 | |
| Founded | 1992 |
|---|---|
| Country |  Wales |
| Other club from |  England (1 team) |
| Confederation | UEFA |
| Number of clubs | 12 16 (In 2026-27) |
| Level on pyramid | 1 |
| Relegation to | Cymru North Cymru South |
| Domestic cup | Welsh Cup |
| League cup | Welsh League Cup |
| International cups | |
| Current champions | The New Saints (17th title) (2024–25) |
| Most championships | The New Saints (17 titles) |
| Most appearances | Chris Venables (537) |
| Top scorer | Marc Lloyd Williams (319) |
| Website | cymrufootball |
| Current:2025–26 Cymru Premier | |
TheCymru Premier, known as theJD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the nationalfootball league ofWales. It has bothprofessional andsemi-professional status clubs and is at the top of theWelsh football league system. It was founded in 1992, as the first league representing all of Wales. Prior to 2002, the league was known as theLeague of Wales (LoW), but changed its name as part of a sponsorship deal to theWelsh Premier League. The league was rebranded as theCymru Premier for the 2019–20 season.[1] Though formed relatively recently, the league contains some of theoldest clubs in world football. Eleven current or former members of the league were founded in the 1870s or 1880s, with many more formed before the end of the 19th century. The vast majority of its clubs are still owned and run by the local community or by people from the area.[citation needed]
It operates on apromotion and relegation system with Tier 2 of theWelsh football league system, theCymru North andCymru South leagues.[2] The Cymru Premier League is currently contested by 12 teams, with each team playing each other home and away during the first phase. At the end of this period the league splits into two divisions, with the top 6 teams going on to the Championship Conference, and the bottom 6 teams into the Play-Off Conference. Each team playing each other a further two times, home and away, with the champion being decide by the team with the most points in the Championship Conference, and the lowest two teams in Play-Off Conference relegated. Seasons usually run from August to May, with each team playing 32 matches in total. It is due to expand to 16 teams in 2026-27 and with a changed format.
Cymru Premier is currently ranked 49th in theUEFA coefficients based on the performances by teams in European competition over the past 5 years, giving 4 of its teams opportunities inEuropean football qualifiers.
The current champions areTNS who won the league for the 17th time in the2024–25 season. Seven teams have won the competition since its inception:TNS (17),Barry Town (7),Bangor City (3),Connah's Quay Nomads (2),Rhyl (2),Llanelli (1) andCwmbran Town (1). As of the2024-25 season 42 clubs have participated in Wales' top flight league.
The league was formed in October 1991 byAlun Evans,Secretary General of theFootball Association of Wales (FAW), as he believed that theWelsh international football team was under threat fromFIFA. The FAW, along with the other threehome nations' associations (The Football Association,Irish Football Association andScottish Football Association), had a permanent seat on theInternational Football Association Board (IFAB) and it was thought that many FIFA members were resentful of this and pressing for the four unions to unite into one combined side for the whole of the United Kingdom.
The new league was formed for the 1992–93 season, and officially launched on 15 August 1992.[3] At the time, despite the FAW being a FIFA andUEFA member it had not previously organised a national league, only theWelsh Cup.
On its formation the league consisted of a number of teams previously playing in regional leagues across Wales, plus a small number of clubs that had been playing in the English league system. Because of historically poor north–south transport links through mountainous mid-Wales (although these have improved in the postWorld War II years), it was sometimes easier for Welsh clubs to travel east–west to play football, so some Welsh clubs looked east to England for competitors. Teams in Wales that had played in the English leagues includedAberdare Athletic,Cardiff City,Merthyr Town,Newport County,Swansea City andWrexham. Many semi-professional sides in Wales also played in both the Welsh andEnglish football league system at different points in their history;Bangor City were founder members of the North Wales Coast League in 1893 and the Welsh National League in 1921, before the Alliance Premier League (now theNational League) in 1979 and reached theFA Trophy final in 1984. They transferred back once again to the Welsh system and the new League of Wales in 1992.
While the league itself is relatively young, many of its clubs are among the oldest in the world, having played in North, Mid and South Wales regional leagues since the 19th century. A number of the current members of the league are over 100 years older than the league itself. Many more of the leagues clubs current and ex-clubs were formed before 1900. The current oldest member isNewtown, formed in 1875.
The formation of the League of Wales saw the start of a bitter dispute between theFootball Association of Wales (FAW) and thosenon-League clubs who wanted to remain part of theEnglish football pyramid. The 'Irate Eight', as they were dubbed, consisted ofBangor City,Barry Town,Caernarfon Town,Colwyn Bay,Merthyr Tydfil,Newport,Newtown andRhyl. At the time,Cardiff City,Swansea City andWrexham were playing inThe Football League, and the FAW decided to allow those teams to continue to play in the English system, although they continued to compete in the Welsh Cup for a few more seasons. The success of these clubs in the Welsh Cups meant that they frequently competed in theEuropean Cup Winners' Cup despite the fact that Wrexham had never played above the Second Division and Swansea had spent just two seasons in the First Division during the early 1980s, while Cardiff had been semi-regular members of the First Division from the 1920s up to 1962.
