PARIS: The New Saints are no strangers to making footballing history and on Thursday become the first Welsh home club to compete in the main draw of a European club competition. The first point for the 16-time Welsh UEFA Conference League winners is a daunting but glamorous trip to Serie A side Fiorentina – in stark contrast to Sunday’s away game at Briton Ferry in the Cymru Premier League. For Mike Harris, the energetic owner of The New Saints – an amalgam of the original Welsh club Llansantffraid and the English town of Oswestry, which lies close to the Welsh border – it is a dreamland. There have been high profile rivals before, Manchester City – TNS were the first team to play at what is now the Etihad Stadium in 2003 – and Liverpool in the UEFA Cup and Champions League qualifying rounds. But for a club that broke Ajax’s 1971 record for consecutive wins with 27 in 2016 – Al-Hilal set a new Saudi Pro League mark this year – it’s another step up the ladder. “It’s definitely exciting,” Harris told AFP in a Zoom call on Friday. “For a home Welsh team to play in Europe until Christmas has never happened. “It’s worth noting that such is the gap in finances that an English player’s wages could probably run the entire Welsh league for a season.” Harris, who merged the two clubs when he paid off Oswestry’s debts in 2003, says their success was the perfect response to domestic league gossip. “We are honored and proud to put the Welsh domestic league, described by Gary Lineker as the Farmers’ League, on the map,” he said. “At the end of the day, the more publicity our league gets, whether it’s good, bad or ugly, it’s a positive thing. “Everyone literally ignored us. “The Faroese League has a better chance of appearing on the BBC Scores Service than the Welsh!” Harris, whose self-deprecating sense of humor is never far away and who says with a smile that his golf handicap is higher than his age (61), notes that it is a goal he has pursued for nearly three decades. “It’s very much a dream come true for me,” he said. “I’ve been fighting and beating the drum for 27 years. “I made it my goal to try for five years and then do it, then five to turn into 10 and be a persistent old bugger, then another five years!” Telecoms specialist Harris, who has paid off Oswestry’s debts and built a new ground following the sale of his company to BT, says the target for the new league stage is modest. In their next games, they host Greek giants Panathinaikos, Sweden’s Djurgarden and Kazakhstan’s Astana – English League One (third tier) Shrewsbury – and are away in Ireland to Shamrock Rovers and Slovenia to face Celje. “I’d like to think we’d get some points over six games,” Harris said. “I don’t think anyone can be under any illusions that any game will be easy when you see the quality of the teams. “Our first ambition is to try to make the game competitive without being awkward.” The New Saints, the name chosen by supporters and which Harris says encapsulates both communities, should be able to make “several hundred thousand” pounds from the campaign. Harris says the club’s running costs are around £2.5m ($3.3m) – £1m for wages and £1.5m for administration and maintenance costs. “We should be able to develop our new training ground,” he said. “So our goal is again to try to improve the equipment that we have so that hopefully the next generations will be even better,” he said. It is rightly proud to have seven players in its Conference League squad who have come through the club’s academy, which is linked to local education. “Players are developed to be full-time footballers, things like that have always been quiet achievements,” he said. “You can’t see it until you peel the onion.” “We’ve given a lot of boys and girls a career in the football industry and many may never have had a chance, but we’ve been able to offer an opportunity there.”
