Football Association of Wales CEO Noel Mooney stated he couldn’t be more excited for the future of domestic football in Wales as they look to implement ambitious plans with their new Cymru Premier strategy.
The strategy that includes the JD Cymru Premier expanding to 16 teams is the first step in the FAW’s plans to improve the quality of domestic football in the nation.
During a visit to Merthyr Town Football Club alongside Wales men’s first team manager Craig Bellamy, Mooney discusses the plans and the current landscape of the international sides.
Noel Mooney discusses new Cymru Premier stratergy
“Were delighted with the reaction so far, were building a very special domestic game here in Wales, we worked very closely with UEFA to build the strategy of the new league, we used a lot of insights and data and looked at the best leagues all over the world and looked at what we have and know what we have to do.
We’ve built a bigger league, so teams get to play different sides more, so we’re going from 12 to 16 teams in 2026/27 but also invest heavily in the clubs in terms of building new stadiums for the clubs, getting full-time CEO’s, general managers into the clubs, funding the academies with hundreds of thousands of pounds for each club per season.
If we’ve got great clubs that are sustainable and that can grow then the league will grow as a whole, we want clubs to become more professional we’ve seen for example our top side TNS do really well in Europe, playing against Fiorentina, beating Astana a club with a big budget from Kazakhstan.
It’s really exciting for us, we’re going to put millions and millions of pounds into this new league and build the league up and make it very special. We’re really keen to get a big TV deal, big highlights packages, partners, sponsors and work with Welsh government to build new stadia across Wales and make sure the league reaches its full potential.
We want to see a higher quality and more professional sides and if we do all that we’re going to have thousands and thousands to come to our games, it’s going to be a fantastic league and we couldn’t be more confident.
My background is working with leagues all over Europe, I started as a young guy with the League of Ireland and now they’ve got sold out signs and top managers like Damien Duff who’s just won the league there.
They’re going to have 50,000 people at their cup final probably this weekend, we’ve got big ambitions, big resources now in Wales to grow the league and it’s a really exciting time to be involved in the Welsh domestic leagues.
To be in the Cymru Premier is going to get more exciting because there will be a lot more funding, a lot more support to the clubs and if clubs really want to reach their potential, then the Cymru Premier is the place to be.
We want thousands of people going to games, Penybont played the other day and had over 1,000 people, Colwyn Bay who played in the English system moved back to the Welsh system now they regularly get huge attendances, bigger attendances than they ever had in the English system.
For us we’re really excited for what’s ahead, we’ve got a big chapter for Welsh football to write which will see our clubs playing in the Champions League. The money coming from UEFA is going up, the money that comes from the Champions League into the Welsh domestic game is growing.The Welsh men’s national team had a very special year in 2016 getting to the last four in Europe which is fantastic and gone to the World Cup in Qatar, now it’s time for the domestic Cymru Premier division to become top class, really start to grow in the European leagues.”
Noel Mooney says FAW have held positive talks with EFL clubs
There has been recent rumours that Wales’ EFL clubs could potentially feature in the FAW Welsh Cup which would give them a potential route into European football.
Mooney stated that the FAW have been in communication with the four clubs as they look for innovative ways to improve domestic football in Wales.
“Our job is to grow Welsh football, to create value for Welsh football, to build clubs. It’s a very unusual situation that our top four clubs are playing in the English system, but that works well for us in many ways because we create brilliant players, seven of the players in the squad against Montenegro came from the Swansea City Academy so we’re huge beneficiaries for the national team.
Domestically then it’s a different story we’re going to build the league domestically, there’s always discussions going on with clubs to see how we can help them to grow, there’s always discussions in the background let’s see how it plays out.
We’re always looking to find solutions to grow Welsh football and if we can help Cardiff City and Swansea who are members of the FAW of course as they’re Welsh football clubs, if they play in Europe, you’d imagine they’d play under the Welsh flag because they’re Welsh it doesn’t matter what league they play in.
