Gremlins publish “Welsh Cup draw” that never was! Real one takes place on Monday

Technical difficulties have been blamed for a “Welsh Cup draw” which clubs thought was official but turned out to be a trial run which went wrong.

The Football Association of Wales announced on Friday it would break new ground by presenting the draws for the first qualifying round of the Welsh Cup on Monday, July 10, from 8 pm LIVE on its RedWall+ channel.

However, on the same day, what people thought was an early peek at the draw suddenly appeared on the Cymru Football App. Some clubs published details of their “ties” on social media.

Later in the day, the App took down the “draw” after it emerged it was not the genuine one, but instead a dummy run.

The FAW felt a test experiment was necessary given Monday’s draw was a hefty event and would offer tier 4 and 5 clubs a first ever experience of a live draw at this stage of the competition. However, the test draw was not meant to appear live on the Cymru Football App.

It is understood that an error occurred whilst testing the competition on COMET in preparation for the admin process following Monday’s draw.

An FAW source said: “I know it has left staff members and council members frustrated that the error occurred as nobody wants to confuse the clubs.

“For the first time ever – the qualifying round draws can be watched – rather than them just being published as a PDF on the FAW website. There’s a real desire to give the clubs their moment of watching themselves being picked out the hat in the draw.

“Due to the requirement for the qualifying round to be more regionalised than just north and south, this is a hefty draw as it will require 5 in total. So the testing in preparation for it was required, just a shame technology let us down… which it does for everyone from time-to-time.”

So just to recap, any ties seen published yesterday do NOT apply.

The real draw takes place on Monday.

You can watch on any device via https://redwallplus.com or you can download the dedicated app to your mobile. The app allows you to send videos to your TV screen.

Most TV’s are compatible these days. The stream will start at 8pm but the programme page will be available beforehand.