Welsh football thriving again

Helsinki 10 - 0 Bangor (13 - 0 on agg).

Scrap the Welsh Premiership completely and start again ploughing money into areas that there is a proper passion for the area and pride. The FAW should be tapping into the tribal rivalry of valleys towns and Citys throughout Wales and funding teams/facilties to drag the game in Wales to the 21st.

I'm sorry but no-one can argue the toss for the current set up, Bangor had 2 stands empty for their 1st leg against Helsinki - absolute joke. If towns like Caerphilly and Ponty etc had proper facilties and 'football men' running the show then there woukd be far mire interest in those fixtures than there is with the current set up.

All just my opinion of course, but how have we got to this stage in Welsh football? Those in charge over the years who've allowed the game of egg surpress football should be ashamed of themselves - we're now left with a true mess that is
Indicative of our international efforts. How can we expect any degree of success at national level if we're performing on such weak foundations

Helsinki 10 - 0 Bangor (13 - 0 on agg).

Scrap the Welsh Premiership completely and start again ploughing money into areas that there is a proper passion for the area and pride. The FAW should be tapping into the tribal rivalry of valleys towns and Citys throughout Wales and funding teams/facilties to drag the game in Wales to the 21st.

I'm sorry but no-one can argue the toss for the current set up, Bangor had 2 stands empty for their 1st leg against Helsinki - absolute joke. If towns like Caerphilly and Ponty etc had proper facilties and 'football men' running the show then there woukd be far mire interest in those fixtures than there is with the current set up.

All just my opinion of course, but how have we got to this stage in Welsh football? Those in charge over the years who've allowed the game of egg surpress football should be ashamed of themselves - we're now left with a true mess that is
Indicative of our international efforts. How can we expect any degree of success at national level if we're performing on such weak foundations

Welsh clubs have been shit in europe for years with the odd fluke result.

The biggest problem is the refusal to go to summer football. Bangor have had a very short preseason after a long season last year. Most teams in Euro competition at this satge are the scandanavian, icelandic and eastern euro teams who all play summer football and are 100% match fit.

Summer football is a pretty good point mate when considering performances on the pitch. It would also open doors for a loan system against a higher quality of player who could use it as a stepping stone for an injury comeback etc, while their team mates or clubs are on pre-season. That would improve the quality of the league.

However what switching to the summer doesnt address is the general interest in the Welsh league, its fukn dire and I just cant ever see it recovering with the types of clubs we got in it. The vast majority represent areas of Wales where little rivalry or support can be generated - this is the pure essence of how the game in any country survives; evolves and improves.

We just haven't got that passion or interest in the league set up. There is no real engagement with communities, the clubs are not set up to be a cornerstone in the community or part of the fabric of the town - its a nothing situation, hopelessly going nowhere - light years behind countries like Norway, Finland, Bulgaria - all countries we should be on a par with imo.

Its just embarrassing and those running it are an embarrassment to themselves - OAPs holding onto a position...thats the FAW

Truth is wales is a small principality,were the national game is chasing a f*cking egg.Apart from us you and I gess newport wrexham and maybe merther the rest are more local league quality.Can't reay see how it can get better,just be glad that our clubs decided to play in the english set up al them years ago.

Truth is wales is a small principality,were the national game is chasing a f*cking egg.Apart from us you and I gess newport wrexham and maybe merther the rest are more local league quality.Can't reay see how it can get better,just be glad that our clubs decided to play in the english set up al them years ago.

Its a common misconception that rugby is our national sport - more fans attend football matches per year than rugby fans, more kids play football than rugby, and there are more football teams in Wales than there are rugby.

Although looking at the set up and the apparent idiots who make up the FAW then I too am glad we joined the English system...more prospects anyway you look at it. However alot more can be done with whats left than what is currently being offered & achieved.

