The involvement of Cymru Premier clubs in UEFA competition is over for another season after all three remaining clubs were eliminated from the Europa League, despite some valiant efforts on the pitch this week.
Bala Town were by no means disgraced on Thursday in a 2-0 defeat away to Standard Liege. It might even have been a different story had Chris Venables converted his penalty at 0-1. Connah’s Quay Nomads suffered defeat against Dinamo Tblisi to a 97th minute penalty at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground. They matched the Georgian champions all the way, despite losing several players to COVID-19 on the eve of the game, and it was a cruel finale to lose on a penalty deep in stoppage time. TNS bowed out on Wednesday, the second Cymru Premier victim in the Faroe Islands this summer. TNS were 90 seconds from victory when they conceded a 121st minute equaliser to B36 Torshavn and were also one kick away from winning the shoot-out. Unfortunately, unsuccessful penalties by Dean Ebbe and Danny Redmond saw the Shropshire side lose 5-4 in the tie-breaker.
These results and those of clubs in other nations like Estonia and Montenegro mean that Wales will drop into the bottom five of UEFA’s national co-efficient rankings and will lose a UEFA club spot from the start of the 2022/23 campaign.
To put this in context, this hasn’t come about because of results this week but is the outcome of the past 4-5 years of European football in which Wales’ results haven’t been as good as other nations around them. The perceived failure of Welsh clubs to improve results in UEFA competition typically invokes periods of soul searching among Cymru Premier followers every summer and this will be no different.
The same questions will be asked about the future of the national league in Wales and these should come in to sharper focus now that a loss of a European spot (and with it UEFA prize money) is a reality. There is often a focus on how the Cymru Premier should be set up for the benefit of clubs in Europe but maybe now we need a period of reflection on whether we should even really measure the league by European performances, which are generally ignored by football followers in Wales anyway.
The current 12-team Cymru Premier with it’s mid-season split is almost universally loathed by those who play in and watch the league. Part of it’s rationale is to create sustainable clubs in the top flight, to increase competitiveness and help clubs prepare better for European competition. While internally there are arguments the Cymru Premier has become more competitive, that hasn’t translated into European performance where clubs from nations like the Faroe Islands, Montenegro, Gibraltar, Malta and Estonia are generally doing better.
These nations don’t suffer Wales’ unique problem of having its biggest clubs playing in another country’s league system and while we can debate the rights and wrongs of “the Anglos” playing outside Wales, the harsh reality is most of these clubs are probably never going to play in Welsh football. The opportunity has been lost in the mists of the past and we just have to get on with the status quo.
So if the 12-team format, with its mid-season split, isn’t really delivering on the European front, is not capturing the imagination of spectators (attendance have largely stagnated over the past ten years according to reported figures), and therefore adding no commercial value to the product, what exactly is it for? Lots of people say “the league is improving” but always there is the burden to prove by what measure. It is very difficult to offer anything less vague than “the standard is better”, which is unhelpfully tautological.
Those invested in the game have to start asking what the purpose and long-term goal of the Cymru Premier should be and the arguments for the uninspiring 12-team format with it’s groundhog day split need to be re-visited and their validity re-tested. There won’t be a simple solution but there will be no progress if Welsh football continues to simply try to knock the wall down by banging its head against the bricks the way it currently does.
Before the long term future is considered though, there are important and serious questions about the short term future of the Cymru Premier. There have apparently been concerns raised within clubs about the viability of the season while spectators remain locked out because some clubs simply will not be able to afford to complete the campaign. Then you throw in the rising infection rate of COVID-19 and fears of a second wave and some scepticism about Cymru Premier clubs capability of managing the situation safely.
In the past week Cefn Druids had both of their opening Cymru Premier fixtures postponed due to an alleged breach of the FAW’s Safer Return to Football Protocols, then on Wednesday the revelation that three Connah’s Quay Nomads players tested positive for COVID-19 and others were displaying symptoms. After last night’s defeat, Nomads manager Andy Morrison said in an interview the club had “turned a blind eye” to players who complained of feeling ill on the day of the game.
I expect all of this will be scrutinised over the coming days, at least putting into doubt Connah’s Quay Cymru Premier fixture this weekend. There will surely be conversations among decision makers about whether competitive football can be conducted safely in Wales in any form while the threat from the pandemic lingers.
Jordan Forster 