New League Season Launches with Excellent News Stories

* FAW double their Investment into the League

* Principality Renew their Sponsorship

* Live Match Every Saturday on S4/C's Sgorio Programme with new Presenters Dylan Ebenezer, John Hartson & Malcolm Allen

* New League Logo

* Loosemores Solicitors, Macron and Legea all renew their Sponsorship

The Welsh Premier League season kicks of on the weekend of the 13th,14th and 15th August, with an exciting new format, with the 12 member clubs all having met the exacting standards laid down in the FAW's new Domestic Licensing criteria.

The League to which the Football Association of Wales has doubled its financial commitment starts with an exciting new format that is designed to maintain the interest of all the clubs and their supporters throughout the season in effect comprising of three competitions for the price of one.

All, twelve clubs will initially play each other on a home and away basis giving each a total of 22 games. This will culminate in January with the League being split into two Conferences of the 6 highest and the 6 lowest placed clubs, with points already gained carried over. The six clubs in each will once again play each other on a home and away basis, giving a total of a further 10 games. The top six will play for the Championship, while the bottom six will play to avoid the possibility of relegation. They do, however, have a tremendous incentive as the top placed club in that Conference will be involved in the end of season Play off Competition for the second UEFA Europa League place. They will be joined by the clubs who finish in third to sixth place in the Championship Conference, providing one of them does not win the Welsh Cup. If one of them does, they will be replaced in the Play off by the runners up in the Relegation Conference.

The League and its clubs are committed to provide a quality product to attract more spectators to our grounds. The key to this is to attract more families and with this in mind we will ask each club to appoint an Officer to promote community activities in conjunction with our sponsors.

The Principality Building Society will once again be the Leagues major headline sponsor having agreed to extend the agreement that expired on 31st July for a further year.

In welcoming the new agreement Welsh Premier League Secretary, John Deakin said;

"I am absolutely delighted that Wales' Premier Building Society has agreed to back our new Premier League. I have often said throughout the four years of our previous agreement that The Principality Building Society is our ideal partner and we have developed an excellent mutually supportive relationship with Chief Operating Officer, Graeme Yorston and his staff in the Cardiff Headquarters and in branches throughout Wales."

In addition to this Loosemores Solicitors of Cardiff have extended their sponsorship of the League Cup Competition.

West Wales Print will again supply Macron footballs to the 12 member clubs.

Match Officials kits will again be supplied by Legea through Pontypridd based, Merlin Sports.

The fact that S4C will substantially increase their coverage of the League this season is sure to be beneficial not just to the profile of the Competition, but the exposure for sponsors. Starting with the Carmarthen Town v Aberystwyth Town on 14th August their will be a live broadcast of a Principality Building Society Welsh Premier League match each Saturday throughout the season.

Deakin added; " S4C's ongoing commitment to our League is really gratifying and they certainly have belief in the viability of the new format, which I believe will see the Principality Building Society Welsh Premier improve out of all recognition over the next five years. We were delighted when both The New Saints and Bangor won European ties recently and the objective must be to make this not an exceptional achievement but the norm."

The event today is the start of a re launch period for the new League and there will be an intensive advertising and promotional campaign over the next week in the run up to the big kick off. This will highlight the value for money football available to the Welsh public if they come out and support their local team from their own community. There will be of course many that see a trip over the border to watch football in England as an attractive option, but with money tight it's our job to convince them that there's a good standard of football available on their doorsteps, which they can watch in comfortable safe surroundings at costs that are affordable in this difficult economic climate.