The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club, commonly known as The New Saints () or TNS FC are a professional football club that play in the , part of the Welsh football system, but are based completely within England, in Oswestry, Shropshire.
They are the most successful club in the Welsh league structure, with 18 league titles to their name. Since the 2001âÂÂ02 season, they have finished as champions or runners-up in every season, apart from 2008âÂÂ09, where they finished third in the league. They became the first side playing in the Welsh league system to qualify for the group or league stage of any European competition after reaching the league phase of the UEFA Conference League for the first time in the 2024âÂÂ25 season.
The club was formed as Llansantffraid F.C. to represent the border village of Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain (population: 1,000) in 1959, and played at the Recreation Ground.
They first tasted competitive football in the Montgomeryshire Amateur Football League, winning the championship seven times. At the end of the 1989âÂÂ90 season they were elected to the Central Wales League but their stay was brief, winning promotion to the Cymru Alliance as runners-up on their first attempt. Llansantffraid's progress continued and in 1992âÂÂ93 they gained promotion to the League of Wales, now the Cymru Premier, as champions and won the Welsh Intermediate Cup (formerly the Welsh Amateur Cup).
In the 1995âÂÂ96 season, Llansantffraid won the Welsh Cup and qualified for the first time for the European Cup Winners' Cup. At this time, a local computer company, Total Network Solutions of Oswestry, arranged a ã250,000 sponsorship deal which involved incorporating the company name into the club name. As Total Network Solutions Llansantffraid, they met Polish Cup winners Ruch Chorzów and earned a 1âÂÂ1 draw at home before losing 5âÂÂ0 in Poland. Since then they have qualified for European competitions several times. The club's European home games are generally played at either Newtown's or Wrexham's stadium, as their old Recreation Ground was far below UEFA's standards (though for their 2003 meeting with Manchester City, they played their home game at the 72,000-seat Millennium Stadium in Cardiff). To comply with UEFA's regulations on third-party sponsorship, the club were known by their initialism TNS by the European governing body in their competitions.
In 1997 the club's name was changed to Total Network Solutions F.C., being the first instance in the United Kingdom of a football club renaming itself after its sponsor's name only. Following the financial difficulies of Barry Town in the summer of 2003, TNS became the only Cymru Premier club which had a full-time playing staff. In the summer of 2005, however, Llanelli also announced plans to go full-time.
In the summer of 2003, the shareholders of Oswestry Town met to approve a merger with TNS. The financially weaker club was a close neighbour to TNS, and also played in the League of Wales despite being based across the border in Shropshire. The Football Association of Wales (FAW) ratified the merger on 14 August 2003 as did UEFA eventually, despite its initial objection to a merger of two clubs with different governing bodies.
The 2003âÂÂ04 season was trophyless for TNS as they finished runners-up in the League of Wales to Rhyl and were beaten finalists in the Welsh Cup, also to Rhyl. The 2004âÂÂ05 season proved much more successful, as TNS won a League and Cup double.
During the 2005âÂÂ06 off-season, after newly crowned Champions League winners Liverpool were initially denied a place in the next season's competition, TNS offered to play a one-legged tie against the Reds for TNS's place in the first qualifying round. After UEFA reached a compromise by which Liverpool were placed in the first qualifying round of the competition, TNS and Liverpool ended up drawn against one another anyway. Liverpool won the first leg at Anfield 3âÂÂ0 thanks to a Steven Gerrard hat-trick. In the second leg, played at Wrexham, Gerrard scored two goals after coming on as a substitute, adding to Djibril Cissé's opening goal for another 3âÂÂ0 Liverpool victory. Although defeated, TNS drew praise, most notably for the young Northern Irish goalkeeper Gerard Doherty, of whom Rafael BenÃÂtez said: "The goalkeeper saved a lot of goals and for me he was the best player in the two games".
In early 2006 the club's sponsor, Total Network Solutions, was taken over by British Telecom, as a result of which the sponsorship arrangement lapsed at the end of the 2005âÂÂ06 season, and it became necessary to find a new name for the club. After a trawl for new naming ideas, including an attempt to sell the naming rights on eBay, the name "The New Saints" was agreed upon as appropriate to the history of both of the originally merged clubs: Llansantffraid was always known as "The Saints"; Oswestry had strong connections with Saint Oswald, while the club's name was already abbreviated to TNS. A new club badge was also developed at the same time, featuring a dragon to represent Llansantffraid and a lion representing Oswestry.
On 10 February 2010, the BBC reported that the New Saints had applied to play home games at Chester City's Deva Stadium in 2010âÂÂ11, after having been turned down for a grant to help fund the construction of a new 1,000-seat stand at Park Hall. At the time, the mooted move was complicated by Chester City's governance issues. Deva Stadium's pitch and stands lie in Wales, but outbuildings on the site that housed the club offices are in England, and Chester City were under the jurisdiction of the English Football Association. Chester City were liquidated a month later by HMRC; in any event, the New Saints were granted a domestic licence by the FAW in April 2010 and remained at Park Hall for 2010âÂÂ11 season. The New Saints were crowned 2009âÂÂ10 Welsh Premier League Champions.
