Welsh Football is at war with itself.

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Welsh Football is at war with itself.
Welsh Football is at war with itself.
Welsh Football is at war with itself.

[Sir_Musy]

As a Welshman i'm super happy that you are making a video about the state of Welsh Football.

[NineVolt]

It should be noted that the Cymru Premier is mostly a semi-professional league, with most of the teams not even being professional teams. In fact the New Saints is pretty much the only professional team aside from, what I can gather, 3 other teams

Basically, the Welsh league is a semi-professional league with The New Saints farming every year for European football

[skylerlavy]

I mean in the MLS, the Canadian teams play in their domestic cup in Canada, which allows them to qualify for the ccl (Concacaf Champions League). So it's quite similar to that.

[PilgrimJHR]

My local team (Haverfordwest County) got into the Conference League qualifying rounds a couple of years ago. It was mental. We beat Shkëndija of North Macedonia on penalties but lost to B36 Tórshavn in the next round. The only downside of the whole thing is that we had to play our home matches at the Cardiff City Stadium - which is about 100 miles away.

[ropeisnotadink]

“They'll be dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions tonight!”

[ClubSoda]

Needed to have my say. Yeah, TNS play in Oswestry just across the border, however, they were originally Llansanffraid FC and they were a very successful Welsh side.

In 2003, they were doing well and were approached by a financially struggling Oswestry Town FC about a potential merge of the two teams. Oswestry is only 10 minutes down the road and they also played in the league of Wales so when the two clubs combined, it made no sense to move to the English leagues especially since most of the power was coming from Llan.

The club's heritage is Welsh and there was a lot of fuss about them moving to the new stadium in Oswestry. Even today, despite their success, a lot of Welsh football fans dislike TNS and refuse to support them.

I should know, I'm a local. I support Guilsfield, the team which you flashed up at 9:12 and I was one of the 140 who turned up.

[AntonoirJacques]

The problem with saying that argument about Welsh being born in England, is that the norm around a lot of European countries. A lot of Dutch players are born in Surinamese, a lot of French players are born in Africa, Germany have a lot of Turkish players, Spain have a lot of South American players.

Playing for Wales, every player and staff is expected to sing the national anthem (Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau), they are taught it if they've never played youth age group level for Wales. The coaching staff instill Welshness into the players including history and social lessons about the country of Wales, this goes through teh youth ranks all teh way until the Seniors. Another fact about them is that at the moment, every captain (both male and female) in Wales's two favourite sports, all speak Welsh as their first language.

To say that a Welsh player is not Welsh because of where they were born is completely disingenious to what it means to be Welsh and to play for Wales.

[christianknight]

As a Cardiff fan, I’m happy in the English system. The old welsh cup route into Europe used to be fun, and a few English teams were invited and even won the cup. I think if Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham, Newport, and Merthyr entered again, then a few English teams should be invited as well to make it fair. The only other way to make to make it fair, is to not let the welsh clubs qualify for Europe through the English system. We can’t have our cake and eat it.

[Captainjac]

local team Aberystwyth so this might just be specific to us, but the main issue with the Welsh leagues is the lack of investment in the youth, teams cant afford to take the risk of a lot of young players because of the likes of TNS, so they just import boys in from cheshire/ Liverpool area, so the fans don't feel any connection or affinity to these players, leading to people not going and then leads to no money coming in. So its forever a deadly cycle. So the idea of the money having to be re-invested is great! we need new facilities and better facilities to be able to promote from within and not just import. National identity is key like you said. Great to see a video being made on this and highlighting the issues we have.

[efraimgarcia]

Since you mentioned them early, I think the downfall of Valencia would also make for interesting stuff for your analysis. They barely escaped relegation last season, this season they're last in La Liga after losing to Las Palmas, which beat them to get their first league win since February and were dead last before beating and overtaking Valencia.

[toxic]

It'll probably end up like Vaduz in Switzerland if it goes through. They still play in the Swiss leagues and stuff, but are also allowed in the Lichtenstein Cup, so get a bit of european football that way.

