Trinidad and Tobago League Cup - Format

Format

The competition is open to all clubs of the TT Pro League and is divided into three rounds consisting of single-legged matches. Along with the expansion of the league in 2003 and 2009, the league cup added additional rounds of competition to narrow the number of teams to eight before the quarterfinals. During the first ten years of competition, teams were seeded as determined by their league position at the time of the quarterfinal pairings announcement. However, in 2011, the competition underwent a major format change with the introduction of a group stage and knockout phase. The change was made due to having only six clubs able to enter the competition. Defence Force and Police were unable to compete due to being called into service for increased crime in portions of the country. The group stage featured two groups of three teams competing in a single round-robin. The top two teams in each round advanced to the semifinals of the knockout phase. However, the group stage and knockout phase would only last one season. Beginning in 2012, the competition returned to a knockout tournament with pairings for each round drawn at random. The draw for each round is held at the First Citizens corporate box at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain and is not made until after the scheduled dates for the previous round. The draw also determines which teams will play at home.

Matches in all rounds are single-legged played for 90 minutes duration, at the end of which if the match is still tied, a penalty shootout is used to determine the match winner. Although the current match rules have been place since 2008, the competition began with the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds played as two-legged encounters, whereas the final was decided by a single match. In 2004 each round was converted into single-legged matches played into extra time if the two teams were drawn following regulation.