The Cymru Premier, known as the Novira Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. It was founded in 1992, as the first league representing all of Wales. Prior to 2002, the league was known as the League of Wales (LoW), but changed its name as part of a sponsorship deal to the Welsh Premier League. The league was rebranded as the Cymru Premier for the 2019–20 season. Though formed relatively recently, the league contains some of the oldest clubs in world football. Eleven current or former members of the league were founded in the 1870s or 1880s, with many more formed before the end of the 19th century. The vast majority of its clubs are still owned and run by the local community or by people from the area.
It operates on a promotion and relegation system with Tier 2 of the Welsh football league system, the Cymru North and Cymru South leagues. The Cymru Premier League is currently contested by 16 teams, with each team playing each other home and away during the first phase. At the end of this period the league splits into two divisions, with the top 6 teams going on to the Championship Conference, and the bottom 6 teams into the Play-Off Conference. Each team playing each other a further two times, home and away, with the champion being decided by the team with the most points in the Championship Conference, and the lowest two teams in Play-Off Conference relegated. Seasons usually run from August to May, with each team playing 32 matches in total. It is due to expand to 16 teams in 2026–27 and with a changed format.
Cymru Premier is currently ranked 54th in the UEFA coefficients based on the performances by teams in European competition over the past 5 years, giving 4 of its teams opportunities in European football qualifiers.
The current champions are TNS who won the league for the 18th time in the 2025–26 season. Seven teams have won the competition since its inception: TNS (18), Barry Town (7), Bangor City (3), Connah's Quay Nomads (2), Rhyl (2), Llanelli (1) and Cwmbran Town (1). As of the 2024–25 season 42 clubs have participated in Wales' top flight league.
Formation
Original League The league was formed in October 1991 by Alun Evans, Secretary General of the Football Association of Wales (FAW), as he believed that the Welsh international football team was under threat from FIFA. The FAW, along with the other three home nations' associations (The Football Association, Irish Football Association and Scottish Football Association), had a permanent seat on the International Football Association Board (IFAB) and it was thought that many FIFA members were resentful of this and pressing for the four unions to unite into one combined side for the whole of the United Kingdom.
The new league was formed for the 1992–93 season, and officially launched on 15 August 1992.S4C: A season in brief: 1992/93 . Retrieved 6 March 2014 At the time, despite the FAW being a FIFA and UEFA member it had not previously organised a national league, only the Welsh Cup.
On its formation the league consisted of a number of teams previously playing in regional leagues across Wales, plus a small number of clubs that had been playing in the English league system. Because of historically poor north–south transport links through mountainous mid-Wales (although these have improved in the post World War II years), it was sometimes easier for Welsh clubs to travel east–west to play football, so some Welsh clubs looked east to England for competitors. Teams in Wales that had played in the English leagues included Aberdare Athletic, Cardiff City, Merthyr Town, Newport County, Swansea City and Wrexham. Many semi-professional sides in Wales also played in both the Welsh and English football league system at different points in their history; Bangor City were founder members of the North Wales Coast League in 1893 and the Welsh National League in 1921, before the Alliance Premier League (now the National League) in 1979 and reached the FA Trophy final in 1984. They transferred back once again to the Welsh system and the new League of Wales in 1992.
While the league itself is relatively young, many of its clubs are among the oldest in the world, having played in North, Mid and South Wales regional leagues since the 19th century. A number of the current members of the league are over 100 years older than the league itself. Many more of the leagues clubs current and ex-clubs were formed before 1900. The current oldest member is Newtown, formed in 1875.
Further recruitment The formation of the League of Wales saw the start of a bitter dispute between the Football Association of Wales (FAW) and those non-League clubs who wanted to remain part of the English football pyramid. The 'Irate Eight', as they were dubbed, consisted of Bangor City, Barry Town, Caernarfon Town, Colwyn Bay, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport, Newtown and Rhyl. At the time, Cardiff City, Swansea City and Wrexham were playing in The Football League, and the FAW decided to allow those teams to continue to play in the English system, although they continued to compete in the Welsh Cup for a few more seasons. The success of these clubs in the Welsh Cups meant that they frequently competed in the European Cup Winners' Cup despite the fact that Wrexham had never played above the Second Division and Swansea had spent just two seasons in the First Division during the early 1980s, while Cardiff had been semi-regular members of the First Division from the 1920s up to 1962.
Prior to the inaugural season, Bangor City, Newtown and Rhyl agreed to play in the League of Wales. However, as Rhyl's application to join the league was late, they were placed in the second level of the pyramid system. Because of FAW sanctions, the remaining five clubs were forced to play their home matches in England. Following a season in exile at Worcester City, five became four, as Barry Town joined the Welsh pyramid in time for the 1993–94 season.
