Affordable Archive: Changes in the Welsh Premier

In July 2019 we looked at the restructuring of the game in Wales as the two feeder leagues into the Cymru Premier came under the control of the FAW.

I wrote at the time that the top league 'has consistently fared well on affordability in surveys such as the BBC's Price of Football' and I think that remains the case seven years on as the game in Wales prepares for an even bigger change in the upcoming, 2026/27 season.

The number of clubs in the top-flight has increased from 12 to 16 as part of an FAW push to increase interest, revenues and attendances, with the hope that almost every club will have something to play for come the end of the season, even if TNS are once again crowned champions, as the league will split into three tiers after 30 matches.

From a spectator point of view the big changes is a move to have matches played mostly on a Friday night, starting on 31 July with fixtures that may be of interest to anyone on holiday in North Wales as both Colwyn Bay and Llandudno have home games.

To Wrexham And Beyond - Update

A few weeks back I wrote about the upcoming UEFA U19 Euros, to be held in North Wales and starting this coming Sunday (June 28), with Wrexham's Racecourse Ground hosting Wales' group stage matches and the final on Saturday 11 July.

Just over a week later and there is another good opportunity to catch a match at the world's oldest international football stadium.

While there has been plenty of focus in recent season on the men's rise through the EFL divisions, Wrexham AFC Women are competing in European competition for the first time this summer.

They host a Champions League first qualifying round group, alongside FC Pyunik, Riga FC and Glentoran.

Semi-final matches (Glentoran v Riga at 1pm, Wrexham v Pyunik at 7pm) take place on Wednesday 22 July then on Saturday 25th there is a third place play-off at 12pm and the final at 6pm.

Day tickets are available for both matchdays, priced at £15 for adults and £6 for under-18's.

To Wrexham And Beyond

A great opportunity this summer to enjoy North Wales and watch some of the best young footballers in Europe as the UEFA U19 Euros is being hosted in Wrexham, Bangor, Caernarfon and Denbigh between 28 June and 11 July.

Hosts Wales are joined by seven other teams and will play their group games (against Spain, Germany and Denmark) at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham, carrying on a fine tradition of the stadium having hosted international football since 1877. It will also be the venue for the final. 

The other group contains Croatia, Serbia, Italy and Ukraine.

Those to have graced this competition over the years include Harry Kane, Rodri and Kylian Mbappe, a winner with France in 2016.

Tickets for all matches up to the final cost a maximum of £10 adults and £5 for juniors (plus booking fees) with a full tournament guide available on the FAW website.

Rise of the Phoenix

This season's JD Welsh Cup has already provided some great storylines, notably the progress of Bangor City 1876 and Rhyl 1879, two clubs who have risen from the ashes after the demise of Bangor City and Rhyl FC and who both defeated higher level opponents in the quarter-finals.

That leaves the final four as an all-North Wales affair with Bangor taking Flint Town United in Llandudno on Saturday 7th March at 12:45pm and Rhyl up against Caernarfon Town the following day at 1:30pm in Colwyn Bay.

Tickets for both games go on sale this coming Wednesday (Feb 18th) and will be priced at £5 for adults and £2 for concessions.

Looking further ahead and North Wales will be the venue for this summer's Euro U19 Finals which take place between 28th June and 11th July 

Something Different

A couple of unusual fixture match-ups for the next couple of weeks if you're seeking a football fix.

In what can surely be classed as the first game of the 2025/26 season in the UK, Welsh champions The New Saints are already preparing for their Champions League qualifiers and have a home friendly on 11 June at 7.45pm.

The opposition are simply known as PLAYER, with the TNS website describing them as 'a football app co-founded by former Manchester United defender and France international Patrice Evra'.

Admission is free for this one.

Having been in the Highlands recently, I can vouch for the beauty of the long summer nights and they reach a peak on June 21, happily a Saturday this year and the perfect time for a match between the Alba FA, representing Gaelic speakers, and the Kernow FA, representing the region of Cornwall.

Admission is £10/£5 at Canal Park, Inverness, for a 3pm kick-off with lots going on beforehand.

The Race for Europe

A big game in the Cymru Premier on Saturday as Newtown AFC host Haverfordwest FC in the Europa Conference League play-off final with a place in european competition next season up for grabs.

Fair play to both clubs for mutually agreeing free admission to the game.

More details on the Newtown AFC twitter page. 

Newtown, New Saints, New Season

The new Cymru Premier season begins this coming weekend with plenty of competitive football ahead, at affordable prices, and with good media coverage thanks to Sgorio on S4C and websites such as Y Clwb Pel-Droed.