The New Saints entered the Champions League in 2010âÂÂ11. They were drawn against League of Ireland Premier Division Champions Bohemians in the Second Qualifying Round. They lost the first leg 1âÂÂ0 at Dalymount Park in Dublin on 13 July 2010. However, they won the second leg at Park Hall 4âÂÂ0 and won the tie 4âÂÂ1 on aggregate, the first ever tie won by the club since their European debut in 1996. Bohemians manager Pat Fenlon later labelled his team's performance as "disgraceful" and said that "the players let the club, league and country down". The result was labelled by others as the worst result in Bohemians' 40-year European history. The Saints advanced to play Belgian Pro League Champions and European giants Anderlecht. The Saints were beaten 3âÂÂ1 in the home leg played in Wrexham and 3âÂÂ0 in the away game at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium in Brussels. The Saints then played CSKA Sofia in the Europa League playoff round, but were beaten 5âÂÂ2 on aggregate. As league runners up during the 2010âÂÂ11 season, the Saints entered the Europa League qualifying rounds in 2011. They beat Belfast club Cliftonville 2âÂÂ1 on aggregate in the first round, but were eliminated by Danish club FC Midtjylland 8âÂÂ3 on aggregate in the following round.
On 30 December 2016, The New Saints defeated Cefn Druids 2âÂÂ0 in the Cymru Premier. This extended their winning run to 27 matches, surpassing the previous record of 26 set by Ajax in the 1970s for the most consecutive club victories by a top-flight team in Europe.
The New Saints qualified to the 2024âÂÂ25 UEFA Conference League following a 3âÂÂ0 win on aggregate over PanevÃÂà ¾ys in the playoffs on 29 August 2024, becoming the first club from the Welsh league system to qualify for the group stage of a major UEFA competition. The New Saints were forced to play their home matches at Shrewsbury Town's New Meadow stadium due to Park Hall not meeting UEFA's regulations for hosting non-qualification matches. The New Saints faced Fiorentina in their first European group stage match on 3 October and were defeated 2âÂÂ0. On 24 October, The New Saints became the first domestic Welsh club to win in the group stage of a major European competition, courtesy of a 2âÂÂ0 victory over FC Astana at New Meadow.
Mike Harris formed The New Saints Football Club Foundation in 2013 to help those in the local community around the town of Oswestry. Following the model of many football community trusts, The New Saints Foundation benefits the local community by running numerous initiatives to promote health, wellbeing and inclusion, including free universal access summer camps which include free meals for the young people in the area.
The main aim of TNSFC Foundation is to make physical activity accessible to boost health and social inclusion, while also protecting children and young people from risk of harm. All children and young people can benefit from the Foundation, and sessions include rural youth clubs, fun football skills sessions for 4 to 15 year olds, and provision for disabled children and those with special educational needs.
TNSFC Foundation works with various partners and funders to lead and facilitate a diverse range of activities which will promote health, wellbeing and opportunity for the community it serves. The running costs of the Foundation are funded by investments from Harris, while activities and events are funded by fundraising activity and paid-for classes.
Currently, the Foundation works with 15 schools in the local area, providing PE lessons and multi-sport after school clubs during term time, as well as around 4,000 places and free meals annually for school holiday activities.
After school clubs are typically costed â however, TNSFC Foundation aims to make them as affordable as possible in comparison to other provision in the local area. This also allows the Foundation to work with disengaged young people, who may be at risk of crime, anti-social behaviour or face exclusion from school. The Foundation recently secured funding for a 12-month programme to work and support these children following a successful pilot project.
As well as supporting the local youth, TNSFC Foundation has also offered free meals to the older community in the local area and provides opportunities for older members of the community to get active e.g. through walking football and local walking initiatives.
The club's futsal side has also seen success, having been winners of the inaugural FAW Futsal Cup in 2011 and reaching the final in 2012.
As of 14 December 2024
The New Saints Ladies FC was founded in 2002 and played in the FA Women's National League Midlands Division 1. In August 2020, it was announced that the women's section was splitting off and adopting the name Wem Town L.F.C. The new club claimed that women's football was low on TNS' list of priorities.
In June 2021, The New Saints F.C. Women were refounded and were granted a license to play in the Adran Premier, ahead of established top-flight clubs such as Abergavenny Town and Briton Ferry Llansawel. They continue to participate in the Adran Premier League, the highest tier of league competition in Welsh women's football, and also play their home games at Park Hall Stadium.
In the 2022âÂÂ23 season, they finished in 4th place. The team became semi-professional with the 2024âÂÂ25 season, the fourth such team in the Adran Premier. In that season they won their first silverware, beating Swansea 3 - 1 in the Adran Trophy final at Latham Park.