A restructuring of domestic senior league football was proposed at the Bermuda Football Association congress meeting last night.

The BFA’s first vice-president Shannon Burgess said the move was “important” for the future of the game on the island.

At the meeting at Hamilton City Hall, it was announced that two options will be explored in detail with relevant stakeholders and the clubs themselves with the aim of implementing the restructure from next season.

The first is to create three leagues from Premier Division to Second Division, consisting of seven teams in each.

A play-off would either see the bottom two teams in the top flight face the top two teams in the second tier, or the bottom-placed team in the Premier Division take on the second-placed team in the league below to decide promotion and relegation.

A cup competition would also be held for each division, to give those in the lower leagues more competitive matches.

The second option would be for one league of 12 teams, as well as an additional A League.

Within the top flight, club licensing would be mandatory for entry into the league as well as a requirement for minimum venue and training facility standards. Licensing would not be mandatory within the A League.

“I think it is very important [the restructure takes place],” said Burgess, who is also chairman of the Competitions Committee. “If you look at the numbers of some teams, which are quite low, it begs the question, is a ten-team Premier Division and nine or ten team First Division a viable structure moving forward?

“It is only early stages, but over the past few years we have thought about what, if anything, needs to be done to improve the structure and the quality of the league. We’ve taken feedback from clubs and players and come up with two options. We will have collaborative conversations with clubs and relative stakeholders to determine what is the best structure going forward.

“Those conversations will be ongoing and we need everyone to embrace whatever decision is made for next year. It is critical to get everyone on the same page.”

Also at the meeting, an election resulted in Charryse Bean, Manny Faria, Shaquita Parson and Vance Campbell remaining in their positions as executive members of the board, while Terrisa Stewart, of Hamilton Parish, was newly elected.