."

Jamaica has consistently participated in the Caribbean Club championship as being one of the four nations recognised as having professional leagues that meet Concacaf standards. Harris says that being able to get consistent financial support and improve the wages of players will support the aspirations of clubs who have ambitions of consistently challenging in regional competitions.

"We are not able to give our players the kind of sustainable wages that will make football a priority. I am hoping that [our] football leaders take this seriously and organise ourselves in a way that the private sector will be happy to become partners with us," Harris said.

The new CCL competition structure will eliminate the Concacaf League, its secondary regional tournament after the 2022-23 season. The competition was used as a means to determine qualification to the following CCL season. Waterhouse participated in last year's competition, losing in the round of 16 last November to Haitian club Arcahaie FC. It was the team's first competitive game since the pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2019-20 National Premier League season.