Welsh football in good voice
Monday 27 December 2004
e-mail
Print
Digg
Save
Football Association of Wales logo (Uefa.Com)
The Football Association of Wales (FAW) was formed in February 1876 in Wrexham by a group of businessmen who wanted to see a team raised to play against Scotland, and thus emulate the matches that had begun between the Scots and the English some four years earlier.
Losing debut
The match against Scotland eventually took place in March 1876 in Glasgow, with a Welsh team comprising ten players with connections in north Wales and a solitary player from the south of the country. The game was lost 4-0, while the return match the following year in Wrexham ended in a 2-0 defeat.
Early years
Football in Wales continued to be dominated by the north in the early years of the FAW's existence, during which time clubs like Wrexham AFC, Oswestry Town FC and Chirk AAA FC all rose to prominence, and in 1877/78 the Welsh Cup was introduced with the initial aim of looking for players of international calibre. Wrexham were the competition's first winners and soon the tournament became a force in itself, but it was not until 1912 that a side from south Wales, Cardiff City FC, won the cup for the very first time.
Divided loyalties
Football finally began to take hold in south Wales in the 1890s, and in 1902 the Welsh Football League was formed. But at the same time, many Welsh teams began to join the English leagues in search of a higher standard of football.
British Championship success
Despite this, when football resumed following the end of the first world war, the then FAW secretary, Ted Robbins, began to single-handedly revolutionise the way the sport was run in the country. The difficulties were immense, as most top Welsh players were with English clubs and their release and availability for international games was never certain. Nonetheless, Wales won the British Championship in 1907, followed by subsequent triumphs in 1920, 1924, 1928, 1933, 1934 and 1937.
World Cup record
Wales competed in the FIFA World Cup qualifying competition for the first time in the 1950s, and it was during this period that Herbert Powell, the secretary of the FAW, emerged as an influential figure with the fledgling UEFA organisation. However, the country's only success to date in reaching the final round of the World Cup came in Sweden in 1958, with the 1960s proving to be uneventful for the national team.
European success
But in 1976 Wales reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA European Championship under manager Mike Smith, and over the following years they developed into one of Europe's most improved sides under the management of first Mike England and then Terry Yorath. However, a second qualification for a major finals tournament was to remain an elusive quest.
Tremendous optimism
Some great Welsh players have performed with distinction on the world stage, including John Charles, who became an idol in Italy, Ian Rush, a feared goalscorer for Liverpool FC, and Ryan Giggs, who won the UEFA Champions League with Manchester United FC in 1999. Wales came agonisingly close to qualifying for UEFA EURO 2004™, only losing to Russia in the play-offs, and there is tremendous optimism that Welsh football is on the rise again in Europe.
©uefa.com 1998-2009. All rights reserved.
