As well as generating more money for football in Wales and raising the domestic game’s profile, the FAW hopes that having the EFL clubs represent Wales in European competition could improve the country’s poor Uefa coefficient ranking, currently 49th out of 55.
Welsh teams tend to struggle in Europe but, in this season’s Europa Conference League, Cymru Premier champions The New Saints became the first side from the Welsh pyramid to qualify for the group stage of a major European competition.
The FAW believes Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham and Newport would improve Welsh performances in Europe, earning more prize money from Uefa which would then be redistributed in Wales.
Cymru Premier clubs, who would keep Wales’ routes to Champions League and Europa League qualification, support Prosiect Cymru “unanimously” and would stand to benefit from cup ties against their EFL rivals.
And for the EFL clubs themselves, there would be the obvious appeal of playing in Europe again, three decades after Wrexham were the last team to qualify via a domestic pathway when they played in the 1995-96 Cup Winners’ Cup.
Wales’ EFL clubs used to qualify via the Welsh Cup and all four have achieved notable European results. Cardiff beat Real Madrid in the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1971, Wrexham defeated Porto in the same competition in 1984 and Newport reached a Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final in 1981, while Swansea beat Valencia in a 2013 Europa League match.
“It’s a game-changer for Welsh football,” FAW chief executive Noel Mooney told BBC Sport Wales. “This really does change the revenues of Welsh football.
“This is about improving Wales and improving Welsh football. I have to thank the four top-ranked clubs in the English system for understanding that we need resources. We need better grassroots facilities, investments into the women’s game.
“If people object to this idea, I really think they’re holding back Wales. And why would you want to hold back Wales? What would be someone’s motivation to hold back Wales as a country trying to stand on its own two feet as a football nation?”
