Road to 12: A painful but necessary step

In the next three seasons, the 16-team assembly will shed four sides on a permanent basis as the league returns to a format that existed pre-2004. The Premier League was then forced into a populist stance to increase teams from 12 to 16 in a move meant to placate community teams, Gaborone United (GU) and Township Rollers.

At the time, Rollers and GU were campaigning in the lesser fashionable First Division, with the Reds particularly struggling to make it back through results on the pitch. It was then decided that the boardroom was the perfect platform to effect changes that would jettison the two giants back into the elite squadron.