Portsmouth's Championship rivals faced with opposition over plans to join another competition

Pompey’s Championship rivals Cardiff City and Swansea City are faced with overcoming a major hurdle over their plans to qualify for Europe through a Welsh competition.

At the end of September, it was revealed that the four Welsh clubs in the English Football League (EFL), Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham, and Newport County had entertained the idea of qualifying for Europe by joining the Welsh League Cup. All of them in would give up their right to qualify for Europe via the Carabao Cup, FA Cup or the Premier League, to join the Welsh League Cup, which would see them compete against mainly semi-professional teams.

They would continue to play their league football in the EFL which they have done since their inception as Wales did not have a national league until 1992. The plans to join the Welsh competition and qualify for Europe were described as a ‘transformational change’ by those who suggested the idea. It would help provide economic benefit to Welsh domestic football, whilst also giving the four professional teams a more realistic chance of winning a cup and qualifying for Europe.

Those plans though would need to be approved by several organisations before they could come to fruition, however. UEFA would need to allow it, and so would the likes of the EFL, English Football Association, and the Football Association of Wales.

Talks were put to the Professional Game Board, which oversees all things English football. All Welsh teams contacted the FA to seek assurances they would be allowed to play in England if their plans to compete in a Welsh competition were accepted.

Now the idea could fall at one of its first hurdles. According to the Daily Mail a series of 'red flags' have been raised against the Welsh club's plans. The biggest concern is the potential impact on the fixture schedule should one of the sides qualify for the league phase.

Championship matches are usually played on the same week as European games, so there would be the possibility of fixture congestion. Welsh clubs would also have an 'unfair advantage' of gaining revenues from Europe, which English clubs would be unable to access.

Welsh domestic champions The New Saints are in the group stages of the Conference League, UEFA’s third-tier competition, and have pocketed a tidy sum of money. According to Football Coefficient, TNS have pocketed £3.8m from qualifying and winning one match against the Kazakh champions Astana. Such money would make a difference to an EFL club, but for the majority of teams, they wouldn’t be afforded that opportunity, unlike the likes of Cardiff and Swansea.

The English FA would have to give their approval, and talks are continuing with the Premier League and the English Football League. There is a feeling though that the Welsh teams are trying to ‘have their Welsh cake and eat it’ according to one unnamed executive. Some feel the plans should be rejected as the prospect of sharing these revenues with EFL teams was 'swiftly shot down' during a call last week.

In the mean time, nothing will change this season. Pompey’s rivals Cardiff and Swansea will enter the 2024/25 FA Cup third round in January, whilst Newport and Wrexham have already been knocked out. Pompey last competed in Europe in the 2008/09 season after defeating Cardiff in the FA Cup final.