FAW 'open minded' over Cymru Premier reforms
- Published
The New Saints won the Cymru Premier title for the 4th time last season
Football Association of Wales president Steve Williams says the governing body will be "open minded" over potential reforms to the Cymru Premier.
The Cymru Premier was launched as the League of Wales - Welsh football's first national league - 30 years ago.
Clubs and fans will be consulted as part of a review into the competition.
"I think we've got to go into it in depth, don't scratch the surface, and get into the weeds of it and get a good strategy to go forward," Williams said.
"What I'd like to see is a league that's much stronger so that we're having our own players knocking on the door of the [Wales] Under-17s, Under-19s and Under-21s.
"Then hopefully they can be recognised to go on and play for bigger clubs, which will bring revenue into the league."
An independent study presented to the FAW earlier this year claimed football is the most popular sport in Wales and has more participants across the country than any other team game.
But the Cymru Premier scored poorly, with only half the participants who took part in the study showing awareness of the competition.
The league kicked off in August 1992, with 20 founder member clubs from all over Wales. Aberystwyth Town and Newtown are the only teams who have featured in every season.
The league was reduced to 12 clubs for the 2010-11 campaign and Williams says the time is right for a review which will form part of the FAW's wider 'Our Wales' strategic plan.
"Thirty years has gone really quickly but you think of what we've actually achieved in the 30 years - [it] has been great," Williams told BBC Radio Wales Sport.
"Now's the right time for us to take a review of the Cymru Premier league, which will form a new strategy to take it forward.
"It's something that we really need to do and update that strategy season upon season to push the league further."
FAW chief executive Noel Mooney has previously said "everything is on the table" with regards to the top flight, including a much-debated switch to summer football.
Williams said the governing body will not rule anything out as it considers reforms to the league, which was won last season by The New Saints.
"Let's wait and see what the review comes up with - we've got to be open minded," Williams added,
"The key thing to me is the fact that when we undertake this review, we go not just into the clubs, we take feedback from people at games and key stakeholders to form the whole topic of what we are going to do to take our league forward
"It could be Friday/Sunday [matches] to avoid the Saturdays.
"Summer football has been mentioned - do you talk about winter breaks and are they the right thing or are they not?
"I think people within our own organisation have had their say but let's go out and let's get the views of the clubs, supporters, and get a good measure of what's going to be on the table for us to make some decisions going forward.
"During the next few months it's going to be full steam ahead with having people visiting clubs, whether it will be organised or turning up at games announced and canvassing the general public."