Wales as more passion for rugby then for football.Swans playing top flight football will get the younger generation in schools talking about it for now but ther needs to be a welsh team in ther for long periods to change what is historically a rugby nation.And even then it will still be difficult to have a strong welsh league as we are a small area with under 4 million population,and you take out the none sport lovers and athletics swiming and all the other sports we do,it doesn't leave much of a pot left for football.People may play it but you need to breed it to achive a good league system and we don't have the population to do all of these

I thought I would never say this I was always dead against it!, maybe it's time to create regional teams? The borough of Caerphilly is a large area and so is Glamorgan etc.,this way games can be played in front of slightly bigger crowds and the O.A.P chairmen lobbed out.It's the only way forward,scrap the premier as mentioned earlier and start afresh.County football I suppose imo.

http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_9456675 - Click to play
First play tonight at the stadium,get behind it and sing loud cheers

I anyone thinks that, by scrapping the Welsh league and creating clubs out of thin air in the Cardiff valleys is going to miraculously improve the standard of Welsh clubs results in Europe, you're very sadly mistaken.

Summer football is the way forward for the Welsh league. Attendances would improve as fans will be watching competitive football and players will be fitter and better conditioned as they will be in the throes of the season

I anyone thinks that, by scrapping the Welsh league and creating clubs out of thin air in the Cardiff valleys is going to miraculously improve the standard of Welsh clubs results in Europe, you're very sadly mistaken.

Summer football is the way forward for the Welsh league. Attendances would improve as fans will be watching competitive football and players will be fitter and better conditioned as they will be in the throes of the season

Ireland went to Summer football, full time at that, achieving many, many excellent results in Europe.

Attendances in fact went down, and eventually the cost of such a set up has led to the league basically regressing to where it started. With a few clubs fucked financially.

I anyone thinks that, by scrapping the Welsh league and creating clubs out of thin air in the Cardiff valleys is going to miraculously improve the standard of Welsh clubs results in Europe, you're very sadly mistaken.

Summer football is the way forward for the Welsh league. Attendances would improve as fans will be watching competitive football and players will be fitter and better conditioned as they will be in the throes of the season

Ireland went to Summer football, full time at that, achieving many, many excellent results in Europe.

Attendances in fact went down, and eventually the cost of such a set up has led to the league basically regressing to where it started. With a few clubs fucked financially.

I'm quite surprised by that.

I anyone thinks that, by scrapping the Welsh league and creating clubs out of thin air in the Cardiff valleys is going to miraculously improve the standard of Welsh clubs results in Europe, you're very sadly mistaken.

Summer football is the way forward for the Welsh league. Attendances would improve as fans will be watching competitive football and players will be fitter and better conditioned as they will be in the throes of the season

I didn't mean for it to sound as flippant as you've interpreted it, but I'm sorry you can't argue what we have is anything to be proud of, or is productive for our national game.

I was just throwing a suggestion or example out there, I didn't intend for my post to sound like a proposition for merely a Cardiff & Valleys league because equally that wouldn't work either as a stand alone. However there is a point where I said the FAW need to consider pro-actively engaging the passion Wales has for football and tapping into some of the proper local rivalries we have, between towns and villages. If proper funding wss applied to making a football club the heart of the community like they have managed with the rugby, then interest and support base would improve ten fold and we'd actually have a platform to build upon and improve.

Fact of the matter is that, I'm not paid to build the solution, I'm merely identifying the problem. Those who are paid to address the issues are not doing a good enough job...not by any stretch of the imagination.

I thought I would never say this I was always dead against it!, maybe it's time to create regional teams? The borough of Caerphilly is a large area and so is Glamorgan etc.,this way games can be played in front of slightly bigger crowds and the O.A.P chairmen lobbed out.It's the only way forward,scrap the premier as mentioned earlier and start afresh.County football I suppose imo.

http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_9456675 - Click to play
First play tonight at the stadium,get behind it and sing loud cheers

That could well be a decent proposition mate. It woukd certainly create a great deal of interest - I don't think fans would be a significant obstacle in any major overhaul as theres simply not enough of them, however addressing all the associated benefactors interests and potential losses would be an issue to overcome.

