Dexter Cyrus, coach of T&T Premier Football League 2025/2026 Tier I Division third-place finishers T&T Prison Service, has bolstered his team’s attack ahead of their debut in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) 22-team Club Shield competition with the addition of T&T striker Ezekiel Kezar.
The 24-year-old formerly of Point Fortin Civic Centre, Miscellaneous T&T Police FC, Club Sando FC, and Athletic Club Port-of-Spain (AC PoS) has the experience of competing in the Concacaf Caribbean Cup with Police FC in 2024 and the CFU Club Shield with both Club Sando (2023/2024) and AC PoS (2025), and according to Cyrus, a former national striker himself, his addition will add valuable experience and goal-scoring opportunities for his team, which netted 42 goals in 22 league matches last season.
Kezar joins an attack which already comprises Kyron Williams, Kevon Williams, and Ricardo John, while Anton Joseph has left to attend university.
The eighth edition of the CFU Club Shield will be hosted by the T&T Football Federation (T&TFF) from July 23 to August 2, at the end of which the champions and runners-up will qualify for this year’s Concacaf Caribbean Cup, which serves as a qualifier as well for the Concacaf Champions Cup.
The five clubs representing the Caribbean’s professional leagues in Mount Pleasant FC (Jamaica), Baltimore SC (Haiti), Delfines del Este FC (Dominican Republic), SV Robinhood (Suriname), and Prisons Service FC (T&T), along with the three highest-ranked amateur clubs, Inter Willemstad (Curacao), Metropolitan FA (Puerto Rico), and SV Britannia (Aruba), received byes to the round of 16 of this year’s competition, which is being contested in a straight knockout format with the first round from July 23 to July 24, followed by the round-of-16 matchups on July 25 and July 26.
The quarterfinals are carded July 28, ahead of the semifinals on July 31, and the championship match on August 2.
When the draw was made, the 12 lowest-ranked clubs were entered into first-round pots and were drawn against one another based on the competition regulations, while the two remaining participating clubs, All Saints United (Antigua) and Weymouth Wales FC (Barbados), will join the six first-round winners to advance to the last 16.
Despite getting a first-round bye, T&T Prison Service’s path to the final is a tough one, as their opponents in the round of 16 will come from the winner of the clash between SWA Sharks FC (Turks & Caicos) and Slingerz FC (Guyana), and should they win that encounter, they will next meet the winners of the meeting between Robinhood (Suriname) and the La Cleary/Roaring Lions FC winner.
Should T&T Prison Service get past that hurdle, they face a possible meeting with Jamaica’s Mount Pleasant Football Academy, who won the Concacaf Caribbean Cup last year.
Speaking ahead of a practice match against the Angus Eve-coached T&T Premier Football League runner-up Club Sando FC, which is readying themselves for the Concacaf Caribbean Cup, Cyrus said, “We needed to add some quality and depth to the team, and so far we have brought in Ezekiel Kezar and the Naparima College duo, J’Kwon Bailey and Kern Cedeno.”
With just over two weeks to his team’s first match, Cyrus said the focus has been on building up his team’s fitness levels.
‘The 2025/2026 T&TPFL Tier I season ended almost four months ago, so since then we have not been competitive as a team, and right now it’s very important to put in a lot of work to get our fitness levels up to where they need to be for this level of competition.”
“We have a match card tonight (last night) against Club Sando, which should give us a clear idea of how much more work we have to put in, and then we also play Defence Force on Sunday morning. So, those two matches should serve our preparations well,” they stated.
