Welsh Football (domestic) thread

[Lang Spoon]

I'm kind of surprised how many tiers and teams there are in the Welsh pyramid.

[Patrick Thistle]

I'm kind of surprised how many tiers and teams there are in the Welsh pyramid.

Yeah. It's surprising we have any time for football what with the rugby and choir practice

[Lang Spoon]

Ach! Just that it seems as big as the FAI structure that serves almost twice the population.

[Patrick Thistle]

Maybe the Irish just aren't as keen on football?

[Patrick Thistle]

In seriousness, football is the sport in North Wales. Some of the world's oldest clubs up there. And it's much more noticeable in the south now where it competes with rugby for media coverage.

[Lang Spoon]

Soccer used to get crowds of 30000+ in Dublin at the big clubs, up till MOTD and other weekend diversions/clubs letting their stadiums rot/FAI mismanagement ate away at it. And of course GAA has a bigger community pull, especially outside the garrison towns. Then there's rugby becoming massive these last twenty plus years of folk getting more middle class notions/the national team doing well.

[Lang Spoon]

And I know fuck all about North Wales I have to admit. Only ever met Cardiff folk.

[ursus arctos]

The difference to me (only from visits, of course) is that GAA have a lock on "community sport" in a way that just isn't the case in Wales, even in rugby heartlands.

[Sporting]

And I know fuck all about North Wales I have to admit. Only ever met Cardiff folk.

I know far too much about North Wales.

[Sporting]

I once had my photo taken with Tom Walley, who absolutely nobody here will remember, let alone heard of.

[Ray de Galles]

The difference to me (only from visits, of course) is that GAA have a lock on "community sport" in a way that just isn't the case in Wales, even in rugby heartlands.

Rugby did have that in the past, the struggle to survive in grassroots club sport (which affects both rugby and football) has chipped away at it a little though. Rugby clubs are still at the centre of towns and villages across South Wales in a way few football clubs are though.

[elguapo4]

A large part of the problem in Ireland is that the F.A.I has been run for most of it's history by representatives of the non league and the underage leagues, neither of whom have ever had any affection for senior football in Ireland.

[Patrick Thistle]

The WPL fixtures have dropped https://wpl.cymru/news/Five-on-Frida...Season/118852/

Five games on Friday 16 August. Barry are away at Penybont (in Bridgend) which is a new ground for me and was on my target list of places to go this season. It's also live on S4C for those of you further a field who might like to watch.

[Diable Rouge]

Meanwhile...



Full story: BBC News -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48344614

It would seem Bangor 1876 is the "real club", however?

[Patrick Thistle]

There's been some Twittering about it. I think it's the first protest club in Wales. Could be wrong about that though.

[elguapo4]

Stephen Vaughan JR , that name rings a lot of alarm bells.

[Ray de Galles]

A new name for the Welsh top tier alongside the reorganising and rebranding of the whole top of the pyramid :

[URL]https://twitter.com/cymruleagues/status/1154121204577505281?s=21[/URL]

[Patrick Thistle]

*rolls eyes*

[Ray de Galles]

Oh, I like it. The Premier and feeder leagues needed to be unified, it's good that Cymru is being used and I want them to actually use balls with the daffodil design on them.

[Patrick Thistle]

I'm in favour of the change. I just predict Cymru getting mangled on final score.

Who knows? The second tiers might even get a billing on the BBC.

[Bored Of Education]

I am with Ray. I like the simplification, the logo and the rebranding. The sponsor is a fairly benign and appropriate one as well. I assume, as it is 7, it will be one Cymru premier - obviously - and three Northern and three Southern divisions? Actually, the very fact that I have to ask that shows that it probably needs this simplification

[Patrick Thistle]

Initially it was going to be the premier and one north and south division below that. Then the Welsh League and the Cymru Alliance respectively. I'll check on that.

The idea behind it is that teams in the tier 2 regional divisions will be ready to step up to the national division if they win it. At the moment the feeder leagues haven't always had champions who can afford to go national or have the infrastructure. Caerau (Ely) a couple of years ago spring to mind.

it means some clubs got demoted out of tier 2 into tier 3 if they weren't considered up to scatch e.g. Bangor City.

Overall I think the restructure is a good thing. Whether the rebrand was always totally necessary is a different question. It's only 3 weeks until the start of the season and stuff has already been put out there under the old branding.

The eye roll was because they had done a lot to raise the profile and credibility of the Welsh Premier League, and another name change just adds a bit of confusion.

[Patrick Thistle]

I'm a bit confused. According to the FAW website the "Cymru Leagues" are the national and tier 2 regional. But the 7 daffs represent the 7 leagues in the top 3 tiers.

Seven daffodils, each representing one of the seven leagues of Welsh domestic football’s top three tiers, upon completion of the pyramid restructure, come together to form the striking ball logo.

There will be 2 divisions each left in the Welsh League and the Alliance so presumbly that's "tier 3" now, although I would have thought they'd be tier 3 and 4.

[Patrick Thistle]

Also it was pretty simple before. The Alliance and the Welsh League operated in the north and south. Champions were offered a place in the national league.

[Southport Zeb]

My understanding is that further changes, at step 3, will take place next summer. I believe that there will continue to be four divisions at that level (which, with the tier 1 and 2 divisions, would give the seven divisions), although I think there may be some rejigging of how teams are distributed.