Welsh Premier League 2016-17

Welsh Premier League 2016–17
Season information
Dates	12 August 2016 – 22 April 2017
Winners	The New Saints (11th title)
Relegated	Rhyl Airbus UK Broughton
Season statistics
Matches played	192
Goals scored	587
Biggest home win	New Saints 10–0 Rhyl
Biggest away win	Airbus UK 0–7 Newtown
Highest scoring	New Saints 10–0 Rhyl (28 August 2016) Bala Town 4–6 New Saints
← 2015–16	2017–18 →

The 2016–17 Welsh Premier League (known as the Dafabet Welsh Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 25th season of the Welsh Premier League, the highest football league within Wales since its establishment in 1992. The New Saints are the defending champions. The fixtures were announced on 22 June 2016. The season began on 12 August 2016 and ended on 22 April 2017; the Europa League play-offs will follow afterwards.

Teams played each other twice on a home and away basis, before the league split into two groups at the end of January 2017 – the top six and the bottom six.

On 30 December 2016, The New Saints broke Ajax's 44-year-old world record for the longest winning streak in top-flight football with their 27th consecutive win in all competitions. Their record run of 27 wins came to an end with a 3–3 draw on 14 January 2017.

On 4 March 2017, The New Saints defeated Bangor 4–0 to clinch their sixth straight Welsh Premier League title and eleventh Welsh league title overall.

Teams

Haverfordwest County and Port Talbot Town were relegated out of the Welsh Premier League the previous season, while Cefn Druids were promoted as winners of the Cymru Alliance and Cardiff Metropolitan University were promoted as winners of Welsh Football League Division One. It will be Cardiff Metropolitan University's debut campaign in the league under that name, although they were formerly members when known as Inter Cardiff.

Stadia and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Aberystwyth Town	Aberystwyth	Park Avenue	5,000
Airbus UK Broughton	Broughton	The Airfield	1,600
Bala Town	Bala	Maes Tegid	3,000
Bangor City	Bangor	Nantporth	3,000
Cardiff Metropolitan University	Cardiff	Cyncoed Campus	1,620
Carmarthen Town	Carmarthen	Richmond Park	3,000
Cefn Druids	Wrexham	The Rock	3,000
Connah's Quay Nomads	Connah's Quay	Deeside Stadium	1,500
Llandudno	Llandudno	Park MBi Maesdu	1,013
Newtown	Newtown	Latham Park	5,000
Rhyl	Rhyl	The Corbett Sports Stadium	3,000
The New Saints	Oswestry	Park Hall	2,000

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	The New Saints  (C)	32	28	1	3	101	26	+75	85	UEFA Champions League First qualifying round
2	Connah's Quay Nomads	32	16	10	6	45	24	+21	58	UEFA Europa League First qualifying round
3	Bala Town	32	16	9	7	61	46	+15	57
4	Bangor City	32	16	4	12	53	53	0	52	Qualification to Europa League play-offs
5	Carmarthen Town	32	10	9	13	40	46	−6	39
6	Cardiff Metropolitan University	32	10	6	16	41	41	0	36
7	Newtown	32	12	9	11	59	41	+18	45
8	Cefn Druids	32	9	12	11	40	48	−8	39
9	Llandudno	30	7	12	11	31	45	−14	33
10	Aberystwyth Town	42	10	14	18	41	63	−22	44
11	Rhyl  (R)	30	8	4	18	38	76	−38	28	Relegation to Cymru Alliance
12	Airbus UK Broughton  (R)	32	5	6	21	37	78	−41	21

Source: Welsh Premier League
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

UEFA Europa League play-offs

Teams who finished in positions fourth to seventh at the end of the regular season participated in play-offs to determine the third participant for the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League, who qualified for the first qualifying round.

Semi-finals

6 May 2017 (2017-05-06) 14:30 BST	Bangor City	3–2	Newtown	Nantporth, Bangor Attendance: 638 Referee: Dean John
	Taylor-Fletcher  5' Nardiello  12' Roberts  75'	BBC Sport Soccerway	Boundford  19' Mitchell  26'

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7 May 2017 (2017-05-07) 14:15 BST	Carmarthen Town	1–2	Cardiff Metropolitan University	Richmond Park, Carmarthen Attendance: 417 Referee: Lee Evans
	Griffiths  48'	BBC Sport Soccerway	Roscrow  60' Corsby  90+3'

Final

13 May 2017 (2017-05-13) 17:15 BST	Bangor City	1–0	Cardiff Metropolitan University	Nantporth, Bangor Attendance: 956 Referee: Bryn Markham-Jones
	Rittenberg  31'	BBC Sport Soccerway

External links

• Official website

Template:2016–17 in Welsh football