NATIONAL Football League (NFL) sponsors CJ Patel and Company Limited have proposed changes to the competition.
CJ Patel's general manager Pranil Singh and marketing director Nathan Hildebrand met Fiji Football Association officials yesterday and proposed an eight-team league format from next season. According to the National League Board chairman Sheik Ibrahim, CJ Patel wants eight teams to play in the super premier grade, eight in the premier grade and the remaining seven in the senior grade from next year.
Ibrahim said they had also proposed for automatic promotion and demotion of the teams.
"They proposed these changes after looking at the turnout during the Fiji Sun/GP Batteries league this year," Ibrahim said.
"The turnout has been really poor and in some games there were only 20 to 40 people present. Just to make the league more competitive, CJ Patel has proposed these changes."
Ibrahim said under the proposed changes, the bottom two teams in the super premier grade would be automatically demoted and the top two from the premier grade will replace them.
He said the final decision on the proposal would be made during their Annual General Meeting at the Courts Inter District Championship in Ba.
"It's a good proposal which is aimed at making the league more competitive. The people are reluctant to lead the districts because of financial woes which results from poor turnout," Ibrahim said.
"This could be one of the ways to make soccer more interesting."
Ibrahim said the onus was now on the districts to support this proposal and lead the way for new changes.
The 2012/13 NFL season will begin on the first week of December.