A good article on the BBC Sport website charts the birth of the league and its development as it marks 30 years in existence.

For Newtown AFC and their opponents on Saturday, champions The New Saints, the campaign itself has been underway for some time with both having already played in European competition this summer.

They kick-off at 2.30pm and admission prices have been reduced to just £5 adults, £3 concessions, £2 for under 16's.

The #JDCymruPremier is almost back! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/a19BRNHtvw

— JD Cymru Leagues (@CymruLeagues) August 10, 2022

An Early Start

With their European campaign to prepare for, Cymru Premier champions The New Saints have pre-season matches already pencilled in for Saturday June 11 and Saturday June 26.

Ellesmere Rangers provide the first opposition (kick-off 2pm) before Cliftonville, with their own European adventure in mind, travel across for a 1:45pm start on the 26th.

Admission to both matches will be free for all spectators.

Last year, author Michael Grimes was kind enough to speak to the blog about his book 'From Saints to Druids' in which he travelled around the Welsh top division.

A limited edition, hardback copy of the book is now available from the publishers.

C Wales Take on England

A welcome return for the respective Wales and England C teams next month when they meet in an international fixture at the home of Caernarfon Town on Wednesday 30th March, kick-off 7pm.

The Welsh side will be drawn from the Cymru Premier, the excellent website Y Clwb Pel-droed has already had a go at naming a possible line-up, while England manager Paul Fairclough will draw from the National League ranks.

The Non-League Paper has excellent coverage of the England side in the build-up to a fixture.

Tickets for the game, priced £10, £5 and £2, are available from the FAW website.

Another international clash that might be of interest is shown below...

𝗢𝗻 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘄! 🎟️

Tickets for @SchoolsFootball vs @sschoolsfa Centenary Shield fixture are on sale NOW!

💵 Adult £5 | Concession/Under 18 £3

🏟️ Purchase from The Neil Adams Sports Bar NOW!

💻 BUY ONLINE: https://t.co/gQjLko7RXC#PrideOfCountyDurham

— Spennymoor Town FC (@SpennymoorTown) February 4, 2022

From Saints to Druids

An advert for the above-titled book, in this month's When Saturday Comes, caught my eye and tied in with something I'd been meaning to write about for a while, namely the Welsh (Cymru) Premier League.

Michael Grimes visited all 12 clubs in the top-flight during the 2019/20 and his discovery of Welsh football is chronicled in a book, available to order here.

During the past year of, mainly, closed-door football I've taken a closer eye on the televised offerings from Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland's Championship and made a mental note to travel to some of the more interesting grounds, The Oval in Belfast, Cappielow in Morton and The Rock, home of Cefn Druids, among others.

The Welsh Premier League as a whole has always fared well in surveys of affordability, something Michael confirmed when he was kind enough to answer a few questions from me earlier this week.

I also asked him how the idea for the book came about;

'I knew nothing about the WPL, it was as a result of a conversation I had with the editor of Football Weekends magazine, where by he asked me to cover some Welsh teams. I did 3 in a long weekend, then decided to do the whole 12 WPL clubs.'

That first weekend was clearly a productive trip, leading to 'From Saints to Druids' and a warm welcome on his travels for the author.

As an aside, the current April issue of Football Weekends has a nice piece on a recent trip, made by one of its contributors, to a couple of Highland League grounds.

As for a favourite ground amongst the 12 in Wales that he visited, Michael told me;

'Probably Newtown, the ground has an old school charm about it, probably helped by the fact that it wasn't raining...a lot of rain on my trips!'

For coverage of the top divisions in men's and women's football, Cymru Football has plenty of news and stats.. 

Below the top level it has been a very difficult year for the game in Wales, without even the intermittment action that managed to sustain grassroots followers in England, but hopefully clubs have been able to weather the storm as much as possible and are looking forward to the 2021/22 season.

Y Clwb Pel-droed is an excellent website that covers all aspects of the game.

Update - Matlock Town & Rhyl FC

Two clubs who have featured on these pages in the past month or so have had some positive news since then.

Matlock Town's fundraising appeal was going along nicely enough but received a huge boost when Hollywood film producer Robert Molloy, grandson of the former owner of the New York Yankees, made a £3,500 donation and was offered a vice-president's role at the club.

Sunday's The Non-League Paper also reported on further donations from Molloy to Wirksworth Ivanhoe, Denton Town and Northern League club Willington.