Prior to the inaugural season, Bangor City, Newtown and Rhyl agreed to play in the League of Wales. However, as Rhyl's application to join the league was late, they were placed in the second level of the pyramid system. Because of FAW sanctions, the remaining five clubs were forced to play their home matches in England. Following a season in exile atWorcester City, five became four, as Barry Town joined the Welsh pyramid in time for the 1993–94 season.
A court ruling in 1995 allowed the remaining four clubs to return to Wales to play their home matches while still remaining within the English system; despite this victory, Caernarfon Town decided to join the League of Wales for the1995–96 season. Colwyn Bay continued in the English pyramid for a further 24 years before transferring to the Welsh pyramid in 2019, leaving only two of the Irate Eight remaining - Newport County, who won promotion to the Football League in 2013, andMerthyr Town, the successor club to Merthyr Tydfil following its liquidation in 2010. In 2008, Wrexham were relegated from the Football League and after an absence of 15 years, returned through automatic promotion at the end of the 2022–23 season.
Conversely, in 1996 now-defunct English teamOswestry Town were accepted by the League of Wales and currentlyThe New Saints are based inOswestry (having moved fromLlansantffraid, Powys in 2007). Another English club,Chester City, whose stadium sits on theEngland–Wales border, applied to join the Welsh Premier League after being expelled from theFootball Conference in 2010[4] but were wound up almost immediately afterwards (their successor team,Chester F.C., opted to reapply within the English system).
Welsh football teams that currently play in the English football system include:Swansea City andWrexham (both in the EFL Championship),Cardiff City (EFL League One),Newport County (EFL League Two), andMerthyr Town (National League North).[5][6]
Some have called for all Welsh teams to be recruited into Cymru Premier, but in particular the lower ranked Merthyr Town as they are in the English non-league setup.[5]
An online poll byY Clwb Pêl-droed on Twitter found 56.7% in favour of Merthyr Town joining the Welsh football system.[7]
In April 2024, theFootball Association of Wales released a six-year strategic plan to enhance league's competitiveness and announcing a multi-million euro investment in the league and its teams. The plans included increasing the number of teams competing in the league, revamping the competition format, and introducing Friday night league play.[8][9]
In September 2024, the FAW confirmed the new league format would start in the 2026–27 season and would consist of 16 teams each playing each other home and away before being split into three tiers of six, four and six clubs. The top six in the table will play each other once more, with the club topping the table after Matchday 35 crowned champions. Teams finishing second through sixth qualify for the end of season European qualification play-offs. Clubs ranked seventh through tenth will play each other once more, with the club placing seventh after Matchday 33 receiving the final play-off spot for European qualification. The remaining teams ranked eleventh and below will also play each other once more. At the end of Matchday 35, the two lowest clubs will be automatically relegated, while the club in 14th will compete in the relegation play-off with the qualifiers fromCymru South andCymru North to play in the next season's Cymru Premier.[10][11]
For the 2025–26 season the league introduced "VAR lite", a simpler and cheaper system ofVAR.[12]
Clubs are promoted to the Cymru Premier from theCymru North in the north/ central Wales and theCymru South in the south/ central Wales. Clubs who finish as champions of the feeder leagues, or as runners-up if the champions decide not to seek promotion, are promoted subject to an application for membership being received and accepted and the stadium and infrastructure safety criteria of the Cymru Premier being met.
No teams were promoted to the Welsh Premier League following the 2005–06 season. However,Cardiff Grange Quins, who finished bottom of the Welsh Premier League resigned leaving the league to operate with an odd number of clubs for 2006–07.
Eighteen clubs competed in the Welsh Premier League for the 2007–08 season as bothNeath Athletic (Welsh Football League Division One) andLlangefni Town (Cymru Alliance) were promoted whilstCwmbran Town were relegated to Welsh Football League Division One.
For 2008–09,Prestatyn Town played in the Welsh Premier League for the first time after promotion from the Cymru Alliance, whilstLlangefni Town were relegated to the Cymru Alliance after only one season.
The 2009–10 season sawBala Town promoted to the Welsh Premier League after they won the Cymru Alliance in 2008–09. They replacedCaernarfon Town who were relegated to the Cymru Alliance.
