A Summer of Football by Chairman Mao

Wales will not be in Russia this summer. There’s plenty of people who probably think that it’s a good thing as they didn’t fancy being chased by some Neanderthal thugs around St Petersburg just because they’re bedecked head to toe in Spirit of 58 clobber. Of course that is nonsense as we would love to be there. The Russians will be great hosts and their vodka is very good. So what are we going to do in the summer?

France 2016 has set the bar high and can we really sit back and watch from afar again as a Finals tournament meanders through June into July? We’ve been at the heart of a tournament and now I want more, there’s a song lyric by some obscure band that notes “If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor” and that’s it really we’ve been to the top table and now we can’t watch on.

So what to do? No amount of big screen action in the Red Flag Bar is going to cut it really so we need a distraction, something that we can get behind and support through to the end. It’s not Glamorgan as the cricket fixtures are so fucked up it’s like watching three teams playing three different seasons for the same club. Who can keep up with that? Plus of course it rains in Wales so unless your idea of a good time is sheltering under the stand at Sophia Gardens with an expensive gassy lager in your hand then we need to find something else.

We may just have the solution even if it is only for seven days but what a week! 

Wales let us down for Russia and it’s probably the fault of the Gogs or the Jacks or even the Cardis so we need to look closer to home for our summer allegiance and maybe even further into the future.

The FAW is hosting the qualifying mini-tournament for the UEFA Regions Cup this year and who is representing our nation? It’s South Wales. It’s our very own mini-National team playing for glory but just closer to home.

The South Wales team has come through the qualifying rounds to reach the Regions Cup tournament for the first time. The team is also well represented by players from Merthyr Tydfil such as Chris Colvin-Owens and Asa Lloyd from Penydarren BGC so another great reason to get behind South Wales.

The mini-tournament will probably be played around Cardiff between 4th and 10th June and our local heroes will go up against teams from Greece, Macedonia and Sweden.

So dust off that SO58 bucket hat and try to relive Lille all over again with South Wales. And who knows where this journey may end? If Yorkshire can enter the CONIFA Alternative World Cup then why not South Wales? I just hope there’s no snakes in the team.