The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club, commonly known asThe New Saints (Welsh:Clwb Pêl-droed y Seintiau Newydd) orTNS FC are a Welsh/Englishprofessionalfootball club that play in theCymru Premier, part of theWelsh football system, but are based completely within England, inOswestry, Shropshire.
They are the most successful club in the Welsh league structure, with 17 league titles to their name. Since the 2001–02 season, they have finished as champions or runners-up in every season, apart from2008–09, where they finished third in the league. They became the first side playing in the Welsh league system to qualify for the group or league stage of any European competition after reaching the league phase of theUEFA Conference League for the first time in the2024–25 season.[1]
They first tasted competitive football in the Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League (then the fourth level of theWelsh football league system), winning the championship seven times. At the end of the 1989–90 season they were elected to theCentral Wales League but their stay was brief, winning promotion to theCymru Alliance as runners-up on their first attempt. Llansantffraid's meteoric rise continued and in 1992–93 they gained promotion to the League of Wales, now the Cymru Premier, as champions and won the Welsh Intermediate Cup (formerly the Welsh Amateur Cup).
In 1996, Llansantffraid won theWelsh Cup and qualified for the first time for theEuropean Cup Winners' Cup. At this time, a local computer company, Total Network Solutions of Oswestry, arranged a £250,000 sponsorship deal which involved incorporating the company name into the club name. AsTotal Network Solutions Llansantffraid, they met Polish Cup winnersRuch Chorzów and earned a 1–1 draw at home before losing 5–0 in Poland. Since then they have qualified for European competitions several times. The club's European home games are generally played at eitherNewtown's orWrexham's stadium, as their old Recreation Ground was far below UEFA's standards (though for their 2003 meeting withManchester City, they played their home game at the 72,000-seatMillennium Stadium inCardiff). To comply with UEFA's regulations on third-party sponsorship, the club were known by their initialismTNS by the European governing body in their competitions.
In 1997 the club's name was changed toTotal Network Solutions F.C., being the first instance in the United Kingdom of a football club renaming itself after its sponsor's name only. Following the financial meltdown ofBarry Town in the summer of 2003, TNS became the only Cymru Premier club which had a full-time playing staff. In the summer of 2005, however, Llanelli also announced plans to go full-time.
In the summer of 2003, the shareholders ofOswestry Town met to approve a merger with TNS. The financially weaker club was a close neighbour to TNS, and also played in theLeague of Wales despite being based across the border inShropshire. TheFootball Association of Wales (FAW) ratified the merger on 14 August 2003 as didUEFA eventually, despite its initial objection to a merger of two clubs with different governing bodies.
The 2003–04 season was trophyless for TNS as they finished runners-up in the League of Wales toRhyl and were beaten finalists in theWelsh Cup, also to Rhyl. The 2004–05 season proved much more successful, as TNS wona League and Cup double.
During the 2005–06off-season, after newly crownedChampions League winnersLiverpool were initially denied a place in the next season's competition, TNS offered to play a one-legged tie against the Reds for TNS's place in the first qualifying round.[2] AfterUEFA reached a compromise by which Liverpool were placed in the first qualifying round of the competition, TNS and Liverpool ended up drawn against one another anyway. Liverpool won the first leg atAnfield 3–0 thanks to aSteven Gerrardhat-trick. In the second leg, played atWrexham, Gerrard added two goals after coming on as a substitute toDjibril Cissé's opening tally for another 3–0 Liverpool victory. Although defeated, TNS drew praise, most notably for the young Northern Irish goalkeeperGerard Doherty, of whomRafael Benítez said: "The goalkeeper saved a lot of goals and for me he was the best player in the two games".[3]
In early 2006 the club's sponsor, Total Network Solutions, was taken over byBritish Telecom,[4] as a result of which the sponsorship arrangement lapsed at the end of the 2005–06 season, and it became necessary to find a new name for the club. After a trawl for new naming ideas, including an attempt to sell the naming rights oneBay, the name "The New Saints" was agreed upon as appropriate to the history of both of the originally merged clubs: Llansantffraid was always known as "The Saints"; Oswestry had strong connections withSaint Oswald, while the club's name was already abbreviated to TNS. A new club badge was also developed at the same time, featuring a dragon to represent Llansantffraid and a lion representing Oswestry.[5]
On 10 February 2010, the BBC reported that the New Saints had applied to play home games atChester City'sDeva Stadium in 2010–11, after having been turned down for a grant to help fund the construction of a new 1,000-seat stand at Park Hall. At the time, the mooted move was complicated by Chester City's governance issues. Deva Stadium's pitch and stands lie in Wales, but outbuildings on the site that housed the club offices are in England, and Chester City were under the jurisdiction of the EnglishFootball Association.[6] Chester City were liquidated a month later by HMRC; in any event, the New Saints were granted a domestic licence by the FAW in April 2010 and remained at Park Hall for 2010–11 season. The New Saints were crowned2009–10 Welsh Premier League Champions.
