A dismal start to the European campaigns of Connah’s Quay Nomads and Barry Town United has left Wales in real danger of losing a place for the 2022-23 Uefa competitions.
The Cymru Premier currently enjoys three Europa League berths, in addition to the Champions League spot for the league winners, but poor results have seen the country slip from 47th to 52nd in the Uefa Coefficient Rankings, which means they will lose a European place unless The New Saints, Bala Town and the Nomads can outperform the nations immediately above Wales in this year’s competition.
At the moment Wales stand on a coefficient of 3.500, with 51st-placed Montenegro on 3.750 and the Faroe Islands on 3.875. Gibralter have a coefficient of 4.000 and Iceland 4.250. At the moment Kosovo are placed in the crucial 47th spot on a coefficient of 4.667.
This would mean this season’s Cymru Premier champions having to enter the 2021-22 Champions League in the preliminary round, meaning they would have to win twice in a four-teamed group to even reach the same stage the Nomads began at this year.
As it stands it would take significant progress in the competition by TNS, Bala or Connah’s Quay to push Wales back up the rankings, but should any of the sides make it as far as the play-off round before the group stages they would be guaranteed 2.5 points, with qualification for the group stages worth at least three points.
After losing their Champions League first qualifying round tie against FK Sarajevo 2-0 last Wednesday, Connah’s Quay have the consolation of a place in the Europa League second qualifying round, which takes place on 17 September.
While Bala Town play Maltese-side Valletta away and Cymru Premier runners-up The New Saints are at home to Slovakian side MSK Zilina in next week’s first qualifying round.
Should any of the three sides make it to the third qualifying round it would bring a guaranteed two points, which realistically appears to be the minimum required to see Wales’ coefficient improve to the necessary level.
The Nomads will probably have had at least one league match under their belts before the second qualifying round comes around, so should be in better shape going into that game than they were for the tie against Sarajevo at Cardiff City Stadium, in which they played well but paid the price for two careless defensive moments.
Both Bala and TNS face tricky first qualifying round ties. The main obstacle for the Lakesiders to overcome is having to play the one-leg match away in Malta but they should still be confident of a good result against Valletta. The Saints have the advantage of playing on their home Park Hall patch against Zilina who finished runners-up in the Slovak Super Liga last season and made it all the way to the Champions League group stages in 2010-11, when they faced Chelsea, Marseille and Spartak Moscow.
Welsh sides have had a few big results over the years in European competition… but never before has there been so much pressure to do so… can last season’s top three sides in the revamped Cymru Premier finally begin to show we’re no longer minnows on the European stage? Fingers crossed!
Europa League Fixtures
First Qualifying Round
27 August: TNS v MSK Zilina (Park Hall); Valletta v Bala Town (Centenary Stadium, Ta’Qali)
