The ongoing situation surrounding Welsh clubs in the EFL remains a hot topic, sparking debate about their identity and the impact on Welsh football.
With Cardiff City, Swansea City, Newport County and Wrexham competing in the EFL, questions arise about how their involvement affects the development of the domestic Welsh leagues. Should more be done to integrate them into the Welsh system, or does their current setup benefit both nations?
With Cardiff City, Swansea City, Newport County and Wrexham competing in the EFL, questions arise about how their involvement affects the development of the domestic Welsh leagues. Should more be done to integrate them into the Welsh system, or does their current setup benefit both nations?
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00:00So, James, looking at the Welsh football scene and their proposal for the Welsh European
00:10plan for the EFL clubs who are competing in England but are by-country Welsh football
00:16clubs, I mean, it's quite an interesting situation in terms of their goals for the
00:21likes of Cardiff City, Swansea City, Wrexham and Newport to possibly compete in Europe
00:27with the sort of revamped Welsh League Cup. What's your sort of take on it and how will
00:34Welsh football fans be feeling? It could have been a big sort of step into really improving
00:39the Welsh FA as a whole. What's your sort of take on it and how will the Welsh clubs
00:46and the Welsh clubs competing in the EFL be feeling after the rejected proposal as well?
00:54I think they'll feel hard done by in the first place. This was something that, you
00:59know, you can understand the EFL obviously made decisions based on what they wanted to
01:03do. They haven't said, they haven't officially commented as of right now about why they didn't
01:08do it, but there have been rumblings. Some of the club teams weren't happy about it.
01:12Obviously, it was kind of an easier route to Europe. So, the money they would make from
01:17being in European competition, that wasn't going to be included in any money they got.
01:21They were going to kind of forgo that money. They weren't going to financially benefit,
01:26but it's hard to not financially benefit from a few more ticket sales. It's hard to not
01:29financially benefit from players thinking, oh, I could play for Cardiff City, or I get
01:33to play in Europe. I don't mind going down the league to be able to do that. So, it makes
01:38sense from the English FA's point of view in that it was kind of a sensible just, I'd
01:43rather just not rub any feathers with this. But I think the Welsh clubs will feel hard
01:48done by it. The plans were in place. All four clubs had agreed to it. And it wasn't
01:56going to be this harmful thing to English football. English football as a juggernaut
02:01is huge. Hundreds of millions spent on grassroots money. There's about between 10 and 20 million
02:08spent on Welsh grassroots. It's just nowhere near the same thing. And I think that the
02:13Welsh FA, they're going to be pretty miffed basically with the English FA making this
02:18decision. And there's a bit, I think that the four, the fans of the four English league
02:25based Welsh clubs, they're going to be pretty gutted about it, I think.
02:28Yeah. And obviously you mentioned the gap in funding there. What could have this actually
02:33done for Welsh football, Welsh FA? I mean, it could have really put them in a great step
02:38going forward in the future as well.
02:42Absolutely. So the way the grassroots is in Welsh football, you've got some fantastic
02:47small clubs, do these things, grow. They can be growing in the future. And it's just, I
02:52think it's a letdown for Welsh football. And I think we now need to go back to the drawing
02:56board and think of something else.