Cymru Premier
Founded | 1992 |
---|---|
Country | Wales |
Other club(s) from | England (1 team) |
Confederation | UEFA |
Number of teams | 12 |
Level on pyramid | 1 |
Relegation to | Cymru North Cymru South |
Domestic cup(s) | Welsh Cup |
League cup(s) | Welsh League Cup |
International cup(s) | |
Current champions | 2023–24 Cymru Premier |
The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national
Formation
Original League
The league was formed in October 1991 by
The new league was formed for the 1992–93 season, and officially launched on 15 August 1992.
Because of historically poor north–south transport links within Wales (although these have improved in the post World War II years), it was often easier for Welsh clubs to travel east–west, so Welsh clubs tended to look east to England for competitors and many of the top semi-professional sides in Wales played in the English football league system; Bangor City were founder members of the Alliance Premier League (now the National League) in 1979 and reached the FA Trophy final in 1984, before transferring to the new League of Wales in 1992.
Further recruitment
The formation of the League of Wales saw the start of a bitter dispute between the
Prior to the inaugural season, Bangor City, Newtown and Rhyl reluctantly agreed to play in the League of Wales. However, as Rhyl's application to join the league was late, they were placed in the second level of the pyramid system. Because of FAW sanctions, the remaining five clubs were forced to play their home matches in England. Following a season in exile at Worcester City, five became four, as Barry Town joined the Welsh pyramid in time for the 1993–94 season.
A court ruling in 1995 allowed the remaining four clubs to return to Wales to play their home matches while still remaining within the English system; despite this victory, Caernarfon Town decided to join the League of Wales for the 1995–96 season. Colwyn Bay continued in the English pyramid for a further 24 years before transferring to the Welsh pyramid in 2019, leaving only two of the Irate Eight remaining - Newport County, who won promotion to the Football League in 2013, and Merthyr Town, the successor club to Merthyr Tydfil following its liquidation in 2010. In 2008, Wrexham were relegated from the Football League and after an absence of 15 years, returned through automatic promotion at the end of the 2022–23 season.
Conversely, in 1996 now-defunct English team Oswestry Town were accepted by the League of Wales and currently The New Saints are based in Oswestry (having moved from Llansantffraid, Powys in 2007). Another English club, Chester City, whose stadium sits on the England–Wales border, applied to join the Welsh Premier League after being expelled from the Football Conference in 2010[3] but were wound up almost immediately afterwards (their successor team, Chester F.C., opted to reapply within the English system).
Renewed calls to recruit Welsh teams
Welsh football Teams that currently play in the English football system include: Cardiff City and Swansea City (both in the EFL Championship), Newport County and Wrexham (both EFL League Two), and Merthyr Town (Southern League Premier Division South).[4][5]
Some have called for all Welsh teams to be recruited into Cymru Premier, but in particular the lower ranked team Merthyr Town as they are in the English non-league setup.[4]
An online poll by Y Clwb Pêl-droed on Twitter found 56.7% in favour of Merthyr Town joining the Welsh football system.[6]
Structure
Promotion and relegation
Clubs are promoted to the Cymru Premier from the Cymru North in the north/ central Wales and the Cymru South in the south/ central Wales. Clubs who finish as champions of the feeder leagues, or as runners-up if the champions decide not to seek promotion, are promoted subject to an application for membership being received and accepted and the stadium and infrastructure safety criteria of the Cymru Premier being met.
No teams were promoted to the Welsh Premier League following the 2005–06 season. However,
Eighteen clubs competed in the Welsh Premier League for the 2007–08 season as both
For 2008–09, Prestatyn Town played in the Welsh Premier League for the first time after promotion from the Cymru Alliance, whilst Llangefni Town were relegated to the Cymru Alliance after only one season.
The 2009–10 season saw Bala Town promoted to the Welsh Premier League after they won the Cymru Alliance in 2008–09. They replaced Caernarfon Town who were relegated to the Cymru Alliance.
At the end of the 2009–10 season, due to league restructuring Connah's Quay, Porthmadog, Welshpool Town, Caersws and Cefn Druids were relegated to the Cymru Alliance league. Rhyl were also relegated to the Cymru Alliance, despite finishing 6th in the Welsh Premier League, as they failed to meet the financial criteria required to gain the Welsh Premier League domestic licence. No teams were promoted to the Welsh Premier League from the feeder leagues.
