Wales celebrates 150 years of football
Monday, February 2, 2026
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It’s a century and a half since a meeting at the Wynnstay Arms Hotel in Wrexham on 2 February 1876 set the stage for the organisation of the sport in Wales.
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The first meeting of Football Association of Wales (FAW) – the third-oldest football association in the world after England and Scotland – took place 150 years ago, to create what was initially called the Cambrian Football Association and to confirm the details for a first official fixture, against Scotland. Llewelyn Kendrick, a solicitor, was appointed chairman.
That very first match took place in Glasgow on 25 March 1876, with Scotland claiming a comfortable 4-0 victory. In fact, Wales would not win a match for another five years, until a goal from John Vaughan was enough to edge past England on 26 February 1881.
Impact on the world stage
Football in Wales accelerated at pace in the decades that followed, with new domestic clubs being formed across the country. In 1958, manager Jimmy Murphy guided his country to their first major tournament – the FIFA World Cup – where they reached the quarter-finals.
John Charles was the hero of the team at that time. It’s striking, though, for a nation blessed with generations of footballing talent, the likes of Leighton James, Joey Jones, Ian Rush, Neville Southall, Mark Hughes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Speed, together with many other star names, would never represent their country at a major tournament.
However, that run ended in 2016 when a Wales side led by Chris Coleman and inspired by Gareth Bale defied the odds to qualify for the finals of UEFA EURO 2016 and reach the semi-finals before being eliminated by eventual winners Portugal. Wales would also qualify for EURO 2020 and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Growing the game
Significant investment into the women’s game in Wales culminated in qualification for Women’s EURO 2025, with talismanic midfielder Jess Fishlock becoming the oldest-ever goalscorer at the finals. Wales also hosted its first women’s tournament in 2013, when the UEFA Women’s Under-19 European Championship was successfully delivered.
Illustrative of the progress and development of football in Wales, the 2014 UEFA Super Cup, and the 2017 UEFA Champions League final and UEFA Women’s Champions League finals took place in Cardiff. The capital will also host the opening match of EURO 2028, while this summer the UEFA European Under-19 Championship finals will take place in North Wales.
The domestic game has continued to evolve since the formation of the first national league in 1992, with champions The New Saints FC making history in 2024/25 as they became the first team to qualify for the League Phase of the UEFA Conference League.
Bright future
To mark the 150th anniversary of the Association, a new ten-year strategic plan will be launched later this year aimed at strengthening Welsh football at every level.
“We are on a fantastic journey, and I want to thank everyone who is supporting us and Welsh football more generally,” said FAW chief executive Noel Mooney. “We were confident that we could build a great sports organisation and we have already achieved so much in a relatively short space of time. However, we have a lot to do to become the world-class football association that we can and must become.”
Wales’s men’s national team head coach, Craig Bellamy, will now look to mark the milestone by leading his country through the play-offs in March to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.