WESTERN BUREAU -
THE new-look St. James Premier League will replace the old Division One competition this season and will be one of two new competitions the board is hoping to introduce.
Vice president of the St. James FA Steve Bucknor outlined the new competitions in a press conference held at the La Mirage hotel in Montego Bay on Wednesday and told reporters the domestic season should last about nine months.
It was the hope of the FA, he said, that the season would end by June giving the players and members of the executive at least a two-month break in July/August next year.
The president of the FA, George Evans, said it would cost about $2 million to fund all the leagues they were proposing and said they had already started approaching prospective sponsors.
The season will start with the Premier League on September 25 and will see 14 teams taking part and vying for a place in the finals set for Ash Wednesday next year.
The teams will be separated in two zones of seven with the top four advancing to the quarter-finals where they will again play in two zones of four each.
The top two from each zone will then advance to the semi-finals with the winners on aggregate after both legs meeting in the finals.
The new-look President's Cup will be a knock-out competition modelled off the English FA Cup and will see 32 teams from all divisions including the three teams taking part in national club competitions taking part.
The breakdown will see the 14 teams from the Premier League and Division One, the three teams taking part in national competitions and the best Division Two team from last year.
The draw will be a "blind" one, Bucknor said, and explained there would be no seedings of the top teams in an effort to prevent them meeting before the final stages.
The "lower ranked teams" would however have home field advantage in each round and the competition would be played through out the season in conjunction with the other local competitions.
There will also be the Inbond Merchants of Jamaica Knock-Out competition that will see 16 teams taking part and this should end in mid December, giving the top-placed team, not already pre-qualified for the national Federation Cup competition, adequate time to get ready.
