Room for football and rugby to thrive in Wales
The age-old debate of whether Wales is a football nation rather than a rugby nation reared its head last week when the Football Association of Wales proudly announced the results of a recent survey. Unsurprisingly, interest in the Gareth Bale-inspired Welsh team is up and the 1,000 sample survey puts football two per cent ahead of rugby as the most popular sport in the country.
No-one can deny that things are going well for football in Wales – and have been doing so ever since Gary Speed and Chris Coleman revolutionised the way the international side is treated and prepared. The ‘Rag Tag Rovers’ of years ago, who trained on any old pitch and stayed in any old hotel, have been transformed into a thoroughly professional outfit that wants for nothing. On that score, they followed the lead of the WRU, who have created one of the best training facilities in world rugby at the Vale of Glamorgan resort.
Results have improved and they now stand on the verge of qualifying through a play-off process for the World Cup in Qatar. No wonder the FAW chief executive Noel Mooney wanted to pre-load the decisive game against either Scotland or Ukraine next Sunday with as much positive news as possible. The Uefa inspired survey also came at the same time as the leaders of the game in Welsh rugby were under considerable fire and the performances of both the national team and regions were at their lowest ebb in years.
To me, it is a nebulous debate. The two games have co-existed side-byside for more than 140 years and have kept the Welsh flag flying high around the world at various times.
Throughout that time football has been a professional game, while rugby union only reached that status 27 years ago. Rugby is still going through growing pains, while football is the biggest sport in the world.
Let’s face it, when Gareth Bale can earn as much in a week as the likes of Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Biggar and Liam Williams make in a year, it is pretty obvious that professional rugby has a way to go. If you are a kid in school and you want to play professional sport, which one are you going to be most impressed by?
My young lad, Carter, plays both sports and loves them equally. He follows both national teams and simply wants Wales to do well in whatever sport he is watching.
Surely, that’s the crux of the matter! When the swimmer Matt Richards won an Olympic gold medal last year we all felt proud to be Welsh. So, too, when Jade Jones was picking up taekwondo gold at successive Olympic Games or when Geraint Thomas won the Tour de France.
We are a sports-mad nation that consistently punches well above its weight. Who wouldn’t want a sporting roll of honour that includes the likes of John Charles, Gareth Edwards, Lynn Davies, Joe Calzaghe, Colin Jackson, Nicole Cook, Jade, Geraint, Gareth Bale and Alun Wyn Jones.
There have always been more people playing football in Wales than rugby. Their grassroots numbers are probably around double that of rugby and they want to increase their 90,000 to 120,000 via some ambitious plans over the next five years. The number of females playing the game has rocketed and, once again, they want to grow the 8,000-plus they currently have to a much bigger figure.
Welsh rugby is operating in the same space and fighting to retain players and grow numbers. Geraint John, who is in charge of community rugby in Wales, knows how big a battle he faces to grow the game.
Success at professional level is key to attracting attention – Swansea City’s seven-year stay in the Premier league, along with Cardiff City’s two promotions to the top tier, have been a major boost to the popularity of Welsh football – and had this survey been taken in 2019, after Wales had won another Grand Slam and reached the semifinals of the World Cup, the outcome might have been different.
Once Bale, Aaron Ramsey, Joe Allen and Wayne Hennessey have retired, will there be a slump in Welsh football fortunes in terms of qualifying for major tournaments? I hope not, but any slip back to the bad old days of missing out on the Euros, dropping down the Nations League ladder and not being competitive in World Cup qualifying could have a negative impact.
The success at the highest level of football of Bale and Ramsey in particular, building on the performances for their clubs of players like Ian Rush, Mark Hughes and Ryan Giggs, have given the game in Wales a considerable lift. The difference now is that the modern day stars are performing for their country as well as their clubs.
I went to France in 2016 to watch Wales play at the Euros and it was a magical experience and I’d love nothing more than to see them reach the World Cup finals in Qatar next weekend. If that does happen then it is going to put pressure on Welsh rugby to respond. Perhaps a 3-0 Test series win over the Springboks could redress the balance!
I’m seeing teams fold at junior level in Welsh rugby, football expanding and too many people talking down the game we call our ‘national sport’. I’m not sure who coined that phrase, but it hasn’t been helpful in recent times.
The commercial power of football is best illustrated by the fact Swansea City made £120m from being in the Premier League in one season, while the WRU’s record turnover is £90m. The broadcast deals in soccer dwarf those in rugby, the media exposure is so much greater and it is a massive sport all over the globe.
Against that kind of background, you really have to ask yourself the question why has football been lagging behind rugby for so long in Wales, rather than applauding the fact it has just edged ahead of it in one survey. But it is not a battle.
Each sport is as culturally and economically significant as the other and is a massive part of the Welsh psyche and identity. Long may that be the case and let’s all stand ‘Together Stronger’ in backing Gareth Bale and his team next Sunday. C’mon Wales!
“There have always been more people playing football in Wales than rugby”