Composition of senior and youth leagues for season 2020-21

Season 2020-21 will herald the introduction of the National Amateur League, a merger of the Second and Third Division, as the composition of the 2020-21 senior and Youth League championships organised by the Malta FA was approved during th Annual General Meeting, held on Wednesday. The BOV Premier League will be contested by 16 teams, only for this season as a result of the extraodinary adjustments due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the BOV Challenge League (First Division) will comprise 15 sides and the BOV National Amateur League 22 teams divided into three groups. Four teams will be automatically relegated from the BOV Premier League at the end of season 2020-21 with the 12th-placed side (fifth from bottom) contesting a relegation/promotion play-off against the third-placed team in the BOV Challenge League. In the BOV Challenge League, the top two teams will be promoted to the top tier at the end of this season and the bottom five will be automatically relegated. In the BOV National Amateur League, the three group winners will earn automatic promotion while the nine teams finishing second to fourth in every group will accede to the play-offs. The winner of the play-offs will secure the fourth and final promotion slot to the BOV Challenge League. From this season, the Youth League will comprise four sections instead of five with 12 teams in Sections A to C and 11 in Section D. NATIONAL LEAGUE DRAWSThe national league draws, including the Youth Leagues and the women's senior, Under-19 and Under-15 championships, will take place tomorrow (Friday) at 12.30hrs.