Progress is also being made on a phoenix club to take on the mantle of Rhyl FC after their recent demise...

New club update:
✅New Welsh supporter & community vision
✅ 5 year strategic aims and plan ✅ New draft club constitution & bank account
✅ Liaising with @FansRhyl to agree new club name
✅ Forming new club committee
✅ Conversations continue on new home ground for next season pic.twitter.com/Cjh250qdkK

— Rhyl Football Club 2020 (@rhylfc) May 9, 2020

Rhyl FC

News broke last week that the 141-year history of Rhyl FC, superbly curated in this article on the Grassroots North Wales website, looks to be at an end with formal winding up proceedings beginning after the failure to secure fresh investment.

Unfortunately it is unlikely that Rhyl will be the only club not to come through the current crisis unscathed.

Many clubs will have other issues that exacerbate their plight (Rhyl could not secure a deal to buy the Belle Vue ground or gain a longer lease) but Covid-19 will be the determing factor in tipping them over the edge.

Efforts have already started to try and plot a way forward, the Rhyl Fans Association (RFA) looking to raise funds and potentially look to begin a 'phoenix' club.

A quote from Rhyl FC managing director Adam Roche (who will work alongside the RFA), in Sunday's The Non-League Paper, is a perceptive one, however.

He said: "My suggestion to the Fans Association will be that you get one chance to start up a new club and do it right."

The current crisis means it is a very difficult environment to begin a new club as it encompasses so many different areas of personal and business life which mean finding the people, time and money to get things off the ground becomes that much harder.

But Rhyl have history and passion on their side, two factors that will hopefully go a long way to returning football to the town.

Game Of The Week: The New Saints v Connah’s Quay Nomads

Can anyone stop The New Saints from winning a 9th consecutive Welsh top-flight title?

If so then Connah’s Quay Nomads will see themselves as the most likely contenders and they travel to Park Hall this Saturday just one point behind leaders TNS ahead of the split into top and bottom-six.

Admission prices for domestic matches are £8 Adults, £4 Concessions and £1 Juniors and a fans guide on the TNS website explains that a warm welcome is on offer for anyone making a first visit who gets in touch with the club beforehand.

Following a review of the pyramid structure in Wales, football at step 2 came under the auspices of the FAW at the beginning of the 2019/20 season.

That meant the creation of the Cymru North and Cymru South leagues to feed into the Cymru Premier (formerly the Welsh Premier League) with further steps below that.

The Welsh Premier has always fared well in terms of supporter affordability and many of its clubs work hard to increase attendances.

Very helpful for keeping up with the domestic game are Y Clwb Pel-Droed and the official Cymru Football site.

New Season, New Look For Welsh Football

The 2019/20 season sees a restructure of the game in Wales with the two feeder leagues into the Welsh Premier League coming under the control of the FAW.

A sponsorship deal with JD has been extended and there will be a rebranding of the top division to the JD Cymru Premier and the JD Cymru North and South at Tier 2, Colwyn Bay returning to the Welsh pyramid in the North division.

The top league doesn't enter the wider conscious too often but both The New Saints and Connah's Quay had good results in Europe recently, a television deal with S4C provides good coverage and the Welsh Premier League has consistently fared well on affordability in surveys such as the BBC's Price of Football.

For comprehensive coverage of the game at all levels in Wales, Y Clwb Pel-Droed is an excellent website to bookmark.

Don't Worry - Pre-Season Starts Next Week

As one Champions League season ends then preparation for a new one begins and with the first qualifying round starting in early July that means a return to pre-season training for Welsh champions The New Saints on Monday.

If you're after a football fix next weekend then TNS are offering free admission to their 2pm kick-off against Ynys Môn with the footballers representing Anglesey building up to an important tournament of their own.

The 2019 Inter-Island Games are taking place in Gibraltar but for logistical reasons the football tournament is being on the beautiful Welsh island and both the Ynys Môn mens and womens teams are hoping for success.

There is free admission to their respective matches, starting on Sunday 16 June with games against the Western Isles at the home of Holyhead Hotspur.

Rhyl FC, Prestatyn Town FC

The two resort towns in North Wales are often bracketed together and coincidentally I'd just retweeted news of Prestatyn Town and their pre-season plans when Rhyl FC announced details of their season tickets for 2018/19.

Prestatyn first up where five home pre-season friendlies are scheduled, starting with the visit of AFC Bridgnorth on 7 July.

Admission to each is priced at £5 Adults, £3 Concessions and free for Under 18's.

