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Welsh football pyramid


The Welsh football league system (or pyramid) is a series of football leagues with regular promotion and relegation between them.

At the top is the Welsh Premier League, which is the only national league in Wales. Below it is the second tier of leagues, covering north and south Wales. The south is covered by the Welsh Football League while the north and centre is covered by the Cymru Alliance. The champions of each of these leagues can be promoted to the Welsh Premier League, subject to acceptable ground facilities, and if the champions cannot meet the criteria the runner-up team may be considered.

In the north the Cymru Alliance has only one division, and has a feeder league structure of its own with three regional leagues feeding it—the Mid Wales League (covering Brecknockshire, Radnorshire, Montgomeryshire and Ceredigion) the Welsh Alliance League (covering all of the north except Wrexham) and the Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) (covering the small region around Wrexham). Again, the champions or runners-up of these leagues can be promoted into the Cymru Alliance, given suitable grounds.

Below these third tier leagues are even more localised leagues: in Central Wales there are four leagues feeding into the Mid Wales League (covering Ceredigion, Montgomeryshire, Mid Wales South, and Aberystwyth areas respectively), while below the Welsh Alliance there are the Gwynedd League and the Clwyd League and these even have feeder leagues of their own such as the Anglesey League. The Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) has two lower divisions of its own and the Clwyd East Football League is the feeder league below it.

In the south, the Welsh Football League has three divisions all covering the whole of the South Wales geographical area, and it is not until the fifth tier of the pyramid that local leagues appear. Promotion to, and relegation from the Welsh League is structured, as in the north, on three regional football associations (Gwent FA, South Wales FA, and West Wales FA). Each can send one promoted team into the Welsh Football League. This is straightforward enough in the Gwent FA area, where there is one senior league, the Gwent County League, whose champions (or runners-up) are eligible, if they satisfy Welsh Football League criteria. (Below the three divisions of the Gwent County, there are the Newport and District, East Gwent, Central Gwent and North Gwent leagues)


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