What shape is the ball? A history of the Welsh Football League.

Fletch

Fletch

In 1888, the seeds for the foundation of the Welsh Football League were laid, when Welsh clubs wishing to retain their status were barred by the FAW from membership to the Football Association in England. There was no surprise in this move, which was something which the Welsh were following the examples of the Scottish and Irish Football Associations. This, whilst ensuring that in retaliation, Welsh clubs were banned from the FA Cup that the boundaries of British football were set in stone for the development of the game.


In 1888, the English established a football league, which proved popular and was quickly followed by Irish and Scottish leagues in 1890. This put Welsh clubs at a disadvantage due to only playing in Regional and Local divisions. This was noticed by the Chairman of Wrexham FC who took the initiative on 1st February 1891 to thirteen other Welsh clubs, requesting that they form a Welsh Football league. Of the thirteen, ten took an interest and on the 14th April 1891, the agreement was formed that a Welsh league, consisting of ten clubs be formed for a season which would begin in August 1891 for the 1891/92 season. Indeed, so great was the appetite for membership to this new system that clubs in Newport, Cardiff and Swansea were created. Contesting the league were the following clubs.



  • Cardiff City
  • Wrexham
  • Aberdare Town
  • Swansea
  • Newport
  • Cefn Druids
  • Newton White Stars
  • Ruthin Town
  • Newton AFC
  • Barry Athletic


Little did these teams know that they would be starting a chain which would lead to a competition which has grabbed the attention of the Welsh, and on occasion both other fans of the British game, not to mention the eyes of those further afield. It was all set to begin on Saturday 6th August 1892.
 
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Dom

Dom

Moderator
Looks interesting. I'll keep my eye on as it involves Football.and Wales, two think I enjoy reading about ;)
 

SunDeep

Banned
With the title of the thread, does this imply that they won't be using a circular ball? That the WFL will be using a 'football' more similar to that used in American Football?
 
Fletch

Fletch

SunDeep said:
With the title of the thread, does this imply that they won't be using a circular ball? That the WFL will be using a 'football' more similar to that used in American Football?
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Rugby is, in the main the sport of modern Wales. This is about a timeline where this is not the case. Put bluntly, the ball will be round.
 
Dom

Dom

Moderator
SunDeep said:
Erm... Given that the POD is assumedly 'on Saturday 6th August 1892', shouldn't this be in the Before 1900 forum? Just saying...
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We give a little leeway; given the POD here is so close to the turn of the century and most effects will be Post 1900, I think it fits in here better.
 

Protest The Hero

Well Fletch you have my gained my attention. And my subscription. I'm working on my current day Welsh League story. But I honestly think yours will be something far better. Cannot wait to read more.
 
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Fletch

Fletch

The Early Years. 1892/93.

The Opening day of the first ever season of the Welsh Football League was bathed in balmy sunshine. Undoubtedly, match of the day was the clash between Wrexham and Cardiff City, a match which attracted some 7,000 supporters. In a thrilling encounter, both sides gave their all in a match which ended a 3-3 draw, a match which drew the ire of the hosts due to them having a goal disallowed in injury time of the second half due to the linesman(who resided in Cardiff) stating the ball never crossed the line, this despite the fact despite it hit a spectator in the face*.

That result aside, the other results were Aberdare Town 0 Swansea 4, Newport 2 Cefn Druids 1, Newton White Stars 3 Ruthin Town 2 and Barry Athletic 8 Newton AFC 0.

During the opening season of the league, attendances varied from around 3,000 attending matches for Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham down to under 100 for Ruthin Town. The league clearly showed promise, however as it allowed clubs from throughout Wales the opportunity for a regular schedule to supplement their regular friendly challenge matches against clubs from England, notably from Bristol in South Wales and Lancashire in the North.

In a title chase which turned out to be closely matched, Wrexham ran out the inaugural champions, defeating the newly formed Swansea FC by a single point to the title. However, the league did show a frightening imbalance, as at the other end, poor Ruthin Town ended up with a solitary point to their name. Swansea, however did make up for the loss of the title by defeating Cardiff City 2-1 in the Welsh Cup Final in front of over 15,000 spectators.
And thus, the Welsh League was born.

Welsh Football League 1892/93.

Wrexham FC Pld 18 W 14 D 2 L 1 Pnts 30
Swansea FC Pld 18 W 13 D 3 L 1 Pnts 29
Cardiff City Pld 18 W 12 D 4 L 2 Pnts 28
Newport Pld 18 W 9 D 3 L 6 Pnts 21
Barry Athletic Pld 18 W 8 D 3 L 7 Pnts 19
Cefn Druid Pld 18 W 7 D 3 L 8 Pnts 17
Aberdare T. Pld 18 W 4 D 7 L 7 Pnts 15
Newton WS Pld 18 W 5 D 3 L 10 Pnts 13
Newton AFC Pld 18 W 1 D 3 L 14 Pnts 4
Ruthin Town Pld 18 W 0 D 1 L 17 Pnts 1
​



*This actually happened in a Scottish Cup final of around this time between Rangers and Vale of Leithen due to netting not being in common usage in goals at the time. I thought it would be a good addition to the story....
 
