The Welsh football league system (or pyramid) is a series of football leagues with regular promotion and relegation between them.
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Structure of Welsh football
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.
Second and lower tier leagues (North Wales)
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.
Second and lower tier leagues (South Wales)
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)
The South Wales FA area was formerly more complicated however, as this region had two senior leagues of identical status covering the same area, each with two divisions - the South Wales Senior League and the South Wales Amateur League but as of the 2015/16 season the two divisions merged to become the South Wales Alliance League- whereby the champions could be promoted to the Welsh Football League subject to meeting criteria. Below these two leagues are local leagues in the towns and cities of South Wales, the champions of which may play off to be promoted into the new league.
The West Wales FA area is the only one not to have set up a senior league in its area - this means that there are four local leagues (Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea and Neath & District) with all their champions potentially having to play-off for the one available promotion place. However, as few west Wales clubs can face the prospect of the travelling implications of moving up to the Welsh Football League, this four-way play-off idea is theory rather than practice. The latest clubs to gain promotion from this region were Llansawel in 2006 (from the Neath & District League), West End in 2005 (from the Swansea Senior League), Ystradgynlais in 2004 (from the Neath & District League), Cwmamman United in 2002 (from the Neath & District League) and Garden Village in 1999 (from the Carmarthenshire League). On 31st May 2016, Ynysygerwn (Neath & District League) beat Team Swansea (Swansea Senior League) 3-1 at the Old Road, Briton Ferry Llansawel in a play-off to gain promotion to the Welsh League Division 3.
Current system
For each division, its official name, sponsorship name (which often differs radically from its official name) and number of clubs is given: