Welsh football clubs in English competitions

The FAW is the third oldest football association in the world, having been formed in 1876. Despite this, they did not form a national league for over 100 years after the FAW was founded. This led Wales's leading clubs to join English competitions such as the Southern Football League, and later the Football League.^[1] Six football clubs based in Wales joined the Football League – five still exist in the English league system today in some form – the sixth being Aberdare Athletic who played in the Football League for six seasons in the 1920s.^[2] In 1927, Cardiff City won the FA Cup. This still remains the only time a Welsh club has ever won the FA Cup.^[3]

The League of Wales was founded in October 1991 by Alun Evans and was first played in the 1992–93 season.^[4] The first season of the league was largely made up of teams from the previous season's Cymru Alliance (North Wales) and Welsh Football League National Division (South Wales) due to a dispute between the FAW and eight of its clubs, dubbed the 'Irate Eight'. The eight clubs were Bangor City, Barry Town, Caernarfon Town, Colwyn Bay, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport AFC, Newtown and Rhyl. Three other clubs (Cardiff City, Swansea City and Wrexham) were allowed to stay in the English league system as they played in the Football League at the time. The FAW told the 'Irate Eight' that if they wanted to stay in the English league system they would have to play their home games in England.^[1] However, only two of the 'Irate Eight', Bangor City and Newtown, joined the new League of Wales,^[5][6] and Rhyl joined the second-tier Cymru Alliance.^[7] Merthyr Tydfil were exempt due to playing in the fifth-tier Football Conference but the remaining four of the 'Irate Eight' had to groundshare with English teams. Barry Town played at Worcester (as Barri^[8]), Caernarfon played at Curzon Ashton, Colwyn Bay played at Northwich Victoria's Drill Field, and Newport played in Moreton-in-Marsh.^[9] The following season Barry Town reverted to their previous name and joined the Welsh Football League Division One, at the second tier of the Welsh league system.^[10]

In 1995, the dispute was solved at High Court, as the three remaining clubs (Caernarfon, Colwyn Bay and Newport) successfully sued the FAW and were allowed to play in Wales without leaving the English league system. However just four months later Caernarfon decided to join the League of Wales for the 1995–96 season.^[9][11]

In 2010, Merthyr Tydfil were liquidated.^[12] The phoenix club Merthyr Town were allowed to join the Western Football League First Division, which they won at the first attempt, achieving promotion to the Premier Division.^[13] Merthyr went on to win the Premier Division in the following season.^[14]

In 2019, Colwyn Bay left the English league system after 35 years, joining the newly formed Cymru North, at the second tier of Welsh football.^[15]

In 2025, Merthyr Town were offered £6 million to join the expanded Cymru Premier for the 2025–26 season.^[16] However Merthyr rejected this offer,^[12] and were promoted to the National League North for the 2025–26 season.^[17]