Welsh Anthem at Wembley?

Let me nail my colours to the mast. I've voted Plaid Cymru all my life. For a short time I was treasurer of the Adamsdown branch. But sometimes, the flag-waving nationalism gets a little embarrassing. That's why I've ignored Rhodri Glyn Thomas's call for Mae Hen Wlad fy Nhadau to be played at Wembley.

Firstly, I'm not sure what platform Rhodri is using when he decides to comment on the issue. As a Welsh Assembly member? For Carmarthen? Maybe I could remind Mr Thomas that Carmarthen Town FC play in the Welsh Premier, and to his credit he has lent his support to the club previously. But please, stay out of this one. It's got nothing to do with you.

There is a fundamental issue at stake here, regarding Welsh independence. Like it or not, God Save the Queen is the British Anthem, and Wales has declined to vote for independence. A shame in my opinion, but democracy must be respected. You could argue that the English anthem won't be played (they don't have one), so why should the Welsh?

If it is so important to hear the National Anthem before the cup final, then Cardiff City can play in Wales. It's as simple as that. Our own Cup Final is being played between Llanelli and Bangor City at Newtown on 4th May. The winners will receive the oldest trophy in football, dating from 1878.

But for very good business and sporting reasons, Cardiff City rely on the munificence of the FA (so self-important they don't even prefix it and call it the English FA.) Yes, historically we were there pretty much at the beginning, and its questionable whether it was ever a uniquely English competition, but as it stands it is recognised as the English Cup. In Welsh, the translation for FA Cup is Cwpan Lloegr, "The English Cup".

I think most people accept that playing of the Welsh anthem would be inappropriate. I'm not sure that there is even a serious amount of backing for the idea. It's the sort of thing that fills newspaper columns and radio phone-ins, but it's wrong on so many levels that there can be no credible argument for it.

If TNS (who play in Oswestry) reach the Welsh Cup Final, will they play God Save the Queen?
I wonder if the Catalan anthem gets played at the Copa del Rey when Barcelona reach the Final. Did Derry City play God Save the Queen for the 2006 Irish Cup Final? I doubt it very much. Derry is a fiercely Irish club, despite their geographical situation.

But that's the important bit. Cardiff City is just a football club. It isn't a flag bearer for the Welsh Nation. The club's national identity is magnified because we play in England, but really it's just a club. Look closely. What is Welsh about it other than its location? What does being Welsh mean in the modern day?

We're getting too philosophical here. It's just a football match being played in the English Cup in England. There are major questions about God Save the Queen's status as a British anthem, but that's another story. The FA Cup Final has nothing to do with nationhood or national identity. Cardiff City will do its bit for the Welsh nation just by being there. And we will take our flags and 5,000 of us (but not me) will boo the British Anthem. And then 30,000 neutrals, and the English referee will become Portsmouth fans for the day. But Mae Hen Wlad fy Nhadau? Not today thank you.

City's Ticket Distribution not quite right

It was always going to be tough for Cardiff City to allocate their Cup Final Allowance fairly. And to be fair, I think that they have got it mainly right, balancing the need to reward loyal supporters with maximising the opportunity to sell season tickets for 2008/09.

But I just have one axe to grind. 2007/08 Ambassadors (i.e. fans who bought season tickets at the end of the previous season when things looked bleak for the club) have been allocated two tickets. Away travel members are not guaranteed a ticket however. This system gives priority to the well connected over the occasional long-distance supporter, and that can't be right.

When I moved to North Wales after 30 years of regular attendance at Ninian, I knew that I would be giving up my season ticket. With a young family, and local club commitments it just wouldn't be possible to get down to Ninian regularly. But I could make games in the Midlands and North West so I paid out £40 in Away memberships for my son and myself.

I naiively assumed that would give me some sort of priority. In fact, it just gives me the right to buy a ticket. But other away members who might travel to away 10 games a season are behind the queue to friends of ambassadors. I have already spoken to two friends this morning, fans of Manchester United and Liverpool, living in South Wales. They will be going to Wembley as guests of their Cardiff-supporting mates.

