Confirmation that the Bermuda Football Association will continue with the two-up, two-down format for this season has been welcomed by several teams in the First and Second Divisions.

And while it opens up the relegation battle, with bottom three Devonshire Cougars, Boulevard and Hamilton Parish, all having their survival hopes boosted, it also means that the first promotion spot from the Second Division may be clinched by the month's end.

A second promotion place has now given the likes of St. David's and Prospect hope of clinching the runners-up spot, however. St. David's meet runaway leaders PHC on Sunday in the key match in the division.

There has rarely been any doubt as to who would top the Second Division standings.

"PHC were going to win the Second Division anyway.'' their president Chris Furbert stated boldly yesterday. "If only one team was coming up, PHC were going to be that team.'' It had been widely reported this season that three teams would be going down and only one coming up as the BFA's plan to reduce the First Division to eight teams began. But it was only last week that the clubs agreed to the change which will now take effect next season.

That gives Boulevard hope of climbing out of the relegation zone and avoiding returning to the Second Division they left in the early 1980s. "It clearly takes a lot of pressure off teams with two going down and not three, but we never planned to be there in the first place,'' said Boulevard president Lou Matthews.

"But either way we still have to take one team at a time.'' Both Furbert and Matthews are supportive of the changes the BFA is making to local football, though they also have some concerns.

"For the reasons that were given, of wanting to increase the competitiveness and reduce the number of games that are being played, I wasn't against it,'' said Matthews.

"But it's always hard on the teams going down. Overall there were some good recommendations, I just think it was very ambitious to try to make all the changes at once. The time frame wasn't something, I guess, that was thought out.

"One of the problems I had with the whole idea of restructuring was that more help needed to be given to developing the clubs.'' Matthews doesn't see a successful national programme benefitting the clubs, but rather successful clubs helping the national programme.

"The clubs feel they are in a sink or swim mode where they are fighting for their lives,'' said the president.

"More has to be to done to recognise the contribution and sacrifices the clubs are making and to give them more assistance. We need to focus more on the development of the game at club level.'' With a club that doesn't have its own ground, Boulevard's president hopes that clubs like his won't be at the mercy of greedy field owners who could see the increase of admission fees for league and cup games as an opportunity to increase the rates for clubs renting their ground.

"I just hope that the clubs who host the fields don't get greedy and start to increase the fees they charge clubs to use their ground,'' said Matthews.

"I don't think $5 is too much for a league game, but I still think the BFA has to find more innovative ways to develop club soccer, and we're not doing that.'' Like Boulevard, PHC are going through a rebuilding phase. But by the time the restructuring takes effect, the Zebras hope to have re-established themselves as one of the Island's premier clubs.

The reopening of their ground later this year will coincide with the team's return to the top division, with newly installed lights.

"We just submitted some plans to the Planning Department yesterday because we're entering a new phase at the stadium and we have made application for a brand new lighting system and a brand new field, so hopefully that will attract some young players back to the club,'' said Furbert.

"Also, in the not-too-distant future, a year to 18 months, we are going to build a new club and try to make PHC Stadium a first class stadium, in a club respect, for the community of Warwick.'' Furbert, who has seen players like Otis Steede, Dano Outerbridge, McLee Smith and Raynel Lightbourne leave the club in the last couple of years, has concerns about the lack of loyalty shown by today's players.

Furbert is in favour of players being forced to stay with a club for three years when they transfer, instead of being allowed to move every season.

"It would help soccer,'' he insists.

"I don't believe a player should come to my club this season, next year play for somebody else and the next season play for somebody else, and then three or four seasons later want to come back to play for PHC again.

"If you look at football 15 to 20 years ago a guy was with a club and he was committed to that club. With McLee, Dano and those guys it was a big loss to lose these young players because we were looking to build around these guys.

"Unfortunately you get people and players out there who influence these players to leave your club and go play for somebody else. But not all the time convincing a guy to leave a club and play for another club is in his best interest.''