At the end of the 2009–10 season, due to league restructuring Connah's Quay, Porthmadog, Welshpool Town, Caersws and Cefn Druids were relegated to the Cymru Alliance league. Rhyl were also relegated to the Cymru Alliance, despite finishing 6th in the Welsh Premier League, as they failed to meet the financial criteria required to gain the Welsh Premier League domestic licence. No teams were promoted to the Welsh Premier League from the feeder leagues.
The 18 Welsh Premier League clubs met on 13 April 2008 and voted to support a restructuring proposal put forward by Welsh Premier League secretary John Deakin which would replace the single Welsh Premier League with a First and Second Division with 10 teams in each Division for the 2010–11 season. A further proposal was accepted that theFootball Association of Wales should take full control of the Welsh Premier League and the existing Company, 'Football League of Wales Limited' should be dissolved. These proposals were forwarded to the Football Association of Wales for their consideration.[13]
In June 2009 the clubs voted to accept an alternative proposal to reduce the premier League from 18 clubs to 12 for the 2010–11 season onwards.[14]
The season is split into two phases, and concludes with an end of season Playoff to determine Wales' fourth European side for the following year.
Phase 1 runs from Match Day 1 in August through to Match Day 22 in mid-January. Each team plays the other sides in the league twice, once at home and once away, making a total of twenty-two games.
After the conclusion of Phase 1, the league splits in two, with the top six teams forming the Championship Conference, and the bottom six teams forming the Playoff Conference. All points accumulated by teams in Phase 1 are brought forward into Phase 2.
Phase 2 then runs from Match Day 23 at the start of February through to Match Day 32 at the end of April. Each side plays the other five in their conference twice more, home and away, to bring up a total of thirty-two games played.
The side finishing top of the Championship Conference after thirty-two games is the League Champion, and will qualify for the UEFA Champions League. To date six teams have won the title in twenty-six seasons.
The runners-up in the Championship Conference qualify automatically for the UEFA Europa Conference League, whilst the remaining teams qualify for the end of season European Playoffs.
The bottom two sides in the Playoff Conference are relegated. Meanwhile, the side finishing top of the Playoff Conference (seventh place in the league table) advances to the European Playoffs.
Note that sides in the Playoff Conference can finish no higher in the table than seventh.
The five teams finishing in 3rd–7th contest the end of season European Playoffs. The 6th placed team host 7th in a quarter-final, with the winners travelling to the 3rd placed side for the first semi-final, whilst 4th host 5th in the other.
The winners then meet at the ground of the highest ranked side in the final, with the winners qualifying for the UEFA Europa Conference League.
If one of the five teams has already qualified for Europe by winning the Welsh Cup, then the remaining four sides will contest the playoffs directly from the semi-final stage.
If one of the top two sides wins the JD Welsh Cup, then the third placed side will automatically take up a UEFA Europa Conference League spot. The remaining four sides will then contest the playoffs directly from the semi-final stage.
In seasons where the league's UEFA Coefficient has been amongst the lowest five, meaning only two berths are available in the UEFA Conference League, the playoffs will include the 2nd placed side as well. In 2021–22, the 2nd placed side qualified directly to the Conference League and the playoff winners qualified for theScottish Challenge Cup instead.
The champions of the Cymru Premier qualify, along with the champions of every European domestic league, for theUEFA Champions League. The second or third placed teams (depending on who wins the Welsh Cup) qualify for the first qualifying round of theUEFA Europa Conference League.
A place in the first qualifying round of the Europa Conference League is also awarded to the winners of theWelsh Cup. If the winners of the Welsh Cup have already qualified for Europe via their league placing (i.e., finishing in the top two and winning the cup), then the third placed team will qualify directly. The playoff is contested between the sides finishing 3rd–7th, excluding any team already qualified for Europe. In years where Wales are only eligible to enter two teams in the Conference League, only the cup winners (or 2nd place, if the cup winners win the league) will qualify directly for the Conference League and teams finishing 2nd–7th (excluding teams already qualified for Europe) contest the playoff.
Results in Europe have been mixed – some notable successes, such asBarry Town's run to the first round proper of the UEFA Cup, drawing 3–3 withAberdeen at Jenner Park, Bangor City's win over FC Sartid of Yugoslavia and Barry's 3–1 victory overFC Porto in the UEFA Champions League (albeit losing 3–9 on aggregate), stand alongside some heavy defeats, such asThe New Saints' 12–1 aggregate defeat toAmica Wronki of Poland.
In August 2024The New Saints became the first club from Wales' top flight to enter the group stage of a European competition, when they beatFK Panevezys 3–0 on aggregate to qualify for theUEFA Conference League.[15]
As of October 2024 the Cymru Premier is ranked 49th out of 55 members by theUEFA coefficient, having risen from 52nd the previous year.
