Why isn’t the last 16 of Women’s Welsh Cup open draw? Bad deal for North Wales again

Why on earth is the last 32 of the men’s Welsh Cup open draw, yet the women’s Welsh Cup last 16 is regionalised?

This is surely discriminatory against North Wales women’s teams whose prospective opponents in tomorrow’s round two draw are very limited.

Four North Wales teams will feature in the Bute Energy Welsh Cup last 16 – CPDM Y Felinheli, Llandudno, NFA and Wrexham – and two other clubs make up the northern section of the draw – Aberystwyth Town and The New Saints.

The remaining 10 clubs (it is actually 14 with four first round ties still to be played) comprise the southern section.

Surely in the final 16 of a national competition, the scope should be widened for who plays who?

The northern section teams are assured of a tie against one of five clubs, but shouldn’t it be one of 15?

All the FAW does through the current system is create a ‘same old’ scenario for the north.

It would be good for a change, for example, if a team like Y Felinheli could get a home draw against a tier 3 South Wales side, giving them a decent chance of making the quarter-finals. From there, who knows? The luck of the draw could steer them to the semis.

Imagine the interest that would create in North Wales football.

Instead, we might end up with all three remaining north tier 2 teams going out, while the tier 1 progress. No underdogs to cheer for yet again.

Of course, everything does depend on how tomorrow’s draw turns out, but fortune has not smiled on North Wales teams in this regard in recent years.

We want something different for North Wales for once, something that an open draw might provide us with.

We’re already having to suffer the ridiculous seeding system in the Genero Adran Trophy, where the 8 tier 1 Adran Premier clubs cannot draw each other in the last 16.

The FAW dropped the seeding process for the men’s Welsh Cup two years ago. Why not do the same immediately for the women? What’s the difference? Equality is what’s needed here.

Do the FAW want to establish an ‘elite’ quarter-final line-up in the Adran Trophy? And do they want the same for the Bute Energy Welsh Cup? Is the North – apart from Wrexham – just an inconvenience to Cardiff?

It’s wrong, it’s unfair, yet the clubs never get listened to.

I’ll await tomorrow’s draws with interest.