St. Kitts and Nevis will for the first time host the 2023 CONCACAF Caribbean Shield, a historic achievement for the tiny Caribbean nation. The tournament will run from August 3-13.

The CONCACAF Caribbean Shield, formerly known as the Caribbean Club Shield, is an annual Caribbean association football competition for clubs that are members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU).

It is a second-tier competition to the CONCACAF Caribbean Cup and was introduced in 2018 for clubs which worked towards professional standards.

Until 2022, the winner of this competition, as long as it fulfills the licensing criteria, played against the fourth-placed team of the Caribbean Club Championship for the place in the CONCACAF League. As of 2023, the winner qualifies for the CONCACAF Caribbean Cup.

The Dominican Republic (2018), Curacao (2019, 2020*, 2021*) and Puerto Rico (2022) have been previous hosts. Through the efforts of President of the St Kitts and Nevis Football Association (SKNFA) Atiba Harris, St Kitts and Nevis will host the tournament for the first time.  The 2020 and 2021 tournaments were cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 “This is indeed a historical moment for the SKNFA, our country in being confirmed as host of the 2023 Concacaf Caribbean Club Shield Tournament,” Harris said.

“The fact that Concacaf has entrusted us as hosts, shows the significant strides that we’ve made in less than two years in raising the standard of football in our country. I would like to extend best wishes to all participating clubs, in particular SL Horsford St. Paul’s United FC, who will be representing us as the defending champions of the SKNFA Premier Division.”

The SKNFA Premier League rolls into East Basseterre on Saturday, in a community that has enjoyed much success top flight football in St. Kits and Nevis.

Hosts S-Krave Newtown United take on newly promoted Jones Group Sandy Point FC at 6 pm.

Newtown are at the top of the table after a resounding 5-1 opening weekend win over Bath United. They are coached by Anthony ‘Nets’ Isaac, who had previous successful stints with the club before moving to St. Peters FC for the past two seasons.

He is back home and is looking forward to leading the new look Newtown United to former glory.

Sandy Point, on the other hand, are hoping to rebound from their loss to Garden Hotspurs at home last week Friday.

If they shake off the premier league nerves, they are expected to do better this week.

 “I know we can do better. We saw it at the end of the game where we started pressing high and we started to get into the opponent and we actually got our goal,” said Elzito Warner, a member of the Sandy Point FC technical staff.

“So, I think if we start in games earlier and pressing higher, we could do much better."

 The other match up on Saturday is set to be the match of the weekend.

SL Horfords St. Paul’s United goes up against H.E. Garden Hotspurs at 8:15pm.

St. Paul’s stumbled in their first match of the season with a 0-0 draw to Old Road in Verchilds. They would want to get something from this match to get their season up and running. As for Spurs, they started the season with a win and hope to build on that going forward.