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Fletch

Fletch

1893-1898. The First Cardiff Derby and the foundation of Cardiff Hibernian.

During the first few years of the Welsh league, the dominance of the top three continued unabated, with Wrexham retaining their title the following season, followed by three seasons of success for Cardiff City, with Barry Athletic also gaining throughout the period sensationally denying Swansea their first title in 1897/98 after a play-off when both teams finished on 27 points. Swansea did relatively well in the cup during this period though, winning three cup finals in this five year period, including a 3-0 win over Wrexham in the 1895 cup final. They were denied in 1897/98 though in what was their anus horribilus by non-league Cardiff Hibernian who won their first major trophy in a 1-0 win. As Cardiff City took over the dominance of the early years of the league, Wrexham were showing signs of financial stress in travelling to South Wales for most of their matches, which notably limited the number of away supporters(aside from Cardiff, Barry and Swansea) attending matches in the Racecourse Ground. They were, as we all know now to survive this period, but it was to begin a period called in their modern history the lean years by their support, something that only came to an end later on.

During this period several clubs were formed, each of whom eagerly were seeking to join the new league. Foremost amongst these clubs were Cardiff Hibernian. Cardiff Hibernian were born in 1894 of the poverty of the Irish immigrant population in the Welsh Capital city, as a way for the starving and hungry to ease their lot. Initially playing friendly matches against a myriad of teams from England including Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday, Hibernian and Celtic in Scotland and a number of Irish clubs, they gained much popular support. Their average attendance over this period for both friendly matches and the Cardiff Combined League, where they dominated totalled over 1,000 regular supporters. This was a number which dwarfed some league clubs and as such their application was taken quite seriously.

On 19th July, 1897, they played their first ever derby match against Cardiff City at Riverside Park(the then home of Cardiff City), a match in which Hibs beat the reigning champions of Wales 3-0. The attendance of the match was a noted success at over 5,000 for what was a friendly. In a sign of good-will, rarely shown today, City waived their rights to their share of the gate receipts in the knowledge that any of the money earned from the gate would go to the poor of the city. On the downside, however was the sectarian element which was was openly witnessed and commented on in the Welsh Sports Journal in a positive way of introducing atmosphere(!)was something that to modern eyes was abhorrent.

The Chairman of Cardiff City, Sir Edward Reed, the Liberal MP, seeing the potential in this rivalry as a way to make money for both himself and his club, championed the cause of Cardiff Hibernian throughout the period 1897-98, upon which a vacancy appeared due to the withdrwal of Ruthin Town from the league. This was hardly surprising as their attendances had dwindled to less than 50 for some games. This led to serious financial troubles and eventuall their demise. As such, Cardiff Hibernian joined the Welsh league for season 1898/99, alongside Llanelli, Cwmbran Town, Bridgend and Port Talbot. The other big change for the start of the 98/99 season was the merger of Newton White Star and Newton AFC to form Newton United. This increased the size of the Welsh league to twelve teams for the start of the final season of the nineteenth century.


Welsh Champions 1893/94 Wrexham
Welsh Champions 1894/95 Cardiff City
Welsh Champions 1895/96 Cardiff City
Welsh Champions 1896/97 Cardiff City
Welsh Champions 1897/98 Barry Athletic
 
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Protest The Hero

The ugly head of sectarianism seems to have arrived or at least partially. Shame that is, Wales doesn't have the history of it happening to the best of my knowledge. But nice to see more teams joining.
 
Fletch

Fletch

Protest The Hero said:
The ugly head of sectarianism seems to have arrived or at least partially. Shame that is, Wales doesn't have the history of it happening to the best of my knowledge. But nice to see more teams joining.
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Don't worry overly about this. The poor of Cardiff were mainly Irish immigrants around this time so it makes sense to have them want a club of their own. Just to make a point, the Liverpool and Dundee derbies used to have sectarian overtones....
 

Protest The Hero

I'm really looking forward to seeing this fleshed out once it gets going fully and then seeing the butterflies of this sporting world. Keep it up.
 
Dom

Dom

Moderator
Any chance of Aberystwyth joining? They've been around since 1884 and are in the Welsh Premier League, after all.

Though to be fair, they did friendlies until they joined the Welsh league in 1896.
 
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