Mark Drakeford has today explained why the Cymru Premier has been given the green light to restart while grassroots football remains on pause.
Games will take place behind-closed-doors until further notice, with teams below Tier 1 allowed to train, but not permitted to play friendly matches.
Laura Anne Jones, Conservative Member of the Senedd for South Wales East, asked the First Minister for his rationale behind last week’s decision to allow Wales’ top-flight league to return on September 11.
Responding to the Shadow Minister for Children and Young People, Mr Drakeford said: “As soon as it is safely possible to reopen parts of the football season and different leagues in Wales, we will do so.”
The 2019-20 Cymru Premier season was curtailed back in May as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with Connah’s Quay Nomads awarded the title after the FAW used an unweighted points-per-game method.
“When a Cymru Premier football club resumes, it has all the resources that a Cymru Premier club is able to draw,” said Mr Drakeford.
“It has all the regulated nature of the setting in which they operate. None of that is true in some parts of football in which she referred to.
“There simply isn’t the structure there that you can rely upon in that way to be confident that the activity can be resumed in a way that does not put players, officials and the public at risk.”
It was announced last week that fans will be allowed to attend matches in the seventh tier and below in England.
The Cymru Premier’s equivalent north of the border – the Scottish Premiership – returned on August 1, with the majority of teams having played five matches of the new season.
The Welsh Labour leader insisted that the government will only allow football in Tier 2 and below to return when they have assurances over safety.
“When it is safe to do so then we will resume activities in that setting,” Mr Drakeford said.
“We won’t do it before that. When it is safe we will have discussed it with that sector of course. We will draw up joint plans with them. It will not come as a surprise to them.
“The approach in Wales has been to plan first and then to announce, not to make an announcement and then wonder how it’s going to be possible to make that happen.”
(Featured image: Wikimedia Commons)
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