Something like this needs to happen imo

Wales as more passion for rugby then for football.Swans playing top flight football will get the younger generation in schools talking about it for now but ther needs to be a welsh team in ther for long periods to change what is historically a rugby nation.And even then it will still be difficult to have a strong welsh league as we are a small area with under 4 million population,and you take out the none sport lovers and athletics swiming and all the other sports we do,it doesn't leave much of a pot left for football.People may play it but you need to breed it to achive a good league system and we don't have the population to do all of these

Not sure where your from buddy but theres certainly not more passion for rugby over football in our catchment area

I anyone thinks that, by scrapping the Welsh league and creating clubs out of thin air in the Cardiff valleys is going to miraculously improve the standard of Welsh clubs results in Europe, you're very sadly mistaken.

Summer football is the way forward for the Welsh league. Attendances would improve as fans will be watching competitive football and players will be fitter and better conditioned as they will be in the throes of the season

I didn't mean for it to sound as flippant as you've interpreted it, but I'm sorry you can't argue what we have is anything to be proud of, or is productive for our national game.

I was just throwing a suggestion or example out there, I didn't intend for my post to sound like a proposition for merely a Cardiff & Valleys league because equally that wouldn't work either as a stand alone. However there is a point where I said the FAW need to consider pro-actively engaging the passion Wales has for football and tapping into some of the proper local rivalries we have, between towns and villages. If proper funding wss applied to making a football club the heart of the community like they have managed with the rugby, then interest and support base would improve ten fold and we'd actually have a platform to build upon and improve.

Fact of the matter is that, I'm not paid to build the solution, I'm merely identifying the problem. Those who are paid to address the issues are not doing a good enough job...not by any stretch of the imagination.

Problem with the crowds is that teams who regularly pull in 2-300 a week will struggle to get that against the Finnish and Latvian sides they have to play. Having said that, I thought Llanelli's attendance was disappointing against Tblisi.

I didn't think it was a flippant post and I don't think we have anything to be proud of at the moment. It's the men at the top who need to change the system, but that's unlikely

welsh football will never have the money to improve the leagues, and tbf, who would want to invest?
shit stadiums and the best youngsters go to sign on for the biggest clubs in Wales aka Cardiff, Newport and Wrexham who all play in the english leagues

im pretty sure if Rangers and Celtic were in the english system, then Scottish domestic football would be the same

Firstly, in Cardiff there is far more interest in football than rugby.

Secondly, the Welsh Prem hasnt improved since its inception. A few weeks ago I was having a discussion with a poster on here who thought that some Welsh Prem teams could hold their own in the football league, I was extremely sceptical at the time and this just proves it. The whole league, and administration needs a dramatic over haul! Summer football could be one area to look at but all of the teams really need to sort out their academies so that young welsh talent can prosper. Some of the coaching at that level is a joke, its 20 years past its sell by date! If these issues aernt addressed soon then I really fear for the future. The Welsh national team is in a mess and when was the last time a player from the Welsh Prem got anywhere near a Welsh team? We must be the only country in the world where are national league doesnt have a single player in its national team!!!!

Proffesional Football is bigger than Proffesional Rugby.

Ameteur Rugby is bigger than Ameteur Football.

International Rugby is bigger than Internation Football.

In Wales.

Thats how I honestly see it.

Firstly, in Cardiff there is far more interest in football than rugby.

Secondly, the Welsh Prem hasnt improved since its inception. A few weeks ago I was having a discussion with a poster on here who thought that some Welsh Prem teams could hold their own in the football league, I was extremely sceptical at the time and this just proves it. The whole league, and administration needs a dramatic over haul! Summer football could be one area to look at but all of the teams really need to sort out their academies so that young welsh talent can prosper. Some of the coaching at that level is a joke, its 20 years past its sell by date! If these issues aernt addressed soon then I really fear for the future. The Welsh national team is in a mess and when was the last time a player from the Welsh Prem got anywhere near a Welsh team? We must be the only country in the world where are national league doesnt have a single player in its national team!!!!

Fully agree mate...I think we're totally out of sync with the rest of the world in this respect

Proffesional Football is bigger than Proffesional Rugby.

Ameteur Rugby is bigger than Ameteur Football.

International Rugby is bigger than Internation Football.

In Wales.

Thats how I honestly see it.

At a high level thats a pretty fair assessment