User:Yellow Dingo/sandbox/16

Interior view of Park View football stadium
Park Avenue, home of Aberystwyth Town, one of the longest-serving members of the league

The Welsh Premier League (Welsh: Uwch Gynghrair Cymru) is an association football league based in Wales. Formed in 1992 as the League of Wales, a name it retained until 2002, it was the first national football league in the country.[1] In its inaugural season 20 teams played in the league, but it has since been significantly restructured and has 12 member clubs in the 2013–14 season. Although it is the highest level of the Welsh football league system, the Welsh Premier League has never included the country's professional clubs, Cardiff City, Swansea City, Wrexham and Newport County. For historical reasons these clubs all play within the English league system.[2] Instead the Welsh Premier League consists primarily of clubs from small towns and villages and the majority of the players are semi-professional. As of 2013, The New Saints, who have played in Oswestry in England since 2005,[3] were the only full-time professional team in the league.[4]

Since its formation, 39 clubs have taken part in the Welsh Premier League. The only clubs to have played in the league in every season since it was formed are Aberystwyth Town, Bangor City and Newtown. Conversely two other founder members, Abergavenny Thursdays and Llanidloes Town, were relegated at the end of the league's inaugural season and have never returned. Two other clubs, Llangefni Town and Cardiff Grange Harlequins, have spent only a single season in the league. The most recent team to make its debut in the league was Llandudno, who gained promotion to the league for the first time in 2015. A system of promotion and relegation exists between the Welsh Premier League and the two regional leagues at the second level of the Welsh league system, the Cymru Alliance in the north of the country and the Welsh Football League in the south.[5]

  1. ^ Goldblatt, David (2009). The Football Book. Dorling Kindersley. p. 168. ISBN 1-4053-3738-9.
  2. ^ "Uefa give Swansea and Cardiff European assurance". BBC. 21 March 2013. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  3. ^ "TNS on the move to Oswestry". Wales Online. 1 November 2005. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
  4. ^ Williams, Marc Lloyd (3 May 2013). "Europa League play-off keeps interest alive after TNS title stroll". BBC. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  5. ^ "The Pyramid". Welsh Premier League. Retrieved 27 October 2013.