I'm OK now. I'm sorted for Wembley, as I bought three season tickets for next year which will sit empty for 15 games of the season. Two were free childrens tickets for the Family Stand. So for £199, I have been allocated 3 semi final and 3 final tickets. That's a bargain in my book.

In America, I would be able to recoup my investment officially. Season ticket holders who do not use their tickets return them to the club for each game that they won't be attending. The club sells it on to a different fan, and gives the season ticket holder a percentage of the sale. Makes sense doesn't it?

I'm sure than any genuine fan will be able to find a ticket, and I think it's that assumption that has driven this policy. But I still think that Away members should be sorted out before ambassadors can claim a ticket for their guest.

Welsh Premier to split

The FAW has announced today that it will split into two divisions from season 2010/11. According to John Deacon, the league is stagnating and the feeling is that the introduction of a two tier structure will boost crowds and improve facilties. well he's right on his first point, the League is stagnating. But I'm not convinced that the new proposals amount to anything more than a reduction of teams playing at the top level in Wales.

I've already touched on a major problem for Welsh football. Some of the most talented players simply don't want to travel for hours every other Saturday when they could get a similar experience playing in the Cymru Alliance or the Welsh League. The introduction of a Welsh prem Div 2 will make these players think even harder.

The top ten clubs will play each opther 4 times a season. That's a pretty depressing prospect for the travelling fan, and I would think even the home fan will get pretty bored.

At the moment, all teams in the Welsh Premier can sell advertising space due to the television coverage offered. Will TV cameras visit Div 2 games when the change happens? I'm not so sure. Another crucial income stream will be closed down for smaller clubs.

Surely it is only a matter of time before that second tier is subdivided and regionalised. a Welsh Premier Division Two is simply unsustainable. In effect, all that will happen is that we reduce our main League to ten teams. That's an admission of failure in my book, though I suppose its an inevitablity that Scotland bowed to a long time ago.

Will the top ten clubs receive increased financial support from the FAW, or will they simply be expected to reach the higher standards required using their own money? The boom and bust mentality will return to Welsh football as Sugar Daddy Chairmen become the only way to secure your place in the top flight. Normal clubs will reign in their ambitions, and the European incentive will effectively disappear, thus reducing another recruitment aid for the second tier clubs.

I have long argued that the Welsh premier is only sustainable if it is populated by teams from the major towns in Wales. It needs Newport, Merthyr, Bridgend, Pontypridd and possibly now, Wrexham. I appreciate that the exiles will see no benefit and I can't blame them, but from the League's point of view, I don't think any amount of restructuring will work while our main cities and towns play in England.

Llangefni Town v Bangor City, 8 April, 2008

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Originally uploaded by Phil Stead

I'll be totally honest with you. And this is hard to admit. I went to Llangefni v Bangor on a Friday night for one reason mainly. I wanted to update my visited grounds list on Facebook. The "football grounds" application is one of the few places that allows you to add Welsh Premier grounds to your tally.

Sad I know. Really sad. but it gets worse. I had already been to Llangefni once, to see Llangefni Reserves beat Felinheli 1-0 in the Gwynedd League. But in the obsessive world of the groundhopper, that doesn't count. It has to be a first team game.

But I can copnsole myself that i wasn't the saddest person there on that cold, wet Friday night. There was one geek decked out in Queen's Park colours. Not the Wrexham team called Queen's Park either, but the one from Glasgow. He was a proper groundhopper.

I knew where the ground was because I used to buy my chickens next door from the poultry dealer. And if you stand on the grassy West terrace you can hear the cocks crowing. Like most football grounds, it is poorly signposted. The only sign is opposite the front entrance which seems sort of pointless. Meanwhile, you drive past all manner of signs on the A55 across Ynys Mon. Garden Centres, Auction Houses, Museums. These all warrant a sign, as does the rugby club. But a signpost to a football ground which is visited by hundreds of people each week? (I am including the teams before you start).

Llangefni Town's progress as a Junior club has been impressive. It was only twenty years ago that they were first accepted into the Gwynedd League, 3 divisions below the top tier. At the same time, the town's rugby team has grown exponentially.

