Quote Originally Posted by riverboy View Post
It's pretty obvious that alot of zl1 clubs don't want a few of the zl2 clubs up especially Croatia. Why bring another decent club up that will actually challenge the top half? Time to stop having a boys club and open the division up.

I'm sure alot of clubs were happy for Cardiff to stay up, some probably pushed for it. Funny thing is that Cardiff are looking decent this year. Whilst Azzurri, westlakes and swansea are all going backwards without the risk of relegation as Minmi look terrible.
Zero issues with Croatia. Plenty of mates over there and they've built a strong squad and I hope they do finish top because I think they will add a lot to ZL1. I don't know why people wouldn't want to see Croatia battle it out in ZL1.

The point I'm making is that I don't think changing to 2 up, 2 down is the best long term solution. As I mentioned, just 2 or 3 years ago, all the talk was about the repeated struggles of the promoted team. ZL2 is in a bit of a purple patch right now with some ambitious clubs which is great for the Zone Leagues. But I think you need to do things gradually.
I believe Cardiff were very lucky with how things transpired last year and they have reacted accordingly. No clubs were consulted about the promotion or relegation of other clubs, so that statement of clubs pushing to keep Cardiff up is a bit of a stretch.
I have no doubts that the strongest club from ZL2 will come up and have high hopes of shaking things up in 2025. It's going to be interesting to watch it play out.