Football
The Reason Why The New Saints Have To Play Their UEFA Conference League Home Games At League One Shrewsbury Town
Ben Horlock is a sports news and features writer who holds a degree in sports journalism (BA Hons) from Southampton Solent University. Ben has been published across a wide variety of news outlets and websites including HITC, 90min, GiveMeSport, Betfair and Zoo Magazine. As well, Ben has worked in social media for four years in the sports gambling industry. For his sins, Ben is a QPR fan and is a keen follower of all the major European football leagues.
Get to know Ben Horlock betterPublished24 Oct 2024
The TNS home games in the 2024/25 UEFA Conference League will be played at Shrewsbury Town’s Croud Meadow Stadium.
Ahead of their maiden European adventure, TNS will welcome Djurgarden, Astana and Panathinaikos to the League One ground in Shropshire.
The Welsh Premier outfit has away trips to Shamrock Rovers and Celje still to look forward to in the newly-formatted league stage.
TNS, officially known as The New Saints, will be aiming to cause a number of upsets along the way. They beat FK Panevėžys to get this far but suffered a 2-0 defeat to Fiorentina on GW1.
Ready to host @europacnfleague action 👊
🔷🔶 #Salop pic.twitter.com/QWLbYV3igg
— Shrewsbury Town FC (@shrewsburytown) October 23, 2024
Why Are TNS Home Games Being Played At Shrewsbury Town?
The reason that TNS are playing at Shrewsbury Town is due to the fact their own home stadium doesn’t meet UEFA’s regulations for hosting main draw European matches.
However, they were able to fulfil their qualifying fixtures at their own venue called Park Hall. It is also commonly referred to as The Venue.
Most notably, UEFA stipulates that clubs featuring in European competition must play their home games in a stadium within their own association.
In TNS’ case, they were awarded special dispensation to host matches outside of Wales. Owing to the fact there were no suitable category four stadiums to use as an alternative.
“We’d like to thank Shrewsbury Town for allowing us to host these historic matches at Croud Meadow,” explained TNS chairman Mike Harris.
“We are hopeful the community will come out in full force to support The New Saints as we face some of the continent’s biggest clubs.
“Being so close to our Park Hall home will mean that supporters from Oswestry, Mid Wales, and North Wales can travel to cheer on the team.”
There are just over 20 miles between Shrewsbury and Saints’ village base of Llansantfraid. Furthermore, there are less than 20 miles for supporters to travel from Oswestry.
This is the destination where home games have been played since the redevelopment of Park Hall. Cardiff had been touted as a possibility. However, it was ruled out as it is too far for supporters to navigate.
Ironically, TNS did play a UEFA Cup qualifier against current Premier League champions Manchester City in the Welsh capital. City won on that occasion 2-0 back in 2003.
Goals from Christian Negouai and Darren Huckerby were enough at what was called the Millenium Stadium. The Welsh side lost 7-0 on aggregate.