The club was founded in 1912 as Barry A.F.C. and adopted its current name in 1923, and plays at Jenner Park, Barry, where their ground accommodates 3500 spectators (2900 seated).
Barry Town has dominated the League of Wales, winning the League Championship seven times in eight years to 2002-03, and consequently has amassed considerable experience of playing teams in European competition. The club has been professional since 1995, but in the summer of 2003 the club went into Administration (a form of bankruptcy) with debts of £1 million. On 25 August 2003 the professional team and its manager were locked out of Jenner Park (having been unpaid since early June), while a new management was appointed together with an amateur team most of whose members had played in the previous season for N & M Construction in the Regal Travel South Wales Amateur League, Division 2 (i.e. five levels lower than Barry's Welsh Premiership level). The clubs' survival in the Welsh Premier league seems doubtful.
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2 Team Honours 3 Biggest victories and losses 4 External Link |
History
Barry AFC was formed in November 1912. The club won the English Southern League Welsh Section in 1921 and two years later the present Barry Town club was formed. A sixty year membership of the Southern League followed, ending only in 1982 when the club resigned their membership to return to the Welsh League. They dominated the league, winning five successive championships between 1982-83 and 1986-87, with a sixth in 1988-89. This led to the club switching to the Beazer Homes League in 1989 but following the creation of the League of Wales in 1992, Barry Town were exiled for their decision not to join the new organisation. In exile. they shared the ground of Worcester F.C. for one season, before deciding to return to Wales. They spent the 1993-94 season in the Welsh Football League First Division but it was a memorable one - they won the championship, the League Cup, the Welsh Cup for the first time since 1955 and were promoted to the League of Wales. Barry's reward for winning the Welsh Cup was a tie against Zhalguiris Vilnius of Lithuania but they crashed out of the European Cup Winners Cup 0-7 on aggregate. Greater glory was on the horizon.
In the 1996-97 UEFA Cup they beat the Latvian representatives Dineburg, then Hungarian side Budapesti Vasutas on penalties in the preliminary rounds to earn a plum First Round tie against Scotland's Aberdeen F.C Although they were defeated on aggregate after losing 1-3 in the first leg, they had progressed the further in European competition than any other League of Wales club and the club was strengthened by the money brought in by their cup run. In the 1996-97 season, they won the League, the Welsh Cup and the League Cup to set a historic treble.
In the 1997-98 season Barry were unfortunate to be drawn against the first-class Ukrainian team Dinamo Kiev. After a superb away performance losing only 2-0, they lost the home leg 0-4. The following season their bad luck continued and they were drawn against Dinamo again! This time Kiev gained revenge for struggling in the home leg by crushing Barry 8-0. Barry's home performance was better and they narrowly failed to gain a draw, going down 1-2.
In the 2000-01 season Barry became the first League of Wales team to win a European Champions League tie, when they defeated the Azerbaijan champions FC Shamkir in both the home and away legs. They then met the Portuguese champions FC Porto, the 11th favourites to win the Champions League, and although losing the leg in Portugal, Barry won the home leg 3-1.
Team Honours
* At the time of winning the leagues, the Welsh Premier and National Division were the highest available leagues in South Wales.Biggest victories and losses
External Link
Barry Town F.C. website