Cymru Premier

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Cymru Premier
Full name Cymru Premier
abbreviation WPL
Association Football Association of Wales
First edition 1992
Teams 12
master Connah's Quay Nomads
Record champions The New Saints FC (13 titles)
Current season 2019/20
Website cymrufootball.wales
Qualification for UEFA Champions League
UEFA Europa League

The Cymru Premier , which was played under the name League of Wales until 2002 and under the name Welsh Premier League until 2019 , is the top division in Welsh football. The league is currently referred to as "JD Cymru Premier" through a sponsorship agreement. In addition to professional clubs, semi-professional clubs also take part in the championship.

The league suffers from the fact that six of the largest Welsh football clubs play in the English league system. These clubs include the professional clubs Cardiff City , Swansea City , AFC Newport County and the amateur clubs AFC Wrexham , Merthyr Town and Colwyn Bay FC . For these clubs, participation in English leagues is more attractive than their own national league. Due to these missing clubs, the average attendance in the league is around 300.

At the end of the 2018/19 season , the league was 48th out of 55th place in the UEFA five-year ranking.

The league

The Welsh Premier League was founded in 1992 under the name League of Wales and consisted of 19 teams. There are now 12 teams playing in the league. The champions qualify for the qualification for the UEFA Champions League , the runner-up, the third placed and the winner of the Welsh Cup for the qualification for the Europa League . Due to the low sporting level of the league, the teams are usually eliminated from European competitions relatively early. The last two teams take part in the relegations to the two regional leagues Cymru Alliance and Welsh Football League Division One .

For the 2010/11 season , the number of participants in the league was reduced from 18 to 12 teams for the first time.

For the 2019/20 season , the league was renamed Cymru Premier.

Foundation of the league

The creation of Wales' first national football league was a traumatic event. For geographic reasons, it has always been easier to travel east to west than north to south. Therefore, the Welsh clubs preferred to look for their opponents in England. Clubs like the later League of Wales champions Bangor City or Barry Town played in English amateur leagues.

In the early 1990s, UEFA insisted that clubs should not play in other associations' leagues. The argument that the UK is a country was dismissed on the grounds that there are four football associations in the UK. Eventually the League of Wales was formed. A total of eleven clubs that were active in English leagues initially refused to take part in the game. In addition to eight teams from non-league football, it was Cardiff City , Wrexham FC and Swansea City , all of which played in the Football League . The Football Association of Wales allowed the latter three teams to remain in the English league system, while three of the other objectors opted for participation in the newly formed Welsh league. The remaining five teams were forced to play their home games in exile in England. This decision was overturned by a court judgment in April 1995. After Barry Town had since joined the League of Wales and Caernarfon Town followed in 1995, only AFC Newport County , Merthyr Tydfil FC and Colwyn Bay FC ultimately benefited from this ruling.

UEFA now accepts the participation of Welsh teams in the English championship, but only on the condition that these teams are no longer allowed to participate in the Welsh Cup competition.

Sponsors

There have been four name sponsors for the League in the history of the League of Wales. There was no name sponsor between 1993 and 2001.

  • 1992/93: Konica (Konica 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)
  • since 2017: JD Sports (The JD Welsh Premier League & JD Cymru Premier)

Attendees

The field of participants of the Cymru Premier 2019/20 looks like this:

master

The New Saints FC are record champions with 13 championships. The title win by TNS Llansantffraidd in 2000 is included, as this club later merged with The New Saints.

Eternal table

In the all-time table, record champions The New Saints FC are ahead of Bangor City . Barry Town - formerly the record champion with 7 titles - is in 11th place. Clubs with a colored background play in the Cymru Premier in the 2018/19 season .

Pl. society Years Sp. S. U N T + T- Diff. Points Ø pt. title
 1. The New Saints FC 26th  884  534  189  161 1963 880 +1083 1791 2.03 13
 2. Bangor City 26th  895  459  153  283 1713 1262 +451 1530 1.71 3
 3. Aberystwyth Town 27  928  379  222  327 1521 1422 +99 1355 1.46 -
 4th Newtown AFC 27  928  348  209  371 1408 1449 −41 1250 1.35 -
 5. Gap Connah's Quay 25th  862  345  194  323 1343 1314 +29 1228 1.42 -
 6th Rhyl FC 20th  688  312  138  238 1164 987 +177 1074 1.56 2
 7th Carmarthen Town 23  772  293  159  320 1108 1221 −113 1038 1.34 -
 8th. Barry Town 12  421  267  76  78 980 442 +538 877 2.08 7th
 9. AFC Llanelli 18th  622  259  100  263 1105 1145 −40 877 1.41 1
10. Cwmbran Town 15th  532  252  108  172 907 719 +188 864 1.62 1
Status: end of season 2018/19

UEFA five-year ranking

Placement in the UEFA five-year ranking ( previous year's ranking in brackets ). The abbreviations CL and EL after the country coefficients indicate the number of representatives in the 2019/20 season of the Champions League and the Europa League .

Status: end of the European Cup season 2018/19

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Premier clubs pass league changes
  2. ^ A New Identity for Football in Wales. In: faw.cymru. Football Association of Wales , August 7, 2019, accessed November 7, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Clas Glenning: Wales 1st level alltimetable 1992 / 93-2018 / 19. In: Clas Glenning Football. Accessed December 31, 2019 .
  4. ↑ UEFA rankings for club competitions. In: UEFA. Retrieved July 14, 2019 .