Football in Wales

Football has always had a close rivalry with the country's de facto national sport rugby union, and it is much discussed as to which is Wales' more popular game.

[4] Welsh professional club teams traditionally played in the same leagues as their English counterparts, structured into regional divisions.

Until 2016 the Wales national team rarely qualified for the major international tournaments, with its only appearance in the World Cup occurring in 1958.

Welsh players of note include Trevor Ford, Cliff Jones, John Charles, Ian Rush, Mark Hughes, Neville Southall, Ryan Giggs, Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale[5] while in Wales Ivor Allchurch, Fred Keenor and Jack Kelsey are cherished.

[10][11] The game that would become Association football was first codified in Britain in the mid-19th century, and by the 1860s and 1870s became established in industrial towns in the Midlands and north of England.

[14] In 1877 the FAW formed the first Wales national football team who played their first game that year, losing 4–0 away to Scotland.

[15] The Wrexham area was the centre of football in Wales for the first twenty years, with the south of the country preferring to follow the emerging sport of rugby union.

The first time an international game was held in the south was in 1894, hosted in Swansea, which was the 46th match the Wales team had played.

More telling in the north / south divide that existed in the sport was that it was not until the 67th fixture that the first southern player was selected for the national team.

[12] The 1890s and early 1900s saw an increase in competitive association football in south Wales, but the Triple Crown success of the Wales rugby team in the 1893 Home Nations Championship heralded the start of the first "Golden era" of Welsh rugby, culminating in the famous Game of the Century, where a sell out crowd at Cardiff Arms Park watched Wales win against the previously undefeated Original All Blacks in 1905, all of which would contribute to rugby union becoming perceived as the primary sport in the area.

This covers the whole of the southern Wales geographical area, and it is not until the fourth tier of the pyramid that local leagues appear.

However, as few west Wales clubs can face the prospect of the travelling implications of moving up to the Premier League, this four-way play-off idea is in theory rather than practice.

In 2024, Wales qualified for the UEFA Women's Euro 2025, which will be held in Switzerland, after defeating the Republic of Ireland 2–1.