For the first four seasons of the league's existence, its results were not featured on thePress Association'svidiprinter service and consequently had not appeared on theBBC'sFinal Score orSky'sSoccer Saturday. The PA added the league's results at the start of the 1996–97 season, which was also when the PA began providing the results for theNorthern Irish league.
Since the start of the 2007–08 season goals and results from the league have appeared on thePress Associationvidiprinter service. Prior to this only the full-time score had been displayed although the half time score had also been shown from around 2000.Final Score continues to include the Cymru Premier results as part of their classified football results sequence and for a whileSoccer Saturday also included the WPL results but has not done so in recent seasons, and in 2013, Sky Sports removed the league from its vidiprinter as part of a major reduction in the number of competitions that it featured on its vidiprinter service.
On television, brief highlights from one of the day's games were featured on BBC Wales' sports results programmeWales on Saturday whilst the BBC also provided a 30-minute highlights programme for Welsh-language broadcaster,S4C, entitled "Y Clwb Pêl-droed". When the corporation lost the international broadcast rights toBSkyB at the end of the 2003/4 season, S4C won the secondary rights package which included highlights of the national team and all domestic rights.Sgorio took over the "Clwb Pêl-droed" slot previously produced by the BBC and in 2010/11 the half-hour highlights programme was dropped in favour of one live game per week. S4C broadcasts in Wales and throughout the rest of the UK via digital satellite with an interactive option for English-language commentary available via digital satellite.
As of the 2018–19 season,S4C show one live game per matchweek from either the league,Welsh Cup orScottish Challenge Cup if a Welsh team is involved. They also stream all live televised matches on theSgorio Facebook page, as well as streaming an additional ten per season from these competitions exclusively online.
Weekly highlights of all league games are shown onS4C on a Monday night at 17:30, and thereafter on Sgorio's social media andYouTube channels.
The advent of the League has brought increased media coverage for its member clubs, notably from theWestern Mail andDaily Post, as well as local press.
Of the 20 clubs that played in the inaugural season of the League of Wales, ten have since been relegated yet to return, with one,Ebbw Vale, folding in 1998.[16] For a list of all clubs past and present seeList of Cymru Premier clubs. For a list of winners and runners-up of the Cymru Premier since its inception, and top scorers for each season, seeList of Welsh football champions.
Only two clubs have played in every season League of Wales/Cymru Premier since its inception. These two clubs areAberystwyth Town andNewtown.[17][18] As these clubs have been relegated as of the 2024–25 season, this will no longer be the case when the 2025–26 season kicks off.
| Period | Sponsor | Brand |
|---|---|---|
| 1992–1993 | Konica Peter Llewellyn Limited of Swansea | Konica League of Wales |
| 1993–2002 | No sponsor | 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 | TheDafabet Welsh Premier League |
| 2017–2019 | JD Sports | TheJD Welsh Premier League |
| 2019–present | JD Cymru Premier |
For the champions of the top division of the Welsh League from 1904 to 1992, seeWelsh Football League
Seven clubs have been champions. Inbold those competing in the2025–26 season.
| Club | Winners | Runners-up | Third place | Winning years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The New Saints | 17 | 7 | 1 | 1999–00,2004–05,2005–06,2006–07,2009–10,2011–12,2012–13,2013–14,2014–15,2015–16,2016–17,2017–18,2018–19,2021–22,2022–23,2023–24,2024–25 |
| Barry Town United | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1995–96,1996–97,1997–98,1998–99,2000–01,2001–02,2002–03 |
| Bangor City | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1993–94,1994–95,2010–11 |
| Connah's Quay Nomads | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2019–20,2020–21 |
| Rhyl | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2003–04,2008–09 |
| Llanelli | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2007–08 |
| Cwmbran Town | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1992–93 |
| Inter Cardiff | – | 4 | – | – |
| Bala Town | – | 3 | 4 | – |
| Airbus UK Broughton | – | 2 | 1 | – |
| Newtown | – | 2 | 1 | – |
| Penybont | – | 1 | 1 | – |
| Afan Lido | – | 1 | – | – |
| Ton Pentre | – | – | 2 | – |
| Ebbw Vale | – | – | 2 | – |
| Neath | – | – | 2 | – |
| Carmarthen Town | – | – | 2 | – |
| Haverfordwest County | – | – | 2 | – |
| Aberystwyth Town | – | – | 1 | – |
| Conwy United | – | – | 1 | – |
| Llandudno | – | – | 1 | – |
| Port Talbot Town | – | – | 1 | – |
Notes:
Marc Lloyd Williams scored 319 goals in 467 appearances, making him the most prolific goalscorer in the league's history.[19]
Chris Venables holds the record for the number of appearances in the league with 537 games played.
Paul Harrison holds the record for the most consecutive appearances in the league with more than 190[20]
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