But that's where the growth stops for the rugby. You see, the WRU in its wisdom has banned the club from progressing beyond regional leagues. It's too far from the M4 corridor you see. The Southern teams refused to travel North even once a season. It is laughable for rugby to call itself the National game when it actively blocks the prgress of Northern clubs. Did you know that the North Wales Youth team plays its home games in Llanidloes to save the Southern Softies travelling too far to play them? It's all credit to the FAW and Welsh football that we have a genuinely National League.

If I'm honest, Llangefni have a lot of catching up to do with regards to the facilities at Talwrn Road. The progress in the 8 years since they moved there has been huge, and they will say that they are no worse than many other grounds in the Welsh Premier, which would be true enough. But that just demonstrates the poor condition of grounds in the top Welsh league.

There is a critical tipping point in Welsh football which needs to be addressed if we are to progress domestically. There are many players and even clubs in the Welsh League and Cymru Alliance who simply won't benefit from the step up to Welsh Premier football. Why would a Port Talbot player be excited at the prospect of travelling 510 hours on a Saturday to play on a muddy pitch in front of 100 people at Llangefni's muddy patch, when he could get exactly the same experience playing for Afan Lido in the Welsh League.

The onus is on the FAW to offer significant financial aid to Welsh premier clubs. We know their coffers are full according to recent reports, so why isn't the Welsh premier getting more aid. Until we have decent grounds with flat pitches, the level of football will remain at the poor standard of the game I saw at Llangefni last Friday. Yes, there were 800 people paying £6 each, but they had pretty much the same experience as I had watching the reserve team. Reasonably diverting, but not in the slightest bit compelling. In fact Llangefni fielded a player who played for Felin in that lower league game and he didn't struggle at all with the supposed increased standard.

The Welsh Premier simply has to be supported. With talk of reversion to regional Divisions, it is on its last legs. If regionalisation happens, the idea can be said to have failed. Welsh football will be back in 1991 and North and South will once again be divided as it is in the rest of Welsh sport and indeed Welsh life.

Semi Disaster for Holyhead Man

Chambers with his FA Cup Semi Final ticket
Originally uploaded by Phil Stead

This is a man called Karl Chambers.

Karl lives in Holyhead, on the North Western tip of Anglesey, 10 miles from Dublin, 200 miles and five hours away from Ninian Park. Yet despite this obstacle, he has been one of Cardiff City's most committed fans since his first game, away at Wigan in 1982.

In the past 25 years his face has become familiar all over the country as he follows the Bluebirds. In the mid 1990's Chambers didn't miss a single game for 5 years. He watched every City game home and away, friendly and Cup for over 300 consecutive games.

He has seen lots of FA Cup matches, including defeats at Hayes and Enfield, and a 3-3 draw with Gloucester City. He was with me at Shrewsbury in 1990 when we only took 41 fans for Nathan Blake's debut match in the snow. He was one of just 18 fans at Blackppol when snowy weather stopped most people from travelling.

You will gather that Chambers is pretty fanatical. When the final whistle blew at Middlesbrough he was there of course. Like the rest of us, he couldn't believe his team would be playing at Wembley.

He admitted to me that he has given up this season. In his case this means that he has only seen 20 games, with a combined mileage of about 7,000 miles. I think thats still probably more than anyone who lives in Cardiff.

Chambers could hardly concentrate the day before we went to Wembley. There were over 50 fans travelling down from Holyhead and he was booked on a minibus leaving at 6am for the 5 hour drive to London. The Holyhead crew spent the Saturday in high spirits around the town, enjoying themselves and singing Cardiff songs through the night.

Chambers got home at about midnight and set his alarm on his phone. But he forgot to switch it on. He missed the bus.

When he woke up, the bus had gone, his mates had tried to wake him but failed. It's the first time he has ever overslept despite dozens of early morning starts to away games across England.

Poor old Karl was inconsolable. He didn't leave his house all day, and he couldn't bring himself to watch the game. He spent most of the day in tears he told me.

At least he has a second chance. But as he lives so far away, he doesn't hold a season ticket. He probably won't qualify for a Cup Final ticket. He's determined to get there, and we should all hope that it works out OK for him.