02/02/10 Welsh League Ground Criteria unlikely to affect current membership

by Tony Poole, South Wales Evening Post

The reduction of the MacWhirter Welsh Football League from 54 clubs to 48 at the end of this season was confirmed during an Extraordinary Meeting staged in Maesteg on Sunday.

The shedding of six clubs will result in five sides losing top-flight status; seven being relegated from division two with eight dropping out of the third division and entering the feeder leagues.

This will be the case should two clubs be promoted from the feeder leagues – no club has applied for promotion from the West Wales Association.

That means to remain in the league at the end of the season; division three clubs must obtain a top-10 finish.

The other issue that could change the relegation issue is if some Welsh Premier clubs fail to receive domestic licences.

Should this be the case then any southern clubs would be relegated to the Welsh League, and it would lead to more clubs being relegated.

The deadline date for Welsh Premier clubs to apply for domestic licence is March 31, and until then the situation will remain unclear.

The Welsh League meeting was told that only a few clubs now failed to meet Welsh League criteria, and they are unlikely to be relegated ahead of the bottom-eight finishers in division three.

Calls to have the 54 league grounds once more inspected – in order to establish compliance with the 22-year-old Welsh League ground criteria – is unlikely to happen.

Eleven clubs from the Gwent and South Wales associations have applied for Welsh League membership for next season.

The South Wales Amateur and South Wales Senior League clubs to apply are Caerau, Cwmbach Royal Stars, Cwm Welfare, Penydarren Boys Club, Rhoose, Sully Sports, Tonyrefail and Trefelin Boys Club.

The Gwent County League trio are Albion Rovers, Govilon and Treowen Stars.

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