The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) is hosting its 2026 Professional Football Development Seminar this week, bringing together football administrative leaders from across the region to advance professionalization of the sport. The two-day event, being held September 16 to 17 in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, draws Club Licensing Managers and League Directors from all 41 of Concacaf’s Member Associations, and the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA) is among the participating governing bodies.
Representing ABFA at the forum are Portia Davis, the association’s Club Licensing Manager, and Gershum Phillips, League Director for Antigua and Barbuda’s Men’s Top Division League. Designed as a collaborative knowledge-sharing and capacity-building platform, the seminar delivers targeted, up-to-date guidance on core issues shaping modern professional football across the Caribbean and North American region.
The agenda for this year’s gathering covers a wide range of high-priority topics for member associations. Attendees are walking through a detailed review of existing implementation strategies for Concacaf’s Club Licensing Regulations, with clear breakdowns of mandated timelines and key performance benchmarks that associations are expected to meet. The program also includes official updates on upcoming club competitions organized by Concacaf, as well as open sessions for cross-regional sharing of proven best practices for both club licensing frameworks and day-to-day league operations. Additionally, delegates will receive a comprehensive walkthrough of the new and existing digital tools Concacaf has developed to streamline licensing and regulatory implementation processes.
For ABFA, this participation is more than a routine attendance—it is a deliberate demonstration of the governing body’s ongoing commitment to elevating domestic football. The association is working continuously to strengthen its national club licensing system and bring its league operations fully in line with the global standards set by both Concacaf and FIFA, the sport’s global governing body.
This commitment comes on the heels of a notable recent win for ABFA: for the second year in a row, multiple domestic clubs from Antigua and Barbuda have successfully attained official Domestic Club Licences, a milestone that reflects progress in the association’s ongoing reform efforts. Ahead of the seminar’s conclusion, ABFA has publicly expressed its well wishes for Davis and Phillips, noting that the governing body is eager to integrate key takeaways and new strategies from the event into its ongoing work to grow and improve football across Antigua and Barbuda.