Barry of 1999 with League of Wales Cup, FAW Premier Cup and Welsh Premier trophy

The

Cymru Premier The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. Prior to 200 ...

is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

league based in Wales. Formed in 1992 as the League of Wales, it was the first national football league in the country. The competition changed its name to the Welsh Premier League in 2002 and then to the Cymru Premier in 2019. In its inaugural season 20 teams played in the league, but it has since been significantly restructured and had 12 member clubs in the 2018–19 season. Although it is the highest level of the

Welsh football league system The Welsh football league system (or pyramid) is a series of football leagues with regular promotion and relegation between them. While most Welsh clubs play in the Welsh pyramid and most clubs in that pyramid are Welsh, five Welsh clubs play ...

, the Welsh Premier League has never included the country's major professional clubs, Cardiff City, Swansea City,

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

and Newport County. For historical reasons these clubs all play within the English league system. Instead the Welsh Premier League consists primarily of clubs from large towns (like Barry and Bridgend) and some smaller towns (like Bala), and the majority of the players are semi-professional. As of 2013,

The New Saints The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club, also known as The New Saints ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed y Seintiau Newydd) or TNS, are a professional football club that currently play in the Cymru Premier. They are the most successfu ...

, who have played in Oswestry in England since 2005, were the only full-time professional team in the league. Since its formation, 39 clubs have taken part in the league. The only clubs to have played in the league in every season since it was formed are

Aberystwyth Town Aberystwyth Town Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-Droed Tref Aberystwyth) is a Welsh semi-professional football team, currently playing in the Cymru Premier, the top tier of football in Wales. They are the only top flight men's football team in Ce ...

and Newtown. Conversely two other founder members, Abergavenny Thursdays and Llanidloes Town, were relegated at the end of the league's inaugural season and have never returned. Two other clubs, Llangefni Town and Cardiff Grange Harlequins, have spent only a single season in the league. The most recent team to make its debut in the league was

Penybont Penybont (also sometimes spelled Pen-y-Bont) is a small village in Radnorshire, Powys, Wales. The population of the community at the 2011 census was 428. The community includes the settlement of Llandegley. Penybont colliery The Penybont colli ...

, who gained promotion to the league for the first time in 2019. A system of

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues ...

exists between the Cymru Premier and the two regional leagues at the second level of the Welsh league system, the

Cymru North The Cymru North is a regional football league in Wales, covering the northern half of the country. It has clubs with semi-professional status and together with the Cymru South, it forms the second tier of the Welsh football league system. The f ...

in the northern half of the country and the

Cymru South The Cymru South is a regional football league in Wales, covering the southern half of the country. It has clubs with semi-professional status and together with the Cymru North, it forms the second tier of the Welsh football league system. The fi ...

in the southern half.

Clubs

The table shows the first and most recent season in which each club competed in the league up to and including the 2019–20 season. Some clubs' membership was intermittent between their first and last season. The name shown for each club is the most recent, and the table is initially sorted in alphabetical order of these names. Any other names under which the club played in the league are shown in footnotes. A dagger symbol () indicates that the club was a founder member of the league.

Notes

# Known as Airbus UK until 2007 # Known as Cemaes Ynys Mon from 1997 until 1998 # Known as Flexsys Cefn Druids until 2003, NEWI Cefn Druids from 2003 until 2009, and Elements Cefn Druids from 2009 until 2010 # Known as Gap Connah's Quay from 2008 to 2017 # Known as MBi Llandudno from 2015 to 2016 # Known as Neath Athletic until 2008 # Known as Port Talbot Athletic until 2001 # Known as Technogroup Welshpool between 2009 and 2011 # Known as Llansantffraid until 1997 and Total Network Solutions from 1997 until 2006. Merged with fellow Welsh Premier League club Oswestry Town in 2003, continuing under the Total Network Solutions name. # Inter Cardiff played in the Welsh Premier League until 2000, but was known as Inter Cable Tel from 1996 until 1999. In 2000 the club merged with UWIC of the Welsh Football League to form UWIC Inter Cardiff and continued to play in the Welsh Premier League. The club adopted its current name in 2012.

References

{{Welsh Premier League Premier