It’s something we’re mindful of, we want to give our Welsh clubs the best chance to reach their full potential, so let’s see how it plays out over the next few weeks and months but certainly our job is to be innovative and ambitious.
I know that those clubs really want to be part of what we’re doing, they’re excited about working with the FAW, they’ve got a lot of trust in the FAW to deliver, we’ve got a lot of trust in them, there is a great relationship between us and the EFL clubs and the future is really bright I couldn’t be more excited about what we’re going to do over the next few years.
The European money is just growing beyond belief at the moment, and as our coefficient rises for example TNS, they have really helped Wales because their performance in Europe means we’re going to get millions of more pounds we can share out amongst Cymru Premier clubs.
In the future it could be other clubs that do well in Europe, if we do well our coefficient goes up and its directly linked to the amount of money that comes from European competitions back to us. If we go up to 40th for example it goes up in millions which we can invest back into youth academies, running of clubs, stadiums and community engagement.
For example, if you had Swansea City playing in Europe for us alongside other clubs, then surely because of the huge resources they have in terms of player budgets that’s going to take us even further in European football which would mean there’s a lot more resources for everybody in Welsh football which is good for everyone.”
There has been recent calls from fans of the domestic leagues for TNS shot stopper Connor Roberts to be considered for a Wales call-up with the ongoing issues in the goalkeeper area in the national side. Mooney shared how he believes there could be a future where players from the domestic divisions could reach the level required.
“The plans we have for the domestic league here in Wales mean we will produce better players, bigger crowds, better stadiums, professional academies, professional first teams and when we do that well get more and more players that will get to that quality. I played myself with the likes Kevin Doyle and Shane Long when I was at Cork, they went on to play in The Premier League and they came from our domestic league.“
The impact of Rhian Wilkinson and Craig Bellamy
Rhian Wilkinson lead Wales to the European Championship play-off final following an extra time semi-final win against Slovakia, with them now one two legged fixture from creating history.
“We’ll have the biggest attendance ever in Welsh women’s football that I’m aware of when we go to the Cardiff City Stadium on the 29th of November, so buy your tickets for that game, support the women’s game because it’s growing really quickly.
We’ve done brilliant to get to the final, we’re playing against a good side the Republic of Ireland who I know very well of course, but over two legs we’ve got a really good opportunity to get to our first European Championships in Switzerland 2025.
We’ve got the players, management and background team to get there so we’re really excited about the women’s team hopefully going to the Euros.”
There is also excitement around the men’s national side since the appointment of manager Craig Bellamy. They complete their Nations League campaign this month as they aim for promotion.
“We’ve got a really exciting camp coming up heading to Turkey to play them soon, a top side Turkey got to the last eight during the Euros last summer, but we took them to Cardiff, and I think anyone who saw that game saw we we’re the better side just couldn’t finish them off.
We finish up the Nations League at home to Iceland, hopefully then we’re in the mix for promotion to Nations League group A. Craig has done a terrific job coming in as manager, I think everyone is excited about the kind of football they play and the ambition around the side.
These are really excited times for Welsh football, and we shouldn’t take them for granted, we shouldn’t get complacent we have to keep working together to build Welsh football and well do that.
If you’re successful and doing well everyone wants to be part of that of course, but what he’s also building is an identity for the side, the way they play it’s another step up for us to be frank, the way we are playing is very modern now.
Craig is very much part of that genre; the style of football is that type that you enjoy watching. Thankfully Wales are now playing that kind of football that excite people.The Red Wall has been phenomenal over many years now, but people are interested in our national team, we’re doing well and playing good football. He’s out most nights now trying to build that link between us as the national team and all of the communities all over Wales.”
Bangorite
Its great to hear about the ambitious intentions. The crowds at all matches for 16 clubs will have to be a lot larger than 1,000 on a regular basis for these clubs to afford to pay full time professionals as TNS do. There’s also the extra travelling expense and ground improvements to get them up to standard for European games. TNS had to go to Shrewsbury to use a ground up to European standard which shows how far improvements are going to be needed. Apart from Wrexham and Bangor which North Wales grounds are anywhere near up to standard?