The Cymru Premier League is not fully professional. The knock-on effect of this is many football fans in Wales end up supporting teams in the English Football League as a result, which is reflected in our ranking of the biggest football clubs in Wales.
Only one Cymru Premier League team posted an attendance of over 1,000 during the 2023-24 campaign. All but two clubs average under 500 fans per home match.
Biggest Clubs in Welsh Football
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Swansea City
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Cardiff City
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Wrexham
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Newport County
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The New Saints
The numbers are similar to the seventh and eighth tiers in English football, with amateur teams in England often posting much larger attendances than the topflight outfits in Wales.
It's no surprise the four teams in the English Football League occupy the top four spots in these rankings.
The quartet can be broken into two separate tiers with two recent Premier League teams competing for top spot, and a pair of clubs lower down the pyramid battling it out for the final spot on the podium.
5) The New Saints
The perennial betting favourite in the Cymru Premier League, The New Saints have won all 16 of their league titles since 1999. Since 2010, Bangor City and Connah’s Quay Nomads are the only other teams to take Wales’ highest domestic honour.
Merthyr Town might be competing in the seventh tier of the English football pyramid after being reformed in 2010, but The New Saints deserve fifth spot on this list for their complete and utter dominance of Welsh football in the 21st century.
In 2024-25, TNS became the first team from the Welsh association to compete in a major European competition. Their win over Astana on matchday two was a historic moment for Welsh football.
TNS have won just over 24% of their matches in continental competition at the time of writing.
Annual drubbings in the 1990s and 2000s have been replaced with wins and occasional progression in the qualifying phases, capped off with their Conference League playoff triumph against Panevėžys in 2024.
4) Newport County
A fixture in League Two since earning promotion from the National League in 2013, Newport County have reached a pair of playoff finals and reached the fifth round of the FA Cup in 2018-19.
Knocking out Leicester City and Middlesbrough earned the club a lucrative matchup with Manchester City. Newport’s profile has increased around the country as a result, but it’s not enough to overtake Wrexham for third place in our rankings of the biggest football clubs in Wales.
Newport’s attendances have steadily increased since consolidating themselves as a Football League team.
Their home crowds are still considerably below the League Two average, though, and they haven’t challenged for promotion for a few years.
3) Wrexham
Wrexham have featured in many a bet builder since the Hollywood-powered takeover from Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. The club has never had anything like this level of worldwide attention, but they have been higher up the pyramid.
Playing in the second tier in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Wrexham have had several stints in the third tier prior to earning promotion at the end of the 2023-24 season. A string of eight seasons in the National League was ended with consecutive promotions.
The Welcome To Wrexham documentary has brought more eyes to the club than ever before. If we were judging the ‘size’ of these clubs on the strength of their brand, Wrexham would be top of the pile by a significant margin.
The story of the club has captured fans. Reynolds and McElhenney have not viewed this as an investment or a fun, short-term toy. They are bought into the town as much as the club – Wrexham are likely to continue their ascent in the years to come.
2) Cardiff City
One of two Welsh clubs with a major trophy in English football, Cardiff City are pipped to top spot by their bitter rivals Swansea.
Cardiff’s major silverware came in the form of the FA Cup back in 1927. They lost finals in 1925 and 2008 and were League Cup runners-up in 2012.
Cardiff haven’t survived more than one season in the top flight since the 1950s. There isn’t much of an argument to put Cardiff above Swansea here other than crowd size.
It’s very much feasible that Wrexham leapfrog Cardiff in the next few years given that the Bluebirds have consistently been at threat of relegation since 2021.
Other than the controversy surrounding Vincent Tan’s ownership of the club, Cardiff have spent a lot of time outside the spotlight in the 21st century.
It will take a change of course for the club to get close to promotion, which is a sad reflection on their recent trajectory.
1) Swansea City
Winners of the League Cup in 2013, Swansea City are the biggest football club in Wales at the time of writing.
Despite their success and recent stint in the Premier League, Swansea are not the best-supported team in Wales (that honour goes to Liverpool).
Swansea’s attendance is a few thousand behind Cardiff’s average in the last couple of seasons, but the Swans have been by far the stronger club in the 21st century.
They featured in Premier League predictions for seven straight seasons, including a Europa League appearance and two trips to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.
In that time, they wrote their own chapter in the Premier League history books through Michu’s phenomenal debut season, Brendan Rodgers’ successful spell, and the appointment of footballing royalty in Michael Laudrup.
Even since their relegation, Swansea have had the upper hand over Cardiff with a pair of top six finishes in the Championship.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Adobe*
