Current structure:
Restructured league will look like this, quite the land grab by the FAW given that the Cymru Alliance and Welsh League Div 1 currently feed directly into the WPL:
I guess they'll argue it's to raise standards and facilities, but really, has ANYTHING the FAW has done domestically (not re: the national side) in the 25 years since the LoW began made any difference to Wales' prestige in European competitions?
Re: TNS champions league
32One other comment, it's comical the way that "current" document shows such a prevalence of North Wales sides at the higher levels - there are only 2 divisions below any of the three leagues which feed the Cymru Alliance and it only goes down to the 6th tier.
Meanwhile the South Wales equivalent below the Welsh League (tiers 2,3,4) is the Gwent County and South Wales Alliance which alone go one level lower than the entire of North Wales football.
Below that, south Wales has the 4 divisions of the Newport and District and 4 divisions of the Cardiff & District Leagues, 3 Cardiff Combinations, 2 Merthyr area, Port Talbot, Rhondda, Taff Ely/Rhymney Valley, 3 Vale of Glamorgan, 2 Carmarthenshire and 2 Pembs Leagues.
What this means, is if you form and start at the bottom of the Newport & District you currently have to achieve 9 promotions to make the Welsh Premier League. If you start in the North East Wales League you'd only need 4 promotions.
NB this is assuming the Newport and District Premier Y is still a reserve league that isn't actually part of the pyramid (unlike what the Wikipedia page "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_fo ... ue_system" states)...
Meanwhile the South Wales equivalent below the Welsh League (tiers 2,3,4) is the Gwent County and South Wales Alliance which alone go one level lower than the entire of North Wales football.
Below that, south Wales has the 4 divisions of the Newport and District and 4 divisions of the Cardiff & District Leagues, 3 Cardiff Combinations, 2 Merthyr area, Port Talbot, Rhondda, Taff Ely/Rhymney Valley, 3 Vale of Glamorgan, 2 Carmarthenshire and 2 Pembs Leagues.
What this means, is if you form and start at the bottom of the Newport & District you currently have to achieve 9 promotions to make the Welsh Premier League. If you start in the North East Wales League you'd only need 4 promotions.
NB this is assuming the Newport and District Premier Y is still a reserve league that isn't actually part of the pyramid (unlike what the Wikipedia page "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_fo ... ue_system" states)...
Last edited by SJG99 on August 2nd, 2018, 11:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: TNS champions league
33Not just TNS, but two from the Welsh and both Irish league systems I believe.SJG99 wrote:There will be all kinds of club ownership and loan restrictions in place to prevent this sort of thing, though Watford/Udinese/Granada certainly had something with a similar model for a while.lowandhard wrote:Surely that wouldn’t be a king’s ransom ( though I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t want to sell to us )DT1892 wrote:FAW are restructuring the top 3 tiers and taking charge of them from next season I believe, so the Welsh League will drop to the fourth tier. Spain allows B teams in their second tier, Germany up to the third. But I don't think UEFA would allow us to have a second team in another nation's league.
I'd have thought the only way we could do it is probably buying out Newport City or Albion Rovers and getting them to the WPL and loan players to them. Expensive.
But simply enough I would imagine the FAW would just refuse to allow it unless they thought it was in their interests. It can't still be restraint of trade if they're allowing us to put out a first team at a higher level...
It does raise an interesting question about whether having representatives from the English league-based clubs near the top of the Welsh pyramid would help raise the overall standard or even the level of interest in domestic matches - kind of like a welsh version of the Checkatrade Cup/U23 argument but across a whole league season and in Wales. One of the ironies is that TNS have been allowed to play in the Scottish equivalent of the Checkatrade Trophy and done pretty well the last couple of seasons.
I'm guessing existing Welsh League and Cymru Alliance clubs might be reluctant to give up league slots to the top sides' reserves (or worse) and it probably doesn't do much for the FAW's collective egos either to underline that the second teams are that good so where would the first teams be if only they'd join - but how well would those reserve teams do?
Although, if any U23/B team in the league system was actually put forward, I'd imagine UEFA would be the main issue. Swansea represented England when they qualified for the Europa League, I don't think our U23 club would be able to earn a European place through the domestic league.
Just a shame the WPL isn't quite there yet. It would be an easy pathway for some of our lads to get some first team football. Hopefully Touray's loan does him good.
Re: TNS champions league
34Yeah, there were reps from the Welsh Premier and Northern Irish leagues 2 years ago, plus last year the League of Ireland (Republic), and this season the top two English National League sides not promoted. Plus 4 Highland and 4 Lowland League sides from outside the SPFL in Scotland. I only mentioned TNS because it was relevant to the thread.DT1892 wrote: Not just TNS, but two from the Welsh and both Irish league systems I believe.
Although, if any U23/B team in the league system was actually put forward, I'd imagine UEFA would be the main issue. Swansea represented England when they qualified for the Europa League, I don't think our U23 club would be able to earn a European place through the domestic league.
Just a shame the WPL isn't quite there yet. It would be an easy pathway for some of our lads to get some first team football. Hopefully Touray's loan does him good.