A court ruling in 1995 allowed the remaining four clubs to return to Wales to play their home matches while still remaining within the English system; despite this victory, Caernarfon Town decided to join the League of Wales for the 1995–96 season. Colwyn Bay continued in the English pyramid for a further 24 years before transferring to the Welsh pyramid in 2019, leaving only two of the Irate Eight remaining - Newport County, who won promotion to the Football League in 2013, and Merthyr Town, the successor club to Merthyr Tydfil following its liquidation in 2010. In 2008, Wrexham were relegated from the Football League and after an absence of 15 years, returned through automatic promotion at the end of the 2022–23 season.
Conversely, in 1996 now-defunct English team Oswestry Town were accepted by the League of Wales and currently The New Saints are based in Oswestry (having moved from Llansantffraid, Powys in 2007). Another English club, Chester City, whose stadium sits on the England–Wales border, applied to join the Welsh Premier League after being expelled from the Football Conference in 2010 but were wound up almost immediately afterwards (their successor team, Chester F.C., opted to reapply within the English system).
Renewed calls to recruit Welsh teams Welsh football teams that currently play in the English football system include: Cardiff City, Swansea City and Wrexham (in the EFL Championship), Newport County (EFL League Two), and Merthyr Town (National League North).
Some have called for all Welsh teams to be recruited into Cymru Premier, but in particular the lower ranked Merthyr Town as they are in the English non-league setup.
Future In April 2024, the Football Association of Wales released a six-year strategic plan to enhance league's competitiveness and announcing a multi-million euro investment in the league and its teams. The plans included increasing the number of teams competing in the league, revamping the competition format, and introducing Friday night league play.
In September 2024, the FAW confirmed the new league format would start in the 2026–27 season and would consist of 16 teams each playing each other home and away before being split into three tiers of six, four and six clubs. The top six in the table will play each other once more, with the club topping the table after Matchday 35 crowned champions. Teams finishing second through sixth qualify for the end of season European qualification play-offs. Clubs ranked seventh through tenth will play each other once more, with the club placing seventh after Matchday 33 receiving the final play-off spot for European qualification. The remaining teams ranked eleventh and below will also play each other once more. At the end of Matchday 35, the two lowest clubs will be automatically relegated, while the club in 14th will compete in the relegation play-off with the qualifiers from Cymru South and Cymru North to play in the next season's Cymru Premier.
For the 2026–27 season the league introduced "VAR Light", a simpler and cheaper system of VAR. It had initially been planned to start from 2025–26.
Structure
Promotion and relegation Clubs are promoted to the Cymru Premier from the Cymru North in the north/ central Wales and the Cymru South in the south/ central Wales. Clubs who finish as champions of the feeder leagues, or as runners-up if the champions decide not to seek promotion, are promoted subject to an application for membership being received and accepted and the stadium and infrastructure safety criteria of the Cymru Premier being met.
No teams were promoted to the Welsh Premier League following the 2005–06 season. However, Cardiff Grange Quins, who finished bottom of the Welsh Premier League resigned leaving the league to operate with an odd number of clubs for 2006–07.
Eighteen clubs competed in the Welsh Premier League for the 2007–08 season as both Neath Athletic (Welsh Football League Division One) and Llangefni Town (Cymru Alliance) were promoted whilst Cwmbran Town were relegated to Welsh Football League Division One.
For 2008–09, Prestatyn Town played in the Welsh Premier League for the first time after promotion from the Cymru Alliance, whilst Llangefni Town were relegated to the Cymru Alliance after only one season.
The 2009–10 season saw Bala Town promoted to the Welsh Premier League after they won the Cymru Alliance in 2008–09. They replaced Caernarfon Town who were relegated to the Cymru Alliance.
At the end of the 2009–10 season, due to league restructuring Connah's Quay, Porthmadog, Welshpool Town, Caersws and Cefn Druids were relegated to the Cymru Alliance league. Rhyl were also relegated to the Cymru Alliance, despite finishing 6th in the Welsh Premier League, as they failed to meet the financial criteria required to gain the Welsh Premier League domestic licence. No teams were promoted to the Welsh Premier League from the feeder leagues.
League restructure for 2010–11 season The 18 Welsh Premier League clubs met on 13 April 2008 and voted to support a restructuring proposal put forward by Welsh Premier League secretary John Deakin which would replace the single Welsh Premier League with a First and Second Division with 10 teams in each Division for the 2010–11 season. A further proposal was accepted that the Football Association of Wales should take full control of the Welsh Premier League and the existing Company, 'Football League of Wales Limited' should be dissolved. These proposals were forwarded to the Football Association of Wales for their consideration.
In June 2009 the clubs voted to accept an alternative proposal to reduce the premier League from 18 clubs to 12 for the 2010–11 season onwards.
Current structure