This year both the Welsh Premier and the Premier League embark on their 27th season… and surprisingly the similarities don’t end there.
Just six teams have won both leagues… and with a similar distribution of titles between them. In England Manchester United have won the title 13 times, while in Wales TNS have been crowned champions on 12 occasions.
Chelsea have won five Premier League titles, outstripped by Barry Town who have been Welsh Premier champions seven times. Arsenal and Manchester City have both won three championships, while in Wales Bangor have also been champions three times, with Rhyl finishing top twice. Blackburn Rovers, Leicester City, Cwmbran and Llanelli have won their leagues on one occasion each.
But whereas three of the previous Premier League champions have spent every season in the top league since it was formed, only one previous Welsh Premier champion had done so… but this season there won’t be any.
Despite finishing second in the Welsh Premier last season… Bangor City slipped out of the league for the first time, the victim of financial troubles that saw them fail to secure an FAW domestic licence. The financial woes also cost the Citizens a place in the Europa League first qualifying round and their spot in the Irn-Bru Scottish Challenge Cup. And they could result in worse to come, with the club facing a second winding-up petition due to be heard by the High Court on 8 August, just a few days before their first game of the Cymru Alliance season against Buckley Town.
The club successfully survived an appeal from the HMRC on 6 June in relation to an overdue tax bill, which bosses described as making “a mountain out of a molehill” in relation to a late payment, which it contends missed the required deadline by a matter of days. But the taxmen seem to disagree, launching a fresh case against the club to be heard in two weeks’ time.
It’s hard to envisage Arsenal or Manchester City facing the same uncertain future as the Citizens, but Wales’ only current member of the Premier League – Cardiff City – won’t be keen to remember its recent run-ins with HMRC which threatened its existence over the second half of the 2009-10 season.
Despite Bangor’s troubles off the pitch, on it things have been looking promising during the off-season after the appointment of Craig Harrison, the most successful manager in Welsh Premier history following his hugely successful spell with The New Saints. Harrison has brought in a host of big-name signings including Marc Williams, Phil Baker and hometown hero Les Davies, and also convinced senior squad members Alex Darlington and Luke Wall to stay on in the second tier.
But Bangor’s off-the-pitch woes mean only three of the Welsh Premier’s previous champions – TNS, Barry Town and Llanelli – have a chance to add to their honours this season and two of those have only recently returned to the top league from the lower divisions following their own “financial problems”. Of the previous Premier League winners only Blackburn Rovers are not in the league for its 27th incarnation.
In addition to previous Premier League champions Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal, three other sides have played every season in the league… Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Liverpool.
While none of the previous champions have spent every season in the Welsh Premier, two of the inaugural members have… Newtown and Aberystwyth Town… could one of them stop The New Saints from matching Manchester United with a 13th title?
