The CONCACAF Council, at its meeting on 25 July 2017 in San Francisco, California approved the implementation of the following two-tier competitions for affiliated clubs of Caribbean Member Associations starting in 2018: The new two-tier format of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship and CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, as well as the teams participating in each tournament, were announced by CONCACAF on 15 December 2017.

[3] Among the 31 CFU member associations, 27 of them were classified as non-professional leagues and each may enter one team in the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield.

A total of 12 teams from 12 associations entered the 2018 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield.

The Dominican Republic was announced as the host nation on 15 February 2018.

[4] Host venues, all located at Santiago de los Caballeros, were: The draw for the group stage was held on 15 February 2018, 11:00 EST (UTC−5), at the CONCACAF Headquarters in Miami, United States,[5] and was streamed on YouTube.