Why is the football club Swansea allowed to play in the Premier League although they are situated in Wales?

sportsherald

A good summary of why is provided at http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2011/05/31/wales-in-the-english-premier-league-a-potted-history-of-a-cross-border-anomaly/: "Welsh participation in the English league system thus dates back to the country's oldest club, Wrexham. Located close to the border with England adjacent to the Northwest hub of English football, it actually proved to be more profitable for the club to play in the English Combination minor league that ran from 1890 to 1911 than in the nascent Welsh League,... ...Wrexham eventually rose up the English system to the Football League, and the newer professional Welsh clubs such as Swansea and Cardiff followed them across the border in the early twentieth century." Jul 02 12, 12:28 PM

davejacobs

The reference explains why Welsh teams would want to play in English Leagues, but fails to say why they were allowed to. Jul 03 12, 1:45 AM

sportsherald

It goes back a very long time, and the article describes some of the thought process behind it- beyond that, there was no national league in Wales until 1992, and Wales had been administered as part of the English Kingdom since the 13th Century (until recent devolution) http://www.assemblywales.org/abthome/role-of-assembly-how-it-works/history-welsh-devolution.htm. Since the 1992 founding of a Welsh national league, some teams have ceased playing in English leagues, but some have not: "Swansea City are in the Premier League and Cardiff City in the Football League, with Newport County, Wrexham, Colwyn Bay and Merthyr Town in feeder leagues. These six teams have all played in the English football league system since their founding and all declined the offer to move into the League of Wales, now known as the Welsh Premier League, when it was founded in 1992. However, the Welsh teams Bangor City, Barry Town, Caernarfon Town, Newtown and Rhyl did move into the Welsh league system from the English league system." -from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_Wales#Welsh_teams_in_the_English_leagues This still leaves the question of why the English system does not force the "foreign" teams out, and while some voices are calling for this http://richardaitkins.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/ban-welsh-clubs-from-english-football/, there does not seem to be a large number supporting this. Finally, this is by no means a unique situation in the United Kingdom, or in the rest of the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_association_football_clubs_playing_in_the_league_of_another_country Jul 03 12, 5:54 PM