Clubs in Sligo have agreed a new format for this year’s senior and intermediate football championships.

At a meeting of the clubs last night in the Radisson Hotel, it was agreed that both championships will comprise of four groups of three teams, with each team to play the other two teams in their group home and away.

Last year’s four semi-finalists will be kept apart in the senior championship, with one in each group.

The top two teams in each group will advance to the quarter-finals, with the remaining four sides contesting the relegation play-offs.

Three teams will be relegated from both the senior and intermediate championship, which means the senior championship will be reduced to ten teams for 2016 and the intermediate championship will be ten teams by 2017.

Likewise, three teams will be relegated from Divisions One and Two of the league with just one team promoted, as they are reduced to ten teams over the next two years.

The championship is set to begin on the last weekend of June, while the leagues will commence on the weekend on February 22.

The Benson Cup, Kiernan Cup and Abbott Cup competitions will get underway from the weekend of February 15.