Founded 1989 Current champions Jamaica (6th title) | Region Caribbean (CFU) Website www.caribbeancup.org | |
 | ||
Number of teams 8 (finals)
31 (eligible to enter qualification) Most successful team(s) Trinidad and Tobago (8 titles) | ||
The Caribbean Cup is the championship tournament for national association football teams that are members of the Caribbean Football Union. The first competition was contested in 1989 in Barbados. The Caribbean Cup serves as a qualification tournament among CFU members for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Caribbean Cup replaced the CFU Championship competition which was active between 1978 and 1988.
Contents
Trinidad and Tobago, eight-time winners, and Jamaica, six-time winners, are the most successful sides, having won a combined 14 of 17 titles. Martinique, Haiti and Cuba have also won the tournament.
In 1990 on the day of the final, an insurrection in Trinidad and Tobago, the host nation, by the Jamaat al Muslimeen forced an abandonment of the tournament with only the final and 3rd place play-off game remaining. Also, the tournament was not held in 2000, 2002 and 2003.
Sponsors
Over the years, the tournament has been named after its respective sponsors. Shell had sponsored the competition since its inception in 1989.
By February 1996, Jack Warner had announced a new sponsorship from sports apparel company Umbro for the 1996 Caribbean Cup. The tournament was also co-sponsored by Umbro in 1997 before Shell re-attained sole-sponsorship for the 1998 event.
In October 1998, during the first and only year of sponsorship from the Asia Sport Group (now World Sport Group), the competition changed its name to Copa Caribe. CFU's Chairman Jack Warner stated that the change was made to highlight the competition being a branch of the Copa de Oro. Florida-based Inter/Forever (now Traffic Group) agreed a sponsorship deal to replace the Asia Sport Group agreement in January 1999. The competition retained the title Copa Caribe for the 1999 and 2001 editions.
There was no competition held in 2003, instead teams focused on a group-stage only qualifying tournament.
Caribbean-based mobile phone company Digicel took over the sponsorship in 2004, in June 2007 they agreed to sponsor the 2008 and 2010 events. The 2012 edition of the competition had no title sponsor.
Cumulative results
The following is a compiled national level championship table for the CFU region. Years in italics indicate that a nation was the host or co-host.