First of all a huge and well deserved Merry Christmas to our Swansea City Women who now contest in the Genero Adran Welsh League. They have made quite an impact over the years, and this season sees them with more profile via exposure on TV.

That aside, we now seem to have a Chairman at the Swans who wants to push the Women’s team further forwards. The first thing Andrew Coleman has learned is despite the semi professional set up at Swansea, attracting players for around £125 a week is hard. The Chairman has a view the club could do this, but the more competitive WSL in England and its feeder leagues pay more money, and as it stands the Swans are unable to compete with that. The Welsh league for women is an amateur league to all intents and purposes. Yes it has some semi professional set ups within it but there’s no chance of furthering your profile. Once you win the league that’s pretty much it bar a European campaign. These competitions are costly for the Swans women, one flight costing far more than the game returned last season.

The Swans women play (at times ) at the Llandarcy Academy of Sport in Neath. It offers decent facilities and a 2,000 capacity. Bar the big three of Swansea, Cardiff and Wrexham only TNS seem to be their only real contenders, with Aberystwyth just behind them. The Swans seem to be in a state of limbo at this time with news there could well be a more expansion after Ceri Phillips left in October. The side are currently under the watch of Chris Church.

So, how are Cardiff City getting on with this ? Well, in a way.

It will be news to some that they actually have two women’s set ups in Cardiff. The Adran league - the same as the Swans with Cardiff City Women and Wrexham. And then another non affiliated team ‘Cardiff City Ladies’ which competes in the southern half of the Women’s Premier League. Above them is the Women’s Super League ( WSL )

So why is this ? It’s not the main reason - but this is interesting.

Quite simply the FAW completely ignore the Adran leagues and it’s unlikely you will find too many (if any ) women players picked for the Welsh national side, whilst playing for teams in the Adran. The FAW seem to have a clear directive, and the numerous Wales team managers have completely ignored the Adran league. Llanedeyrn L.F.C. was the original name for Cardiff City Ladies. They split from Cardiff City around 2006 and became an independent ladies team, and their success has been notable. They have numerous internationals and are a mix of Welsh and English players. They play in Newport and at the Amdani Hi, Ocean Park Arena in Cardiff but will also utilise the Dragons Training Centre ( where they train ) for fixtures next year. The Dragons Training Centre offers a clear pathway from very young players to progress to the Cardiff City Ladies team.

The decision to stick with their vision as Cardiff City Ladies has seen them progress, bar one blip in to the league they are in today. They are currently ninth. That progress won’t have gone unnoticed by the Swans, but to compete and play in the English version of the league will take far more money and determination than the Swans want to make available at this time. So, currently they are in the Adran league, have no international recognition players wise, but compete well with the other top Welsh sides.

They have been a credit to the Swans this season and there are growing a big following across the country. Especially when playing at the Swansea.Com. Small steps maybe, but for a more vidual global growth they need to be in the English league set up.

Diagram DTC, Cardiff Artwork by Swansea independent

ReslovenSwan1 added 16:03 - Dec 22 I do not think moving to England is in the plan. Coleman talked about developing the Swansea team and interestingly "developing the women's football in the whole of Wales". This sounds great and also quite low cost. It seemed an odd comment for him to make but is makes sense.
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