GUYANA’S Fruta Conquerors were drawn in Group A of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football’s (CONCACAF) 2019 Caribbean Club Shield, when the official draw was conducted yesterday at the Confederation’s headquarters, in Miami, Florida, USA.

Fruta Conquerors, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Elite League ‘champs’, are the lone Guyanese club at the tournament.

The second edition of the tournament, which will be hosted in Curacao from April 5 to 15 and is part of the expanded CONCACAF Club Competition Platform, will feature the participation of clubs from 13 different Caribbean Associations.

Through this competition, the participating clubs continue working with CONCACAF towards a long-term vision to professionalise the club game across the region.

The draw, which sorted the clubs into three groups of three and one group of four for the first round of the competition, was conducted by CONCACAF’s Director of Development, Jason Roberts.

After round-robin play, each group’s winners and runners-up will advance to the quarter-finals. The quarter-final winners will automatically qualify to the semi-finals. The two finalists will dispute the final on Monday, April 15, 2019. The complete schedule will be released in the coming months.

The winners of the 2019 CONCACAF Caribbean Shield, provided that said team fulfil the CONCACAF Regional Club Licensing criteria, will have the opportunity to face the fourth-place finishers of the 2019 Flow CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship in a playoff match to determine the fourth Caribbean representative in the 2019 Scotiabank CONCACAF League.

In the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, Club Franciscain of Martinique were crowned champions with a 2-1 victory over Suriname’s Inter Moengotapoe.

The Martinique club continued their outstanding 2018 international season by edging Trinidad and Tobago’s Central FC 2-1 in the Flow Caribbean Club Championship playoff to secure a spot in their first-ever Scotiabank CONCACAF League, where they eventually fell to Nicaraguan side Walter Ferretti in penalties.