Saints' Europa qualification 'phenomenal' for Cymru Premier
New Saints have won the Cymru Premier title 16 times
- Published
The New Saints’ progress in the Europa Conference League presents a “fantastic opportunity” to boost the profile of the Cymru Premier.
Saints have become the first club from Wales' top-flight Cymru Premier to reach the group phase of a European competition.
Craig Harrison’s side will take on Fiorentina, Djurgarden, Astana, Shamrock Rovers, Panathinaikos and Celje in the group stage.
“It’s a superb achievement for a JD Cymru Premier club to get to this stage of the competition,” Football Association of Wales’ head of domestic football Jack Sharp told BBC Sport Wales.
“To be able to fly the flag for another six games up until Christmas is absolutely phenomenal.
“The exposure the league is going to get from a club competing with real titans of European football is just a fantastic opportunity.
“I’m really looking forward to these next three months ahead.
“It’s going to be a great opportunity to go and do some learnings off other big clubs in Europe and use it as an aspirational tool for our clubs and TNS in particular.
“Let’s see what we can do – can we cause a little bit of damage on the pitch? Can we play that underdog role and see what happens?
“We’re in it now and we’re all very proud of the club.”
The New Saints have some exciting fixtures coming up in Europe, including Panithinaikos
Sharp added that Saints’ progress this will boost Wales’ Uefa co-efficiency points and can hopefully see the Cymru Premier regain a fourth European spot which they will lose next season.
But he also hopes to see a boost to the profile of a league which was formed in 1992 and which has been subject to criticism in the past
“It gives us absolutely every opportunity to be able to go after that fourth place back in Europe,” Sharpe said.
“From the perspective of the league now, the light is going to be shone on the Cymru Premier
“It doesn’t get the respect it deserves – there’s high quality footballers in this league and there’s some really great clubs in this league.
“What this does is that it showcases our best club in recent times on that European stage.
“We hope that people will look at Welsh football and see it as a really investable opportunity, because you have nights like this and go on these unbelievable magical journeys by being involved with football in Wales."