Reply With QuoteOne more step towards "the big 4" being kicked out of the English pyramid, so the FAW can have us prop up their part-timers.
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Why is the Welsh Premier League such a turd league? Plan to grow it
Surely the Welsh FA, big 4 Welsh clubs, Welsh celebrities (Bale,Ramsey etc) and some foreign invements should have come together by now to reinvigorate the league and make it bigger and better. Think Indian Super League or Saudi Pro League on a minuscule scale.
Here's the Plan.
Wales has produced a large amount of top class footballers in recent years and has a lot of untapped potential for fanfare and clubs supporting football talent. A lot of players and potential are probably falling through the cracks due to lack of clubs to play for at a decent level. Lots of fans are also being priced out of watching their local team for Ł30 per game. Just look at the Scottish football pyramid for a good potential comparison (3 Million Wales vs 5 Million population Scotland).
Would start with promises from the FAW and Welsh Government to pour some money into the stadium infrastructure, football pitches, and to broadcast all games free to S4C.
The big 4 Welsh teams (Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham, Newport) buy controlling shares in four Welsh Premier League teams (Barry, Llanelli, Bala Town (?), Newport City). Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey, Craig Bellamy, Joe Allen + other interested parties become minor share holders with the hope of getting these players to play a couple games for their new teams, or at least publically represent them.
These four teams can use the club sharing model to send their youth players to the league, instantly boosting the quality. Some other interested parties like Brighton (Tony Bloom) or Man City with their CityGroup would be Welcomed in at this point with the plan. Is it beyond the realms of possibility than some of these teams can pull crowds of 5-10 K with decent price points? I think not. Regional Welsh Rugby teams back in the day did this consistantly.
Change the league format to a league & play off format. League season ends and top six are entered into a play offs for the league title. These two semi finals are played back to back in the Cardiff City stadium, similiar to Judgement day in Rugby. You can rotate the venue each year, giving Swansea, Wrexham and Newport income. Final could also be played on a single day in any of these grounds. Sell shirts and merchandise for these clubs at Big 4 team grounds, and vice versa.
With the changes in European football now and the new league formats, teams like TNS have been able to compete in a league format vs teams such as Fiorentina, and prize money has been increased. Imagine a Barry Town backed by Cardiff City and using Cardiff City youngsters playing at a packed and renovated Jenner Park vs Fiorentina.
One more step towards "the big 4" being kicked out of the English pyramid, so the FAW can have us prop up their part-timers.
Wont happen.Originally Posted by bobh
The league will always be poor when the clubs representing the major settlements in Wales plays in England.
Not enough Welsh football fans care because the biggest 2 clubs in Wales are manu and liverpool.
Once they've whacked out for a shirt and sky/tnt subscription there's no more money for Welsh football.
Seems Bale is thinking bigger
and who is going to watch these matches? The league will always suffer through lack of interest, one or two clubs might draw a decent crowd but the whole league needs to.
I have watched a number of Cymru Premier and Cymru South games. The standard is not brilliant but it is better than I thought it would be. I have thought for years it is an under developed football pyramid.
Because of Cardiff Swasea and Newport playing in the English system there is a lack of decent representation from the South in CP. As suggested above I think it would be a great idea for these clubs to adopt a local team e.g Newport County/Newport City to boost the quality of southern teams.
The 4 biggest clubs, from the 4 biggest cities play in a different league. I can’t think of any other league that suffers from such a hurdle.
Take out the teams from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee from Scotland and suddenly the biggest clubs in the country are the likes of St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Motherwell.
Fair point. Scotland just about gets away with a national league but if teams from those Cities withdrew the Scottish domestic league would be on par with the CP.
On another note I remeber Inter Cardiff being a decent side in the Welsh league and had a bit of a rivally with Cwmbran. Both sides have disappeared what happened?
Became Cardiff Met.
Inter Cardiff grew out of an amalgamation between Lake Utd & Rumney Rangers, both Cardiff Combination League clubs, and called themselves AFC Cardiff. A merger with Sully resulted in a name change to Inter Cardiff. Another name change came after CableTel sponsored them being reborn as Inter CableTel. Another merger with Cardiff Met changed the name to UWIC Inter Cardiff FC. Eventually the Inter Cardiff part was dropped resulting in the Cardiff Met of today. How Confused.com never got involved God only knows.
What comparable standard would the Welsh Premier be to the English leagues? I’m assuming some way behind National League level
Its about National League level, the Welsh representative side beat the National League version last time they played each other
Interestingly I see TNS beat Rangers in a behind closed doors friendly the other day
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