This week­end, the is­land of St Lu­cia played host to one of the most sig­nif­i­cant gath­er­ings in Caribbean and North Amer­i­can foot­ball—the 40th Con­ca­caf Con­gress at the pres­ti­gious Roy­al­ton Ho­tel. This mile­stone event, at­tend­ed by FI­FA pres­i­dent Gi­an­ni In­fan­ti­no, FI­FA gen­er­al sec­re­tary Mat­tias Graf­ström, Con­ca­caf pres­i­dent Vic­tor Mon­tagliani and a host of top foot­ball dig­ni­taries un­der­scored a piv­otal mo­ment of uni­ty, progress, and de­vel­op­ment for the re­gion’s foot­balling fu­ture.

A sym­bol of re­gion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty

Choos­ing St Lu­cia as the venue for this con­gress is more than just a lo­gis­ti­cal de­ci­sion—it is a pow­er­ful sym­bol of in­clu­siv­i­ty and the com­mit­ment to strength­en­ing foot­ball across all mem­ber na­tions, re­gard­less of size. It high­lights Con­ca­caf’s ef­forts to en­sure that every na­tion, whether a foot­balling gi­ant or a small is­land fed­er­a­tion, has a seat at the ta­ble and a role in shap­ing the fu­ture of the game.

For Caribbean na­tions, hav­ing the sport’s glob­al and re­gion­al lead­ers present in the heart of the re­gion re­in­forces the idea that they are not alone in their am­bi­tions. Sol­i­dar­i­ty re­mains at the core of Con­ca­caf’s vi­sion, and this con­gress serves as a uni­fy­ing force, en­sur­ing that col­lec­tive de­vel­op­ment re­mains a pri­or­i­ty.

Mon­tagliani cap­tured this spir­it per­fect­ly, say­ing: “I am in­cred­i­bly proud of how we have come to­geth­er as a foot­ball fam­i­ly to el­e­vate the game across our re­gion, lay­ing the foun­da­tion for even greater suc­cess. Through our shared com­mit­ment to our ‘One Con­ca­caf’ vi­sion, we are strength­en­ing our Con­fed­er­a­tion and cre­at­ing new op­por­tu­ni­ties for our Mem­ber As­so­ci­a­tions.”

In his open­ing re­marks, Mon­tagliani ex­pressed his grat­i­tude to Saint Lu­cia Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Lyn­don Coop­er for his hos­pi­tal­i­ty and com­mend­ed the 41 Mem­ber As­so­ci­a­tions for their ded­i­ca­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­forts in el­e­vat­ing foot­ball across the re­gion. He re­flect­ed on the re­mark­able progress made both on and off the pitch, em­pha­siz­ing his pride in the achieve­ments that have shaped the fu­ture of the sport in Con­ca­caf.

T&T’s path for­ward

TTFA pres­i­dent Kieron Ed­wards was in at­ten­dance as well as oth­er re­gion­al of­fi­cials such as Grena­da's Mar­lon Glean, Ja­maicans Howard McIn­tosh and Ho­race Reid among oth­ers.

For T&T, this con­gress serves as both in­spi­ra­tion and mo­ti­va­tion as the na­tion looks ahead to its own foot­balling jour­ney. The se­nior men’s team is prepar­ing for a cru­cial show­down against Cu­ba lat­er this week, a two-leg play­off that will de­ter­mine a place in the Con­ca­caf Gold Cup. Be­yond that, the 2026 FI­FA World Cup qual­i­fiers loom on the hori­zon, with the So­ca War­riors ea­ger to re­claim their place on foot­ball’s biggest stage.

Dur­ing a brief con­ver­sa­tion with me, FI­FA pres­i­dent In­fan­ti­no ex­tend­ed his best wish­es to T&T, ac­knowl­edg­ing the na­tion’s rich foot­balling her­itage. With a smile, he even sent a per­son­al mes­sage to Dwight Yorke, play­ful­ly wish­ing that the leg­endary strik­er could lace up his boots one more time.

A shared vi­sion for progress

Foot­ball in the re­gion is at an ex­cit­ing cross­roads. Con­ca­caf’s re­cent growth—ev­i­dent in the ex­pand­ing reach of club and na­tion­al team com­pe­ti­tions, the in­te­gra­tion of new de­vel­op­ment ini­tia­tives, and im­proved gov­er­nance struc­tures—re­flects a com­mit­ment to mod­erni­sa­tion. The con­gress is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to align all mem­ber as­so­ci­a­tions un­der a shared vi­sion: one that pri­ori­tis­es trans­paren­cy, in­vest­ment in tal­ent, and glob­al com­pet­i­tive­ness.

The pres­ence of In­fan­ti­no fur­ther em­pha­sizes FI­FA’s role in sup­port­ing Con­ca­caf’s long-term am­bi­tions. His lead­er­ship has seen in­creased fund­ing and in­fra­struc­tur­al sup­port for de­vel­op­ing na­tions, and his vis­it sig­nals con­tin­ued back­ing for Caribbean and Cen­tral Amer­i­can foot­ball.

For na­tions like T&T, which is un­der­go­ing a pe­ri­od of re­build­ing un­der the lead­er­ship of Ed­wards, these con­ver­sa­tions are cru­cial. The TTFA, like many oth­er as­so­ci­a­tions, re­lies on part­ner­ships with re­gion­al and glob­al bod­ies to im­ple­ment ef­fec­tive youth de­vel­op­ment and high-per­for­mance pro­grams. The con­gress pro­vides a crit­i­cal plat­form to se­cure nec­es­sary re­sources and tech­ni­cal sup­port to el­e­vate the stan­dards of the game.

Be­yond the Board­room: The im­pact on the game

While con­gress­es of­ten fo­cus on ad­min­is­tra­tive and pol­i­cy mat­ters, their re­al im­pact is felt on the pitch. The de­ci­sions made to­day will shape the next gen­er­a­tion of play­ers, coach­es, and com­pe­ti­tions. Whether through ex­pand­ed youth tour­na­ments, in­creased fund­ing for women’s foot­ball, or in­fra­struc­tur­al up­grades, the lega­cy of this gath­er­ing will be mea­sured in tan­gi­ble im­prove­ments with­in the sport.

A new chap­ter for re­gion­al foot­ball

St Lu­cia’s host­ing of the 40th Con­ca­caf Con­gress is more than just a mo­ment of pres­tige—it is a state­ment that the Caribbean and its foot­balling fu­ture mat­ter. The themes of uni­ty, progress, and de­vel­op­ment res­onate strong­ly in an era where the re­gion seeks to as­sert it­self on the glob­al stage.

As foot­ball lead­ers leave St Lu­cia af­ter this his­toric event, the chal­lenge re­mains to trans­form words in­to ac­tion. If the dis­cus­sions and com­mit­ments made this week­end ma­te­ri­alise, this con­gress will not on­ly be a mile­stone but a cat­a­lyst for the next great era of foot­ball in Con­ca­caf.

Shaun Fuentes is the head of TTFA Me­dia and mar­ket­ing. He was a FI­FA Me­dia Of­fi­cer at the 2010 FI­FA World Cup in South Africa and 2013 FI­FA U-20 World Cup in Turkey. He has trav­elled to 88 coun­tries dur­ing his jour­ney in sport. The views ex­pressed are sole­ly his and not a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of any or­gan­i­sa­tion. shaunfuentes@ya­hoo.com