US owner progress in Welsh football

On the back of the US success with Wrexham in English football - the Football Association of Wales has pitched to American companies about the possibility of investing in Welsh football.

And it seems it has worked, with the association's chief executive Noel Mooney revealing that there are not due diligence checks taking place ahead of prospective owners taking over Welsh clubs.

He has not revealed who the clubs involved are, but he stated that the process has begun.

Speaking on a podcast this week, he said: "We go back to the strategy of the Cymru Premier and we have started for the first time to have a plan for investment to grow the league.

"It is one of the weakest in Europe, there is no other way to look at it, but we are trying to build something.

"We wanted a real plan and to differentiate away from other leagues because football is saturated, there is enormous competition.

"One plan we have in place is the eight pillars and one of those is about building these clubs in a community.

"We cannot compete with the biggest clubs in Europe, we accept that.

"But we can build in the community and that is why we funded a full time staff member for each club.

"We have also looked at investment into the game, and Jack Sharpe, head of domestic leagues, went to Miami and presented to a Soccer X convention.

"I can exclusively reveal that a number of Americans are looking to buy Welsh clubs, and they are going through the due diligence process at the moment, to invest in Welsh football, and we are really moving the dial on that." 

The chief executive has been one of the catalysts behind a host of changes in Welsh football - including the pyramid change a handful of years ago.

He has also played a key role in the change in the Cymru Premier - which will go up four teams to become a 16 side league next season following consultations with clubs.

And there is also a big change on the way, when most of the games in the top division will be played on a Friday night.

Mooney added: "We have trailed Friday night football which has worked well for some clubs and not for others.

"We had a meeting with clubs recently and that was the theme.

"We want to have Fridays as the centre point for the league, but that isn't to say every game will be on a Friday.

"We have to make decisions that will not be popular, but we want Fridays to be the dominant theme.

"People say about travelling and it impacting games, say Bala to Penybont on a Friday night,

"We don't see big crowds at those games anyway, so it won't have a huge audience whatever night they play.

"The crowds we are getting and seeing now are growing in the North Wales area and something special is building there.

"Haverfordwest and Penybont have done brilliantly.

"We are already seeing what we dreamed would happen two years ago when we invested millions of pounds.

"We have Americans looking to invest but we need to keep our heads and we need people to trust we can build something.

"We are a warm, empathetic association and we are fans, and we want to make the league different."