Over at Belle Vue, Rhyl have reduced season ticket prices for a limited time with an Adult early bird costing just £44.99 (£3 per match), Concessions £39.99 and Under 16's £9.99.

Managing Director Mike Jones told the club weekend: "There is a confidence amongst Club Supporters about the new signings made by the new Director of Football Eddie Maurice Jones over the last week, with good experienced players joining the club. 

"We hope that the new price structures will encourage more people to look at the value of buying a season ticket for Rhyl and take advantage of this limited offer."

Pre-Season & In Praise Of Neil Warnock (Part 2)

Last summer there was praise for Neil Warnock on these pages after he took a full-strength Cardiff City side to Taff's Well FC for a friendly that came about because of the Bluebirds boss' belief that professional clubs should always try and maintain strong roots with their local community.

And promotion to the Premier League has not changed Mr Warnock at all as not only will Cardiff repeat their trip to Taff's Well on 13 July but they will also not be swayed by the prospect of a Far East tour but will instead return to Devon and Cornwall for a full week of friendlies involving both the senior and Under 23 teams, all of which I am sure will be of huge benefit to the host clubs.

"Last year was a success," said Warnock "and I'm expecting even more of our fans to come down for a holiday and what will be a great, family-oriented week!"

Other pre-season snippets that I have come across so far include Friendlies for a Fiver at Runcorn Linnets and also Sevenoaks Town where a ticket covering all five pre-season home games can be obtained for £18.

Admission to Chorley home friendlies will be £5 with Under 12's free with Tranmere Rovers the first confirmed visitors on July 24 and Ashford United have a six-game ticket for their pre-season matches at Homelands which will cost £25.

A number of the sites on our links page are good places for finding out about pre-season matches and I'll update as much as possible on Twitter throughout the summer.

Football For A Fiver At Newport County

'Sliding Doors' moments in football are rarely as starkly illustrated as the 89th minute goal that kept Newport County in the Football League last season at the expense of Hartlepool United.

It was an incredible achievement for the Exiles to even have a chance of survival going into the final day of the 2016/17 campaign as they had been nine points adrift of safety when local hero Michael Flynn took over as manager.

Fast forward to February and Newport sit comfortably in mid-table in League Two and an estimated £900,000 better off from their FA Cup run which culminated in a replay at Wembley against Tottenham Hotspur while Hartlepool battle for their very survival as a club.

It isn't just financially that Newport have prospered, however, and with Flynn as a figurehead it seems as though the club has managed to re-engage with its local community.

They will hope to further strengthen those links with a ticket promotion for the visit of Crewe Alexandra on Saturday 24th March with all areas of the ground priced at £5 for all ages (Under 6's free).

In Praise Of Neil Warnock

The Cardiff City manager can divide opinion in the game (and sometimes that division can be unequally weighted) but his name has cropped up twice in the past week in interesting articles I've read, both of which have a connection of sorts to the theme of this blog.

In last Sunday's Non-League Paper, the excellent Ian Ridley, vice-chairman at Salisbury FC where this week's Pay What You Want game against Oldham Athletic attracted nearly 500 spectators, was banging the drum for pre-season friendlies and how they can provide a financial lifeline for many clubs even before the start of the campaign proper.

As it gets increasingly more difficult to persuade managers of Football League and Premier League clubs to bring their sides to local Non-League grounds, Ian cited Neil Warnock as 'one of the exceptions' for his willingness to do so.

I then came across a piece on Wales Online which explained how Friday evening's friendly between Taffs Well FC and Cardiff City came about, basically boiling down to Mr Warnock knocking on the door of the Welsh League club's door and asking for a game as part of his belief that the major club in an area should be rooted in their local community.

A sell-out crowd of close to 3,000 were in attendance and, judging by the Twitter feedback a very enjoyable evening was had by all, one that also helped raise money for two charities as well as the hosts.

No Break In The Action In Wales

One season merges into another in Wales, where an excellent crowd took advantage of prices of just £6 and £3 on Thursday evening for the UEFA Women's Champions League Final at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Tickets will cost a little more than that on Saturday when Real Madrid take on Juventus at the Principality Stadium but thoughts are already turning to next season's Champions League for Welsh champions The New Saints.

They start their warm-up for the qualifying round with friendly matches at home to an Anglesey Games XI on Tuesday 6 June and Welsh National Premier outfit Brickfield Rangers on Tuesday 13 June.

Admission prices for these matches will be £3 Adults, £1 Concessions and free for Children.