Michael oti Adjei BBC Sport, Accra

Asante Kotoko are one of Ghana's top teams

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has changed the structure of its national league for the 2004 season, which kicks off on 2 May.

Instead of the traditional format in which the sixteen top-flight teams play each other on a home and away basis, the clubs have been divided into two groups of eight.

The eight teams in each group will play each other on a home and away basis over a 14-week period.

The group winners will then face off over two legs to decide the league champions while the bottom two in each group will automatically be relegated.

The new structure was agreed on by the clubs after the GFA said time constraints would not allow them to run a straight sixteen-team league system over thirty weeks.

With the World Cup qualifiers and Olympic football competition to come, the GFA said it would be unable to complete the league programme in time to meet Caf's deadline for the submission of teams for next year's continental competitions.

The chairman of the Professional League Board, Sylvester Mensah, said the new format - which will only apply to this year's championship - was the "only viable option" available to the clubs.