| Full name | Llanelli Association Football Club |
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| Nickname(s) | The Reds | ||
| Founded | 1896 | ||
| Ground | Stebonheath Park Llanelli (Capacity: 3,700 (1,012 seated) |
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| Chairman | Nitin Parekh | ||
| Manager | Andy Legg | ||
| League | Welsh Premier League | ||
| 2010–11 | Welsh Premier League, 4th of 12 | ||
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Llanelli Association Football Club is a Welsh semi-professional football club that plays in the Welsh Premier League for the 2010–11 season. The team has been based at Stebonheath Park since 1920, and as of 2009 is managed by Andy Legg.
Formed in 1896, the club's first honour was the Welsh Football League championship claimed in 1913–14 with further wins coming in 1929–30 and 1932–33. Llanelli made several attempts to join The Football League, in 1922, 1923, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1950 and 1951. Despite making an effort to turn professional, the club was not elected. The closest they came was in 1933, where the club received 20 votes compared to 26 for Newport County and 45 for Swindon Town who were re-elected to the Third Division South. A further application to join the Football League or the league pyramid is rumoured since Llanelli A.F.C.'s turn from a semi-professional team to one that is fully professional, the fact that a wealthy television company bought out the team in 2005, the team's domestic and European success and of course the very likely possibility of using the Parc y Scarlets stadium to host a large crowd.
Llanelli was a founder member of the League of Wales in 1992, but after only four seasons suffered relegation. Promotion back to the top division was achieved in 1998–99, but 2002–03 saw the team demoted only to return to the top-flight for the 2004–05 season. Llanelli turned professional in 2005, and achieved a second-place finish behind The New Saints to qualify for the UEFA Cup. The club went one better in 2007–08 as the Welsh Premier League championship came to Llanelli for the first time.
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The club has had several periods of strength, with their first honours coming in 1914, when they won the Welsh Football League championship, a feat the club repeated in 1930 and 1933.
In the 1950s, in an effort to gain admission to the Football League they signed a number of professional players such as Jock Stein from Scottish side Albion Rovers, later to become a legend at Celtic The bid to gain entry failed, and the club sunk back into obscurity for some years.[1] The furthest the club has progressed in the FA Cup was a second round proper defeat to Colchester United in the 1952–53 season.
The club was a founder member of the League of Wales, but was relegated during the 1995–96 season. Three years later however it achieved promotion back to the top division, achieving its best finishing position of fifth in the 1999–2000 season. It was lucky to survive the following season, staying up because no team in the Welsh League Division One met the promotion criteria. Llanelli was eventually relegated two years later, but bounced back immediately for the 2004–05 season.
During the summer of 2005, the television company, Tinopolis announced ambitious plans for Llanelli AFC to become a full-time side. This move led to unprecedented success in the league, culminating in the best-ever finish of second, behind fellow full-timers The New Saints.[2] Finishing second in the league also qualified the club for the 2006–07 UEFA Cup.
On 11 April 2008, Llanelli AFC won the Welsh Premier League for the first time in their history.[3]
In the inaugural Europa League, Llanelli were drawn against Scottish Premier League outfit Motherwell. Due to pitch problems at their Fir Park ground the first leg was played at the Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie, some 7 miles north-west from Motherwell on 2 July 2009, where Llanelli claimed a shock 1–0 win.[4] The second leg of this tie was played at the Parc y Scarlets stadium, but despite high hopes pre-match, Llanelli could not prevent an early European exit as they were beaten 3–0, going out 3–1 on aggregate.
During the early years of the Twentieth Century, The Football League was flooded by applications from Welsh clubs to join their organisation.
Llanelli went on to seek election on no fewer than 10 occasions but failed each and every time, making them the Welsh club to fail in their bid for Football League status more than any other.
The closest the club came to election was in 1933 when they were just six votes short of winning a place in the Third Division South.
Their final attempt came in 1951 when they failed to receive any votes, though none of the eight clubs seeking election were victorious as Watford and Crystal Palace were successful in being re-elected.
The club's home ground is Stebonheath Park, which has a capacity of 3,700. In recent years, 1 big game in European competition has been played at Stradey Park, the traditional rugby venue in the town. The town's rugby sides, the Scarlets of the Magners League and Llanelli RFC, opened Parc y Scarlets, a new 14,000 capacity stadium, in November 2008. However, despite early rumours, Llanelli AFC have no plans to move there, and are instead committed towards improving their own ground.
The first ground improvement started in the summer of 2008 by building a seated stand to accommodate 300 supporters. This takes the Stebonheath Park seated capacity to 1,003 – therefore making it a UEFA-compliant stadium for European football.
Due to Stebonheath's limited capacity, it appears matches that attracting a large crowd will be played at Parc y Scarlets, starting with a UEFA Europa League tie against Motherwell on 9 July 2009.
Llanelli A.F.C. started their first Europa League campaign with a surprise 1–0 away victory over Scottish Premier League side Motherwell on 2 July 2009, however they were then beaten 3–0 at home a week later to lose the tie 3–1 on aggregate.
Llanelli A.F.C. qualified for the UEFA Champions League after finishing as the champions of the Welsh Premier League. The Reds were to play FK Ventspils from Latvia in the first qualifying round. In a close match at Stebonheath Park, Llanelli ran out 1–0 winners thanks to a goal from defender, Stuart Jones. The Reds then went to Latvia to try to defend this slender lead. At full time in Latvia, the match ended 4–0 to Ventspils which meant that Llanelli had been knocked out 4–1 on aggregate.
Llanelli A.F.C. qualified for the Intertoto Cup after finishing third in the Welsh Premier League behind The New Saints and Rhyl. The Reds travelled to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius for the first leg of the first round against FK Vėtra where they lost 3–1. A magnificent return leg (played at Carmarthen as Stebonheath did not meet UEFA criteria) saw Llanelli come agonizingly close to qualifying, taking the game from 3–2 down at half time to 5–3 up in the last minute (including a Rhys Griffiths hattrick) and missing a last gasp opportunity to finish off their badly shaken opponents, going out of the tournament on away goals.
Llanelli A.F.C. won the first qualifying round draw against the Swedish team Gefle IF (2–1) on aggregate. They then went on to play the Danish side Odense Boldklub in the second qualifying round.
Because of UEFA regulations on stadia, the club played its home leg of the first qualifying round at Llanelli's Stradey Park, home of the Llanelli Scarlets rugby union region, and played the second round home leg at Swansea City's Liberty Stadium. However, they suffered a substantial loss during the home leg and were ejected from the UEFA cup tournament (1–6) on aggregate.
| Season | Round | Opponents | Home leg | Away leg | Aggregate |
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| 2008-09 | Q1 | FK Ventspils | 1-0 | 0–4 | 1–4 |
| Season | Round | Opponents | Home leg | Away leg | Aggregate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-07 | Q1 | Gefle IF | 0–0 | 2-1 | 2-1 |
| Q2 | OB Odense | 1-5 | 0-1 | 1–6 | |
| 2009-10 | Q1 | Motherwell | 0–3 | 1–0 | 1–3 |
| 2010–11 | Q1 | Tauras | 2-2 | 2-3 | 4-5 |
| 2011–12 | Q2 | Dinamo Tbilisi | 2-1 | 0–5 | 2-6 |
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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