Time for FAW to scrap unfair promotion play-off system in the women’s game

Time to act now FAW, time to stop this annual farce which is ruining North Wales women’s football.

Teams that win league titles, have applied to play at a higher level and possess the necessary licence qualification to compete at that loftier standard should be promoted – end of.

The 2025-26 North Wales women’s football season saw three main champions crowned.

All three of them went through the entire campaign unbeaten. All three applied for promotion, all three attained a higher-tier licence, yet only ONE went up.

Why? Because of the ridiculous FAW ruling that end-of-season promotion play-offs had to take place.

A completely retrograde step that is holding back the same women’s football system the FAW continually claim is moving forward.

For sure, there are good things going on in the female game in Wales. The FAW points to the rise in participation numbers, all well and good, yet when it comes to a certain stage, our women’s game is getting buffered by a dirty great road block.

It should not be all about the national team – our club game deserves a better deal too.

Winning your league should be enough to get you promoted provided you meet the criteria to go up. No exceptions, yet in Wales, for some reason, the pyramid does not work like that.

For the past two seasons, Connah’s Quay Nomads have won the Tier 2 Adran North title without losing a single match.

They are too good for Tier 2, they belong in the Adran Premier. Yet because they’ve been forced to fight for one vacancy and enter a promotion play-off against the Adran South champions, and lost both times, not by much, but enough, the Flintshire side have had to stay where they are.

Everything is in place for a second North Wales team in the Adran Premier, except this ludicrous play-off is halting progress.

Having eight teams in the Premier is too few, there is definitely scope for a 10-team league, but if they insist on keeping it at eight, it should be two up and two down each season.

The Adran North and South champions should both be going up. They have earned it. That’s promotion.

This is not a North v South thing by the way, just because Nomads have missed out twice. I’d feel frustrated for any South Wales team which might suffer from this same injustice too.

In Tier 3, Llangefni Town have always done things the right way.

Formed in 2021-22, the Ynys Môn team took their early knocks. those heavy losses as novices, and improved season after season.

Now is their time for Tier 2, a level they have already proved they can compete at with cup wins over teams from that standard.

This season they won the inaugural North Wales Coast Women’s League in a canter – played 16, won 15, drawn 1, lost 0, goals for 64 goals against 7.

Different class, yet because of FAW rules they had to play a winner-takes-all extra game against a team pretty much their equal, Central Wales North League newcomers Wrexham Foresters – played 18 won 17 drawn 1 lost 0 goals for 162 against 6.

Just as dominant as Llangefni were in their league, primed for promotion but they also had to win that one more game to achieve elevation.

It was an absolute classic at Bala last Sunday; Llangefni 2-0 up, Foresters back to 2-2 and the Wrexham side edged it on pens.

No-one deserved to lose, but someone had to. It should never have come to that, both had already done more than enough to test themselves on the next rung of the ladder.

Foresters go up and should do really well, best of luck to them.

For Llangefni, however, it is back to the drawing board. While a league title at the end of it is not to be sniffed at, what they really wanted and deserved was promotion.

Cefni should have had a shot at the play-off last season, but never got to compete in it because Berriew decided to go the back-door route by challenging the veracity of a play-off they had initially voted for. The Powys team won their case and went up.

This season was unfinished business for the ever-improving Llangefni, but once more it was not to be.

The Adran North operated as a seven-team division in 2025-26 due to the pre-season withdrawal of Rhyl 1879.

At some stage during the campaign, it was decided there would be no relegation and just one team would be promoted from Tier 3 to make it an eight-member set-up again.

Having no relegation in a supposed pyramid system was pathetic in itself, but there was no valid reason as to why the Adran North could not accommodate Foresters AND Llangefni and make it nine teams. After all, operating with an odd number has happened twice already in the league’s four seasons.

Had Nomads gone up, then we would have had room for both the North Wales Coast and Central Wales North champions, but why didn’t that happen? Yes……that damn promotion play-off situation again.

The FAW needs to change this debacle. They have allowed the men’s Cymru Premier to rise from 12 to 16 clubs next season, so why not a similar measure in the women’s game. If necessary, relax the licence conditions a little more to secure the right numbers.

Ten teams in the Adran Premier, Adran North and Adran South is not unreasonable at all – have a proper promotion and relegation system, not the farce it is now.

FAW CEO Noel Mooney has often proved he is willing to listen….well hear us now Mr Mooney please and address this women’s football issue as a matter of urgency.

It would not be difficult to implement and would at least end some of the despair ambitious women’s teams are being made to feel under the present policy through no fault of their own. It should not happen.

We are told there is supposedly this wave of euphoria sweeping the nation where female football is concerned – so let our top domestic leagues be part of it, not the poor relation.

Food for thought…..

A lot of notices about new women’s football teams being formed in North Wales are popping up on social media lately.
While this is great for the game and participation levels, many of the newcomers are expressing the intention to join recreational leagues.
Is this the way things are going? More interest in the recreational leagues (where there is more emphasis on ‘fun football’) rather than the regular leagues (North Wales Coast, Central Wales North – the Sunday leagues)?
And is this anything to do with the way the women’s game is being run in North Wales? Are new teams being put off by the league systems operating and how the FAW are treating senior women’s football in North Wales?