As part of the FAW’s “2020 vision and strategic plan for Welsh football”, the FAW committed to the following strategic objective.
“Stronger clubs operating at levels 1 and 2 following a successful restructure of the FAW Pyramid and a greater number of clubs attaining the National Licence.”
A Pyramid Review was established to ensure that the Association addressed this key objective for the domestic game in Wales.
The FAW’s National Game Board (NGB), now the National League board (NLB) established a Working Group to review the Welsh Football Domestic Pyramid structure in September 2014.
Following a review of Tier 1, where it was agreed that no structural changes would be recommended, the Working Group identified one weakness being the magnitude of the step up from Tier 2 to Tier 1 and agreed the following.
- To implement a standard Tier 2 Ground Criteria for implementation in April 2017 (which was latterly deferred until April 2018). This is aimed at improving facilities at Tier 2 and to reduce the gap between the standard facilities at Tiers 1 and 2
The Working Group then focused on the structure of the Pyramid from Tiers 2 down and developed the terms of reference for a study, which covered some of the following key areas during a series of meetings between April and September 2017:
- Strengths and limitations of the existing structure
- Potential new structure
The recommendations of the Working Group were shared with the FAW Community Game Board, National Game Board, International Game Board and the FAW ExCo before being discussed and approved by the FAW Council in October 2017, by a strong majority vote.
