WELSH CUP

Apparently on the newport forum merthyr town have tweeted that we will not be allowed to enter the welsh cup. It would be nice iff us supporters can be informed so that we do not have to go on other clubs websites to find such out such information, Can any one confirm iff this is true

Its correct. Also posted on Twitter & Facebook by various folk.

Supporters were informed within 5 minutes of me receiving email from FAW via Twitter & Facebook. I was away travelling and am not able to post on forum via my phone which is why it was not posted.

The charity fund “support Jamie in getting a decent mobile phone” starts here...

Regarding the passing on of information, James Bayliss, the Media & Communications person, is no longer with the club (he was only meant to be in post for a limited time in any case), so perhaps there's an opportunity for someone to volunteer to co-ordinate such things?

Remember nearly everything to do with the club now is down to volunteers, and existing ones can only do so much.

As for the Welsh Cup, at least we won't have the problem of fitting the games in like we had last season.

Correct me iff i am wrong i thought the position was funded for a year/ 2year duration.Further a post of assistant admin personel was advertised only recentlly on our website which was funded for six months.Perhaps someone can clarify what has changed as j bayliss seemed very enthusiastic when he started. The assistant was to support the business and development manager and funded by job growth wales. I assume j bayliss was also supported/funded by job growth wales so i assume the job as been readvertised and filled by the present business development manager or have i gone off on a tangent??? Iff as imp states the club is now run by only volunteers what has happened to the funding under job growth wales etc

The funding was for Stephen Lloyd's job as Business Development Manager, not for James'..

As far as I am aware!
James was involved with Media information. I think (not sure) that he volunteered to help the club as part of his studies.
Stephen Lloyd, I assume, has a remit to promote Merthyr Town as a business, therefore increasing the club's income. That is how I see the situation.

What reason have the Welsh FA given for excluding us from the Welsh Cup?

Yes as I understand it James volunteered as part of his university course, a very nice lad as was his dad who came to most of the games with him.Talking to him and his father I understand James is to do a similar job at Gloucester City this season, good luck James you and your father will be missed.

Correct me iff i am wrong i thought the position was funded for a year/ 2year duration.Further a post of assistant admin personel was advertised only recentlly on our website which was funded for six months.Perhaps someone can clarify what has changed as j bayliss seemed very enthusiastic when he started. The assistant was to support the business and development manager and funded by job growth wales. I assume j bayliss was also supported/funded by job growth wales so i assume the job as been readvertised and filled by the present business development manager or have i gone off on a tangent??? Iff as imp states the club is now run by only volunteers what has happened to the funding under job growth wales etc.
scamp

James Bayliss is a student who spent the season on placement as part of his course. He was not funded or paid, although he received some expenses.

Tha advert for an Administrative Assistant stated that the closing date for applications was last Friday, so clearly no one will be in post for a bit.

The task of communicating with supporters and other interested people is shared by half a dozen volunteers in addition to the BDM, all of whom carry out other tasks at the club. We use the Merthyr Express, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday, match day programme, website, forum, twitter, posters, leaflets & text messages. There is no one person co-ordinating all these activities, although there is good liaison between the people involved. The BDM and his new temporary assistant have other roles, so the joint approach will probably continue.

Of course more volunteers to assist with this task are always welcome.

scamp wrote:If as Imp states the club is now run by only volunteers...

What I actually said was 'nearly everything to do with the club now is down to volunteers'.

Yes you are correct imp .Looking at the job application criteria i would imagine the assist admin will have a big part to play as regard to the press.Being present at the park daily will make things a lot easier i would imagine.I appreciate that he can only supply information that the club are able to supply to him .At least this discussion has made things a lot clearer how things at the club are run behind the scenes so to speak.

I appreciate that the volunteers involved in running MTFC do have lives outside the club, and I'm content to let them liaise as necessary and put out whatever information they think will be of interest to society members and supporters, as and when they can. It concerns me a bit that this forum takes attention away from the official website.

As for the Welsh Cup, I'm not bothered that we are not being asked to participate, but I too would like to know what reason is being given for excluding us. Couldn't find anything relevant yesterday on the FAW website.

No big loss with the Wesh Cup, especially after the Welsh FA accomadating atitude last year with fixture deadlines last season, a compettion that has lost all its value and prestige over the years.

well i am gutted fancy missing out on these exciting games,personally they can keep the welsh cup.

hirwaunman wrote: It concerns me a bit that this forum takes attention away from the official website.

The internet is not the same as it was ten years ago though hirwaunman. The idea of organisations having a sole static website are long gone. Sure there are tons of small local businesses who maybe are not so web savvy who still knock out these sites with their overly long ultra-hyphenated webnames who think they have a web presence. As occasionally such sites generously provide a web-counter I learn that is often the case that my blog gets more visitors in a single morning that many of these places see in their lifespan. Beyond the obligatory visit by mum and the best friend from the pub who leave a note in the guestbook (ugh!)