League restructure for 2010–11 season
The 18 Welsh Premier League clubs met on 13 April 2008 and voted to support a restructuring proposal put forward by Welsh Premier League secretary John Deakin which would replace the single Welsh Premier League with a First and Second Division with 10 teams in each Division for the 2010–11 season. A further proposal was accepted that the Football Association of Wales should take full control of the Welsh Premier League and the existing Company, 'Football League of Wales Limited' should be dissolved. These proposals were forwarded to the Football Association of Wales for their consideration.[7]
In June 2009 the clubs voted to accept an alternative proposal to reduce the premier League from 18 clubs to 12 for the 2010–11 season onwards.[8]
Current structure
The season is split into two phases, and concludes with an end of season Playoff to determine Wales' fourth European side for the following year.
Phase 1
Phase 1 runs from MD1 in August through to MD22 in mid-January. Each team plays the other sides in the league twice, once at home and once away, making a total of twenty-two games.
After the conclusion of Phase 1, the league splits in two, with the top six teams forming the Championship Conference, and the bottom six teams forming the Playoff Conference. All points accumulated by teams in Phase 1 are brought forward into Phase 2.
Phase 2
Phase 2 then runs from MD23 at the start of February through to MD32 at the end of April. Each side plays the other five in their conference twice more, home and away, to bring up a total of thirty-two games played.
The side finishing top of the Championship Conference after thirty-two games is the League Champion, and will qualify for the UEFA Champions League. To date six teams have won the title in twenty-six seasons.
The Runners-Up in the Championship Conference qualify automatically for the UEFA Europa Conference League, whilst the remaining teams qualify for the end of season European Playoffs.
The bottom two sides in the Playoff Conference are relegated. Meanwhile, the side finishing top of the Playoff Conference (seventh place in the league table) advances to the European Playoffs.
Note that sides in the Playoff Conference can finish no higher in the table than seventh.
European Playoffs
The five teams finishing in 3rd–7th contest the end of season European Playoffs. 6th host 7th in a Quarter-Final, with the winner travelling to the 3rd placed side for the first Semi-Final, whilst 4th host 5th in the other.
The winners then meet at the ground of the highest ranked side in the Final, with the winner qualifying for the UEFA Europa Conference League.
If one of the five teams has already qualified for Europe by winning the JD Welsh Cup, then the remaining four sides will contest the Playoffs directly from the Semi-Final stage.
If one of the top two sides wins the JD Welsh Cup, then the third placed side will automatically take up a UEFA Europa Conference League spot. The remaining four sides will then contest the Playoffs directly from the Semi-Final stage.
In seasons where the league's UEFA Coefficient has been amongst the lowest five, meaning only The Cup Winners and Runners Up are eligible for the UEFA Conference League, the playoffs will be contended for a spot in the Scottish Challenge Cup instead.
European competition
The champions of the Cymru Premier qualify, along with the champions of every European domestic league, for the
Results in Europe have been mixed – some notable successes, such as Barry Town's run to the first round proper of the UEFA Cup, drawing 3–3 with Aberdeen at Jenner Park, Bangor City's win over FC Sartid of Yugoslavia and Barry's 3–1 victory over FC Porto in the UEFA Champions League (albeit losing 3–9 on aggregate), stand alongside some heavy defeats, such as The New Saints' 12–1 aggregate defeat to Amica Wronki of Poland.
As of June 2019 the Cymru Premier is ranked 46th out of 55 members by the UEFA coefficient.
Media coverage
For the first four seasons of the league's existence, its results were not featured on the
The advent of the League has brought increased media coverage for its member clubs, notably from the Western Mail and Daily Post, as well as local press.
Since the start of the 2007–08 season goals and results from the league have appeared on the
On television, brief highlights from one of the day's games were featured on BBC Wales' sports results programme Wales on Saturday whilst the BBC also provided a 30-minute highlights programme for Welsh-language broadcaster,
As of the 2018/19 season, S4C show one live game per matchweek from either the league, Welsh Cup or Scottish Challenge Cup if a Welsh team is involved. They also stream all live televised matches on the Sgorio Facebook page, as well as streaming an additional ten per season from these competitions exclusively online.
Weekly highlights of all league games are shown on S4C on a Monday night at 17:30, and thereafter on Sgorio's social media and YouTube channels.
