Somerset Trojans, the Premier Division and newly crowned Friendship Trophy champions, will compete in the 2016 Caribbean Football Union Club Championship.

Alfred Maybury, the Somerset Cricket Club president, yesterday confirmed that the West Enders will travel to Haiti next month to play two preliminary-round matches in three days against hosts Don Bosco and La Gauloise of Guadeloupe. It is the first time in four years that a Bermudian club has featured in the tournament.

Trojans have been pitted in Group Two and will kick off their campaign against Don Bosco on February 24 at the Stade Sylvio Cator in Port-au-Prince, before facing La Gauloise in their final preliminary match at the same venue on February 26.

North Village were the last local club to appear in the championship in 2012. Shaun Goater’s team were held to a goalless draw against George Town Sports Club in their opening match in the Cayman Islands, and then lost 2-1 in a do-or-die encounter against Elite Sports Club.

The following year Premier Division champions Dandy Town were denied the opportunity to compete in the championship for the second time in three years after a rule change permitted only professional clubs to take part in the competition.

The groups and preliminary schedule for this year’s championships were announced by the CFU yesterday.

Fourteen clubs from eight-member associations entered the competition which will open with a preliminary round consisting of two four-team groups and two three-team groups.

The four group winners will advance to the final round, which will be contested at a location yet to be determined from April 29 to May 1.

The two finalists and third-place winner will earn berths to the 2016/17 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League.

Central FC won last year’s championships beating fellow Trinidadian side DirecTV W Connection 2-1 in the final.

They have been placed in Group Three and will open their title defence against Scholars International, of the Cayman Islands, at the Montego Bay Sports Complex in Jamaica on February 26.

Central FC participated in the previous Concacaf Champions League along with Jamaica’s Montego Bay United, who they will face in their final preliminary-round match two days later.

DirecTV W Connection is the only other team to have previously qualified for the Concacaf Champions League.

The winner of the 2016-17 Concacaf Champions League will earn the right to represent the regional governing body of North America, Central America and the Caribbean at the 2017 Fifa Club World Cup to be held at a venue yet to be announced.

Club America, of Mexico, clinched a record-tying sixth Concacaf club title after a 5-3 aggregate victory over Major League Soccer side Montreal Impact in last year’s final to earn the right to represent the region at the Fifa Club World Cup in Japan.

La Liga giants, Barcelona, won a third Fifa Club World Cup title after beating Argentina’s River Plate 3-0 in the final last month.