Re: the structure, they could do what LaLiga do and prevent reserve teams being in or promoted to the top division. Which might make coming 5th in the new WPL Championship South an interesting route into the WPL...
Re: TNS champions league
35It doesn’t pay to shy away from controversy.....
If County were to give the appropriate notice to the EFL, make agreement with FAW to enter at the WPL level, then there is every likelihood that the footballing future would be exciting.
Probability of European games every year would give good income, with no expectation of a crowd of 10,000 we would no longer need Rodney Parade and the WRU could ***ck **** ground up ***** ar**. Running costs would be a tiny fraction, the club could maintain its history, its colours and actually have something to play for which would generate real interest and support (being the biggest represented city in the competition) and which would have the altruistic knock on effect of lifting the whole game in Wales.
.....just a thought.
If County were to give the appropriate notice to the EFL, make agreement with FAW to enter at the WPL level, then there is every likelihood that the footballing future would be exciting.
Probability of European games every year would give good income, with no expectation of a crowd of 10,000 we would no longer need Rodney Parade and the WRU could ***ck **** ground up ***** ar**. Running costs would be a tiny fraction, the club could maintain its history, its colours and actually have something to play for which would generate real interest and support (being the biggest represented city in the competition) and which would have the altruistic knock on effect of lifting the whole game in Wales.
.....just a thought.
Re: TNS champions league
36Thank fuc we won that court case then otherwise we would be playing in front of tiny crowds with the hope of losing badly to some backwater European side once a season at shitty parkAmberRundgren. wrote:It doesn’t pay to shy away from controversy.....
If County were to give the appropriate notice to the EFL, make agreement with FAW to enter at the WPL level, then there is every likelihood that the footballing future would be exciting.
Probability of European games every year would give good income, with no expectation of a crowd of 10,000 we would no longer need Rodney Parade and the WRU could ***ck **** ground up ***** ar**. Running costs would be a tiny fraction, the club could maintain its history, its colours and actually have something to play for which would generate real interest and support (being the biggest represented city in the competition) and which would have the altruistic knock on effect of lifting the whole game in Wales.
.....just a thought.
Re: TNS champions league
37I was virulently opposed to the way the FAW treated us in that era, but I've mellowed a bit. It has its place and I quite enjoy it on S4C. If I lived somewhere like Newtown or Aberystwyth, I'd go along.
Re: TNS champions league
40Didn't Cardiff try this more than a few seasons ago ? they got bombed out.lowandhard wrote:Under FAW / FA rules I presume we couldn’t have a second team in that league?
Edit that is the Welsh League
Re: TNS champions league
41Could work if Wrexham joined at same time to provide bigger club competition but I doubt Colwyn Bay and Merthyr would be accepted straight into WPL. Costs would be reduced but presumably not by too much as County would have aspirations of success in that league abd if successful gates might be reasonable.AmberRundgren. wrote:It doesn’t pay to shy away from controversy.....
If County were to give the appropriate notice to the EFL, make agreement with FAW to enter at the WPL level, then there is every likelihood that the footballing future would be exciting.
Probability of European games every year would give good income, with no expectation of a crowd of 10,000 we would no longer need Rodney Parade and the WRU could ***ck **** ground up ***** ar**. Running costs would be a tiny fraction, the club could maintain its history, its colours and actually have something to play for which would generate real interest and support (being the biggest represented city in the competition) and which would have the altruistic knock on effect of lifting the whole game in Wales.
.....just a thought.
Re: TNS champions league
43Newport City play on the Welsh pyramid with a spectacular lack of success. Nobody in Newport is interested.
Re: TNS champions league
44They made Barry Town United work their way back through the Welsh League from the 3rd Division (Tier 4) after the debacle of them being pulled out of the Welsh League with 2 games to play by their chairman, so that pretty much sets the precedent of where teams might expect to be allowed to start (it'll be different with the restructure though, but it should be noted that at least the FAW accepted that a reformed club could come into the southern pyramid at the same point a new club could enter the northern one). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Town_United_F.C.frostyjohn wrote:Could work if Wrexham joined at same time to provide bigger club competition but I doubt Colwyn Bay and Merthyr would be accepted straight into WPL. Costs would be reduced but presumably not by too much as County would have aspirations of success in that league abd if successful gates might be reasonable.AmberRundgren. wrote:It doesn’t pay to shy away from controversy.....
If County were to give the appropriate notice to the EFL, make agreement with FAW to enter at the WPL level, then there is every likelihood that the footballing future would be exciting.
Probability of European games every year would give good income, with no expectation of a crowd of 10,000 we would no longer need Rodney Parade and the WRU could ***ck **** ground up ***** ar**. Running costs would be a tiny fraction, the club could maintain its history, its colours and actually have something to play for which would generate real interest and support (being the biggest represented city in the competition) and which would have the altruistic knock on effect of lifting the whole game in Wales.
.....just a thought.
Re: TNS champions league
45my biggest fear would be that if Wrexham also joined there would be serious competition for the top spots with Barry and TNS in the frame, what if we didn't qualify ?
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