[Rhysj_]

There used to be a tournament called the FAW Premier Cup that had Swansea, Cardiff etc in alongside the Welsh league clubs up to 2008… was always really well attended and great to have those teams travelling to us! I’d fully welcome that move in the League Cup to grow interest in the domestic game

[MBlodyG]

The New Saints stadium is located in Oswestry; also known Croesoswallt. Which is both a histrionicly welsh area, and indeed has it own welsh speakers. It even is debated to this day whether Oswestry is either english or should be considered apart of wales as it falls on the border between the two; however years ago the territory of Oswestry would have been predominantly welsh due to its close borders and culture which is imbraced there. Thats not to say that it isnt in England by location but just to say that is has its links to wales in some form. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[invernessfan]

I support Scottish football.
But I think we should have Wales v Scotland club cups.
For instance we could have a Welsh - Scottish Super Cup. Played as a single leg final between the champions of Scotland, and the highest placed Welsh side in the English league. Or the Welsh champions v the Scottish second tier champs.
The final played at a participating team's stadium, with the host nation swapping each season.
This could happen at male, women's, and youth football.
Also a Scottish - Cymru Premier Cup. Played between the the top 6 SPFL sides. Plus the top four Welsh sides in the English league, and the two best Welsh Cymru Premier sides.
A group stage trophy of 3 groups of four. With the top 2 of each group, and the 2 best 3rd placed sides qualifying for the knockout stages.

[rezii_tv]

The main problem with Welsh clubs being quite small is because the majority of people in wales support the Big 6, if they actually supported local teams like Cardiff, Swansea, Newport etc they’d be bigger

[matthewthompson]

More than 4 teams historically used to play in the English pyramid. When the Cymru Premier was formed in 1992, 5 Welsh sides switched from non-league, and more recently Colwyn Bay joined in 2019. A lot of Welsh clubs were also part of the Southern League (which for a while in the 1920s had a ‘Welsh Division’), with Merthyr Town still playing there.

[powerviolentnightmare]

"name the teams from the Welsh league"
me, with a photographic memory who has looked up almost every league around the globe: no challenge

[julianbailey]

You only have to go back to the early 90's for Swansea, Cardiff and Wrexham to be playing in the Welsh FA cup so the idea has a strong historical president. Also in 1992 the final was Cardiff City vs Hednesford Town (Hednesford is on the north side of Birmingham). The last Welsh cup final to have more than 10, 000 tickets sold was Wrexham vs Cardiff in 95.

It was UEFA that forced the change in the 90's not the clubs or the Welsh FA. So, I'm all for having some better teams playing in the Welsh FA cup, if they have their grounds in Wales, as that's how it used to be.

[alastairwood]

If this happens, the interesting thing will be if one of the 4 teams get into the Premier League (maybe a long shot for Newport tbf but still). UEFA will only let them qualify via the Welsh League Cup or via The PL, English FA Cup or Carabao Cup. So if a side gets into the PL and feels it can qualify for Europe through the English system (as they have a PL quality team), do they pull out of the Welsh League Cup? As taking national pride out of it, it is better to qualify for Europe as an "English" team as you at most will have to play one qualifier (in the Conf League, the CL and EL you just go into the league phase) and you will get more TV money as England are substantially higher than Wales in the coefficient rankings (which is partly used for that). So I think the Welsh FA need to get a legally binding assurance from the 4 teams that they have to commit to this new way for at least 10 years or something, they can't just pull out and go back into it whenever they want really.

[markmelo]

This is like how Canada does continental qualifications having our top three clubs playing in the USA-based MLS. The Canadian Championship (Voyageur Cup) involves the 3 MLS clubs, the 8 clubs from the Canadian Premier League, and winners of the third-tier regional semi-pro leagues. So far, MLS clubs have won every competition, but the CPL clubs have held their own, and the competition has raised their level. This is a good thing for all involved.