As the celebrations settle following The New Saints lifting the JD Welsh Cup trophy in April’s Final against Bala Town, clubs are preparing to get the 2023/2024 edition of the competition underway.
Qualifying Round 1 of the competition takes place on Saturday, 29 July and the draw for it will be streamed on the FAW’s free streaming service, RedWall+.
For those who are yet to join RedWall+, details can be found below.
How does the format of the JD Welsh Cup work for 2023/2024?
As per the Competition Rules, all Tier 1-3 Clubs must enter the competition.
The stages at which the Clubs will enter the competition remains unchanged from last season.
- 28 Clubs will be provided with byes directly to Round 2. This will consist of the 12 JD Cymru Premier Clubs for 2023/2024, who will be joined by 8 Clubs from the JD Cymru North and 8 Clubs from the JD Cymru South, based on their finishing positions from 2022/2023.
- 16 Clubs will be provided with byes directly to Round 1. This will consist of the remaining Cymru North & South sides, who had not been provided with a bye to Round 2. These 16 Clubs will also consist of the Clubs promoted to Tier 2 from Tier 3 in 2022/2023.
- On the basis of the number of entrants this year, 18 Clubs from Tier 3 were provided byes to Qualifying Round 2 – which was determined on the basis of sporting merit, using the finishing positions from 2022/2023.
In one small change to the competition this season, there will no longer be seeding in Round 2 for Clubs, therefore, the JD Welsh Cup will operate on an open draw basis, so anyone can draw anyone.
How will the JD Welsh Cup Qualifying Round 1 draw work?
Monday’s Qualifying Round 1 draw will include 188 Clubs. The Clubs have been split into 7 pots, based on the geographic makeup of the Clubs.
These pots are as follows:
- South East
- South Central
- South West
- Central
- North West
- North Central
- North East
Clubs have been allocated to a pot based on their geographic location.
Each Club has been allocated a number for the draw between 1-32. Numbered balls will then be drawn to determine the Qualifying Round 1 fixtures.
Where two or more pots have the same number of Clubs, the drawing of balls will apply to all pots.
For example, in Monday’s draw there will be 32 Clubs in the South Central and South West.
Therefore, in these pots, if ball number 1 is drawn against ball number 32, then the fixtures will be:
- Canton Liberal (1) v Aber Valley (32)
- Penlan (1) v Pencoed (32)
Due to the composition of the pots, there will be five separate draws:
- Firstly, to determine the matches for Clubs in the pots for South Central and South West – which all have 32 Clubs.
A second draw to determine the matches for Clubs in the pots for South East – which has 30 Clubs.
A third draw to determine the matches for Clubs in the pots for Central – which has 22 Clubs.
A fourth draw to determine the matches for Clubs in the pots for North West and North Central – which has 26 Clubs.
Finally, a fifth draw to determine the matches for Clubs in the pot for North East – which has 20 Clubs.
What clubs have received byes into Qualifying Round 2?
The following clubs have received a bye into JD Welsh Cup Qualifying Round 2:
- Bow Street
- Caldicot Town
- Cefn Albion
- Cefn Cribwr
- Conwy Borough
- Flint Mountain
- Holyhead Hotspur
- Llanfair United
- Llanuwchllyn
- Penwhiwceiber Rangers
- Penrhyncoch
- Pontyclun
- Risca United
- Swansea University
- Trethomas Bluebirds
- Undy Athletic
- Y Rhyl 1879
- Ynyshir Albions
How can you watch the JD Welsh Cup Qualifying Round 1 draw?
The JD Welsh Cup Qualifying Round 1 draw will be streamed on RedWall+ at 8pm on Monday, 10 July.
RedWall+ is the free Welsh football streaming service from the Football Association of Wales full of original content.
Check out the trailer below for a taste of what you can watch on the platform.
It is recommended that viewers sign-up to RedWall+ ahead of Monday’s (10 July) draw.
You can do this via your web browsers or mobile device:
The FAW Cup Draw Show will appear on RedWall+ ahead of the 8pm broadcast on Monday.
JD Welsh Cup Final 2023
Take a look back on RedWall+
