The Welsh football pyramid essentially features three tiers. The Premier League or Cymru Premier is at the top and features a couple of professional sides alongside its semi-professional outfits. The Cymru Championship is next in line with the lower leagues of both North Wales and South Wales feeding it via promotions.
With just 3 million people in the country, many of whom support clubs not even playing within this system, Wales is not the strongest but in terms of total goals. However, the entertainment value is up there with the very best.
Wales’ Football League Structure
12 teams feature every season in the Welsh Premier League. The title winners going on to contest the UEFA Champions League qualifying stages. While Wales is also represented in the Europa League.
After the Cymru Premier splits into two groups mid-season, the Relegation Group fight it out to stay at the top level. The bottom two teams heading down to the Welsh Championship.
The Championship is split into North and South leagues with 16 or 17 teams playing in each. The winner of each division is promoted to the Welsh Premier League. The bottom two are relegated from the second tier.
The Welsh Cup, essentially the equivalent of the FA Cup in England, begins in October. 80 teams take part in knock-out games – no replays are allowed. Those 80 become 40 for the second round. The successful 20 teams join the 12 Cymru Premier sides in round 3 to form the last-32.
The competition continues this way until late-March and the semi-finals. The finalists face-off in early May at a neutral venue which can change every year.
Cross-Border Teams: Welsh Football Match Betting
Given the relative weakness of Welsh football, the biggest clubs from the major cities in Wales tend to play within the English football league system.
Both Cardiff and Swansea City have made their mark on the English Premier League over the years, they both currently ply their trade in the Championship. While both Newport County (League Two) and Wrexham (National League) have performed brilliantly in the FA Cup.
At a lower level, Merthyr Town also plays in England’s non-league system and Chester’s pitch. Despite the offices and other areas being in England, it is officially in Wales. Uniquely, the border between the two countries runs right through the facility!
Several English non-league sides from around Shropshire play football in Wales. TNS (The New Saints), officially Wales’ biggest domestic team is an Anglo-Welsh club.
Reliable Welsh Football Match Betting
The Welsh Cup, as well as the Championship and Cymru Premier all produce lots of goals. That’s exactly what we want from a betting point of view.
Betting on both teams to score or total goals in a game allows us play in markets in which the winner of the match is unimportant, meaning we don’t stress waiting for a result until the 90th minute and in fact a lot of bets can be paid out even before half-time allowing us to move along and onto something else.
Safe in the knowledge that defences are not on top anywhere in the Welsh football system, these are the betting markets to play on especially when it comes to the Welsh Premier League and the Welsh Cup:
- Match Betting – home/draw/away or 1X2. In the early stages of the league season in Wales, home teams have a higher than average win ratio so the better sides are very reliable when it comes to putting them into accumulators.
- Total Goals – the average goals per game ratio in league matches regularly tops 3.2 or even 3.5, so picking out your bets carefully can mean betting on ‘over 3.5’ in matches or perhaps specifically for one team to score more than 2 goals, bets that frequently yield a return in Wales.
Take a Punt on Football in Wales
There’s no doubt rugby is the most popular sport in Wales and in looking at the stats, it feels like the football teams are trying to match the scoring system there! If big total goals are your thing then you can bet on them in the Welsh league and cup games with one of our top recommended online bookmakers now.