Clubs
Of the 20 clubs that played in the inaugural season of the League of Wales, ten have since been relegated yet to return, with one,
Only two clubs have played in every season League of Wales/Cymru Premier since its inception. These two clubs are Aberystwyth Town and Newtown.[10][11]
Sponsorship
Period | Sponsor | Brand |
---|---|---|
1992–1993 | Konica Peter Llewellyn Limited of Swansea | Konica League of Wales |
1993–2002 | No sponsor | League of Wales |
2002–2004 | JT Hughes Mitsubishi | JT Hughes Mitsubishi Welsh Premiership |
2004–2006 | Vauxhall Masterfit Retailers | Vauxhall Masterfit Retailers Welsh Premier League |
2006–2011 | Principality Building Society | Principality Building Society Welsh Premier Football League |
2011–2015 | CorbettSports.com | Corbett Sports Welsh Premier League |
2015–2017 | Dafabet | The Dafabet Welsh Premier League |
2017–2019 | JD Sports | The JD Welsh Premier League |
2019–present | JD Cymru Premier |
Champions
For the champions of the top division of the Welsh League from 1904 to 1992, see Welsh Football League
Performances by club
Seven clubs have been champions. In bold those competing in the 2021–22 season.
Club | Winners | Runners-up | Third place | Winning Years |
---|---|---|---|---|
The New Saints | 15 | 7 | 1 | 1999–00, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2009–10, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2021–22, 2022–23 |
Barry Town | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03 |
Bangor City | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1993–94, 1994–95, 2010–11 |
Connah's Quay Nomads
|
2 | 3 | 1 | 2019–20, 2020–21 |
Rhyl | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2003–04, 2008–09 |
Llanelli
|
1 | 3 | 1 | 2007–08 |
Cwmbran Town
|
1 | 1 | 2 | 1992–93 |
Inter Cardiff | – | 4 | – | – |
Bala Town | – | 3 | 3 | – |
Airbus UK Broughton | – | 2 | 1 | – |
Newtown | – | 2 | 1 | – |
Afan Lido | – | 1 | – | – |
Ton Pentre | – | – | 2 | – |
Ebbw Vale | – | – | 2 | – |
Neath | – | – | 2 | – |
Carmarthen Town | – | – | 2 | – |
Aberystwyth Town | – | – | 1 | – |
Conwy United
|
– | – | 1 | – |
Haverfordwest County | – | – | 1 | – |
Llandudno | – | – | 1 | – |
Port Talbot Town | – | – | 1 | – |
Penybont | – | – | 1 | – |
Notes:
- The New Saints were known as Llansantffraid until 1996 and Total Network Solutions between then and 2006.
Players
Marc Lloyd Williams scored 319 goals in 467 appearances, making him the most prolific goalscorer in the league's history.[12]
Chris Venables holds the record for the number of appearances in the league with 537 games played.
Paul Harrison holds the record for the most consecutive appearances in the league with more than 190[13]
See also
- Football in Wales
- Welsh football league system
- Welsh Cup
- Welsh League Cup
- FAW Premier Cup
- List of association football competitions
- List of football clubs in Wales
- List of stadiums in Wales by capacity
References
- ^ "FAW / New identity for Tiers 1 & 2". Archived from the original on 10 May 2020.
- ^ S4C: A season in brief: 1992/93 Archived 6 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 6 March 2014
- ^ "Chester City seek Welsh Premier spot". BBC. 9 March 2010. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
- ^ a b "Should all of Wales' football clubs play in Welsh leagues?". Nation.Cymru. 14 July 2021. Archived from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
- ^ "Dic Mortimer: The Elephant in Welsh Footy Room". welshnot. 24 January 2014. Archived from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
- ^ Jones, Jordan (22 November 2017). "Should Merthyr Town consider moving to the Welsh pyramid system?". Y Clwb Pêl-droed - Your home for Welsh football. Archived from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
- ^ "Clubs vote to Re-structure the League". Welsh Premier League. 13 April 2008. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2008.
- ^ "Clubs accept reduced Premier League". BBC News. 13 June 2009. Archived from the original on 17 June 2009. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
- ^ Relegated clubs:Ebbw Vale welsh-premier.com Archived 6 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 June 2010 23:45
- ^ Grosvenor, Gavin (15 September 2017). "Robins ready for latest derby clash". County Times. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ "Bangor City: Third-placed club to be demoted from Welsh Premier League". BBC Sport. 26 April 2018. Archived from the original on 2 October 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ Welsh Premier all-time leading goal scorers Archived 6 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine Welsh Premier Football
- ^ "Paul Harrison". 16 February 2017. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
External links
- Official site of the JD Cymru Premier
- Former Official site of the JD Cymru Premier
- Welsh Football Data Archive website
- SOCCERWAY (Welsh Premier League summary)