Indeed the emphasis has long moved, with the advent of what was known as web 2.0, onto connectivity and the social. Those who get the media stuff out onto the web for Merthyr clearly get this and James got this. Things are not simply posted to a website on a "Post it and they will come" basis but are tweeted and retweeted and facebook liked. They can also be stumbled and reddited and google plussed. They can be blogged about and talked about on forums. None of this takes anything away from the site as the key is to get the information out-there which means using all the outlets available to get to people where they are at and not wait for them to come to you.

Chances are, in terms of reaching supporters, the most successful outlets for reaching the wider public is facebook and twitter and the "share" or "retweet" features respectively. Because social media is not simply about posting and being read, it is about being shared and commented upon.

So anyway, don't worry about the fact that the official website is not the centre of attention, newer uses of the net means that a single update reaches tens of thousands through people sharing, whereas the site may seldom get out of double figures in terms of visits. The presence of the forum won't alter this either way. Hope this helps, anyhow what were we talking about?

Oh yes The Welsh Cup.

I love the Welsh Cup and from a purely personal level it is going to be a pity we are not in it. I can understand why others feel the way they do but decisions it seems have been taken so any point of view I may have is purely academic.

Hope everyone on here is well, can't wait for the new season!

When you mention the name facebook i see red.To me it is just a gossip site where information provided cannot be taken as the truth in a lot of cases.I have heard of people through this site being declared dead when they are well and truly alive.There was a tragic case recently in merthyr where the wrong information was given out.Every body on this site have thousands of friends but in truth they are no where to be seen in the flesh.This is why in my opinion our forum and website should be given the information first because we know what we read is an accurate and truthfull account.My daughters will probably kill me for writing this because they are face book fanatics

I defer to Mountain Ash's superior knowledge of these things but confess I'm probably a dinosaur when it comes to Facebook, Tweeting, Twittering, Chirruping and so on. It troubles me that such things are brought about simply because they are possible or someone can make money out of them. There is never any preliminary analysis of their possible effects or debate about whether they are, on the whole, beneficial or detrimental to society .

As to the Welsh Cup - have the FAW given an explanation for MT's exclusion and, if so, what is it?

Because there are so many communication outlets today, football fans scavenge around for more and more snippets of information like A J Weberman rummaging through Bob Dylan's refuse bins.
In pre-Internet days the football season would end and football would more or less disappear from the sports pages, particularly the local weeklies, for the summer, leaving the swish of the willow on the sports grounds.
Merthyr Town are a part-time professional club who, as stated, through various sources, seem to be fairly well-publicised. But I am sure things are not happening at Merthyr on a daily basis which supporters need to know about!!
There are plenty of things to occupy our attention outside football. Fans pounce on potential information in anticipation of some great announcement. I am sure that the management and the players are doing the sensible thing- enjoying the summer break before the opening whistle blows again!
Any club information, I'm sure, is released as soon as possible!

Merthyr Town have just Tweeted this:


Received confirmation from @FAWales we are not allowed to enter Welsh Cup following UEFA decision regarding European qualification.

In answer to hirwaunman The above is taken from newport forum It seems jamie mack made the tweet

scamp wrote:Merthyr Town have just Tweeted this:


Received confirmation from @FAWales we are not allowed to enter Welsh Cup following UEFA decision regarding European qualification.

In answer to hirwaunman The above is taken from newport forum It seems jamie mack made the tweet

That 'Tweet' from Jamie appeared on the Merthyr website at least a day ago in the 'Twitter' section (bottom right, scroll down) - but whenever I've looked at the site today it just says 'loading tweets'.

hirwaunman wrote:
As to the Welsh Cup - have the FAW given an explanation for MT's exclusion and, if so, what is it?

I'm assuming it's not just us but also the other clubs in the English pyramid. But I don't know for sure - I couldn't find anything on the FAW website earlier today either.

I went on twitter on our website yesterday and as imp states it is coming up loading tweets all the time

WREXHAM, Newport County and Merthyr Town have been told they cannot compete in next season’s Welsh Cup.


The three clubs returned to the competition last season after a 17-year absence.

Welsh football chiefs had hoped to follow up their inclusion by getting leading “exiled” duo Swansea City and Cardiff City to join them to boost the cup’s profile.

But Uefa, European football’s governing body, ruled earlier this year that clubs in the English pyramid leagues are not allowed to represent Wales in Europe.





And, following that decision, the FAW appears not to have extended their invite to the exiles for this year’s competition.

Wrexham and Newport’s involvement last season attracted attention, but fixture clashes undermined their return with both sides failing to make the last eight having fielded reserve sides.

Last year’s winners The New Saints, meanwhile, will find out if they have been successful in their attempt to enter the English FA Cup next month.

The Welsh Premier league champions, who beat Cefn Druids 2-0 in last season’s Welsh Cup final, had applied to enter the competition following the FAW’s bid to entice the exiles claiming it paved the way to enter two tournaments.

But the Oswestry-based outfit seem unlikely to succeed in their bid with the FA claiming new applicants had to be entered in last year’s FA Trophy to qualify.