The New Saints entered the Champions League in2010–11. They were drawn againstLeague of Ireland Premier Division ChampionsBohemians in the Second Qualifying Round. They lost the first leg 1–0 atDalymount Park inDublin on 13 July 2010.[7] However, they won the second leg at Park Hall 4–0 and won the tie 4–1 on aggregate, the first ever tie won by the club since their European debut in 1996.[8] Bohemians managerPat Fenlon later labelled his team's performance as "disgraceful" and said that "the players let the club, league and country down".[9] The result was labelled by others as the worst result in Bohemians' 40-year European history.[10] The Saints advanced to playBelgian Pro League Champions and European giantsAnderlecht. The Saints were beaten 3–1 in the home leg played inWrexham and 3–0 in the away game at theConstant Vanden Stock Stadium inBrussels. The Saints then playedCSKA Sofia in the Europa League playoff round, but were beaten 5–2 on aggregate. As league runners up during the 2010–11 season, the Saints entered the Europa League qualifying rounds in 2011. They beatBelfast clubCliftonville 2–1 on aggregate in the first round, but were eliminated by Danish clubFC Midtjylland 8–3 on aggregate in the following round.
On 30 December 2016, The New Saints defeated Cefn Druids 2–0 in the Cymru Premier. This extended their winning run to 27 matches, surpassing the previous record of 26 set byAjax in the 1970s for the most consecutive club victories by a top-flight team in Europe.[11]
The New Saints qualified to the2024–25 UEFA Conference League following a 3–0 win on aggregate overPanevėžys in the playoffs on 29 August 2024, becoming the first club from the Welsh league system to qualify for the group stage of a major UEFA competition.[12] The New Saints were forced to play their home matches atShrewsbury Town'sNew Meadow stadium due to Park Hall not meeting UEFA's regulations for hosting non-qualification matches.[13] The New Saints facedFiorentina in their first European group stage match on 3 October and were defeated 2–0.[14] On 24 October, The New Saints became the first domestic Welsh club to win in the group stage of a major European competition, courtesy of a 2–0 victory overFC Astana at New Meadow.[15]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
The following team members have played for, or been called up to the first team in a competitive game.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
The New Saints Ladies FC was founded in 2002 and played in theFA Women's National League Midlands Division 1. In August 2020, it was announced that the women's section was splitting off and adopting the nameWem Town L.F.C.[50] The new club claimed that women's football was low on TNS' list of priorities.
In June 2021, The New Saints F.C. Women were refounded and were granted a license to play in the Adran Premier, ahead of established top-flight clubs such as Abergavenny Town andBriton Ferry Llansawel.[51] They continue to participate in theAdran Premier League, the highest tier of league competition in Welsh women's football, and also play their home games at Park Hall Stadium.
In the 2022–23 season, they finished in 4th place.[52] The team became semi-professional with the 2024–25 season,[53] the fourth such team in the Adran Premier. In that season they won their first silverware, beating Swansea 3 - 1 in theAdran Trophy final atLatham Park.[54]