“They’ll be dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions.”

Back at a time before things went ‘viral’, that famous line was as viral as it got when it came to following the football results on Sky Sports’ flagship Soccer Saturday show way back in 2003.

The club, now known as The New Saints, made history in 1997 when they became the first club in the UK to change their name based on a sponsorship deal, signing a £250,000 contract to leave the name of Llansantffraid behind, having initially been known as Total Network Solutions Llansantffraid, to take up the name of the telecommunications company.

Stelling would regularly make reference to the ‘dancing in the streets’ joke whenever TNS won a game, which happened regularly given their dominance of the Welsh Premier League. They have won the title 18 times in the last 26 years, having first been admitted into the Welsh League system in 1989.

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That is despite the club not actually being in Wales, something which grates with the other members of the Welsh league system.

TNS are based in Oswestry, Shropshire, just across the border from Wales. The ground is less than five miles from Wales, but, by rights, they should be in the English Football League system.

Then again, should Wrexham, Cardiff and Swansea be in the English pyramid? You can argue against both situations.

Whatever the arguments and concerns, though, you cannot argue against the work TNS do in the community. Charismatic owner Mike Harris, whom you can see on Apple TV, Prime Video or for free on YouTube in The New Saints Road to Europe: The Mike Harris Story, set up The New Saints Football Club Foundation in 2013, 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.

GIVEMESPORT was invited to Wales, I mean Shropshire, to see first-hand just what the club is like and how it bases itself at the heart of the community for their UEFA Conference League clash with Flora Tallinn of Estonia last week.

Despite winning their league most years, such is the way of UEFA’s set up, the Wales coefficient is so low that qualifying rounds are required to get into the competition proper.

TNS were knocked out at the first qualifying round stage, dropping down to enter the Conference League second qualifying round. Even winning their league can’t get them into the Conference League league phase.

Welsh Premier League dominance means TNS’ focus and heavy ambition remains European football and a crack at a run in one of UEFA’s competitions. They reached the Conference League league phase in 2024/25, playing against the likes of Fiorentina and Panathinaikos, picking up their first ever tournament proper win against Astana, but ultimately falling short.

TNS’ European dream for 2026/27 ended no sooner than it started

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Unfortunately, their 2026/27 run started and ended in July this time around as they were sent packing in that two-legged affair with Flora that GMS were present to witness.

After losing the first leg in Estonia 1-0, TNS had all of the possession and all of the chances at Park Hall, but for all their neat and tidy play – Ryan Brobbel is still a player by the way – they froze in the Flora 18-yard box on too many occasions, that was until the 91st minute when Ben Wilson fired home to send almost 1,000 fans into raptures and take the tie into extra-time.

Extra-time saw TNS retreat into their shells somewhat, with Flora finally playing some football, but the tie was destined for penalties and it was the Estonian side who would be dancing in the streets of TNS with a 4-2 shootout success.

That means TNS will have to wait another season to try their luck at getting into one of UEFA’s tournaments proper, something that owner Miike Harris said was crucial to the future of the club and the Wales Football Association as a whole.

When you look at the UEFA coefficient table, Wales are 54th out of 55 nations, with only San Marino below them, making their chances of progression very slim indeed.

Speaking exclusively to GMS, Harris said: “At the moment we’re floundering at the bottom of the coefficient points so if we stay where we are as a country, it means that we lose one team in Europe and the majority of funding comes from European competition. It’s not just important for us, it’s important for the league.

“The league is mainly part-time and we’re well underfunded. We’d love to see the other clubs getting funded as well which means more competitive games within our league, which means you’re more likely to get results when you come into these competitions.

We’ve progressed, the league’s progressed, but every other country has progressed as well.”

As with anything in life, it comes down to money and Harris admitted that the Welsh system needed more funding in order to progress further.

“Ultimately, football needs funding,” he said. “Ultimately, football needs progression and the only route for Welsh football was through the European system and that’s not to go and play first round and get knocked out and get a couple of hundred grand, the vision for every club in this league has to be to win round one, win round two and get into the group stage, which ultimately unlocks association money from Europe, not just from what our country can make.

“The Welsh FA has got money, they’re not skint, but they don’t have enough money to be able to say ‘let’s have 12 or 16 clubs needing three or four million pounds a piece to play in the professional game. You’ve got to build your product. I’ve been involved for 30 years and I’ve seen many, many improvements, but I still don’t think it’s quick enough. I still think there’s more that can be done and the product in Wales needs more money.

“That’s not for us particularly, it’s for all the clubs, they all need two to three million pounds per year so they can spend that money on the first team, the academy, the ladies’ game. If they all had that money, they could all achieve what we’ve achieved.

“Wales is a small country compared to England. They get £200million for being relegated from the Premier League. We get, if we’re lucky, from everything we do, you’re probably lucky if you can raise £200,000 from the activity of being a football club.

“Now it’s only San Marino that has a lower ranking than Wales. Teams from the likes of Malta, Gibraltar, Andorra, they’ve all learned how to progress, brought in sponsors and we played a team from Gibraltar ten years ago and they were well funded and they were able to bring in Spanish league two players. Go back ten years before that and it would have been postmen, milkmen, bank managers, whatever, that’s gone now. There’s no team in Europe today outside probably San Marino that you can say ‘you should win’.”

The team walk out to the Skids’ famous ‘The Saints Are Coming’ song. They are not coming for Europe this season, however. And having started the 2026/27 Welsh Premier League season with a 0-0 draw against Penybont, they will be hoping to pick up as the campaign goes on and, come the end of March 2027, will be hoping to lift another title and have another crack at qualifying for the league stage of a UEFA competition.

TNS is not just about the men’s team. The TNS Foundation is now two weeks into their provision of free holiday activities across north west Shropshire, providing a healthy free meal too. With the women’s team now into their sixth season in the Genero Adnan Premier League, they have an aim to win the title by 2030. TNS launched a U13 Girls Academy last summer, added the U15s this summer and will be introducing a U17 side next year.