Football Association of Wales chief executive Noel Mooney says he makes no apology for the failed bid to get Wales' four English Football League clubs to qualify for Europe via a Welsh domestic cup.

Prosiect Cymru (Project Wales) proposed that Cardiff City, Swansea City, Wrexham and Newport County compete in a revamped League Cup against the 12 teams from Wales' top flight, the Cymru Premier, with the winners qualifying for the Europa Conference League

But The Football Association – English football's governing body - rejected the proposals.

"It would definitely have enhanced Welsh football so I'm not apologising to nobody for trying to do the best thing for Welsh football," Mooney told BBC Sport Wales.

"Prosiect Cymru was to enhance what we were already doing – to fit in with the Cymru Premier strategy we already had."

Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham and Newport had been working with the Football Association of Wales on the proposals, for which Uefa had given its approval.

But after the EFL and some of its other member clubs raised concerns, the FA board ruled against the plans at a meeting in January.

The FA said it "undertook a thorough consultation with stakeholders" and rejected the proposals following "concerns raised by stakeholders regarding competition integrity, fixture congestion and player welfare, and the impact on the standing of existing competitions".

"We understand why the FA would not go for it however I still believe fundamentally that the four largest cities should represent their own country when it comes to European football," Mooney added.

"All we're kind of saying is why would you not have the top clubs in Wales playing for Wales or at least have the opportunity to represent their own country rather than somebody else's country.

"Scotland get £13m more per year because their biggest cities represent Scotland in European football – we're losing £13m a year that could be ploughed back into girls football, grassroots level or disability football.

"That's a huge shame, a huge loss of annual co-efficiency revenue we'd be getting from Uefa which in essence is what we were really targeting.

"We've got four places back and it's great that TNS did so well last year and got to play fabulous clubs like Fiorentina.

"But we can't bank on that every single year happening and the danger is if we don't perform well over the next couple of years we go back to three places."

The FAW were dealt a further blow when Southern League club Merthyr Town rejected an offer to join the Cymru Premier and remain in the English non-league system.

As a fan-owned club, members voted on the FAW's proposal - originally made last November – and they unanimously rejected the proposal with 96% voting against joining the Cymru Premier.

"We wanted to make an offer that was serious, one that could really test them I suppose in terms of what they were doing and that's what we did," Mooney said.

"They've got a brilliant membership group – they had the offer, read the offer and they chose to stay in the English system and good luck to them.

"They would certainly have enhanced our Cymru Premier.

"It was a unique opportunity because we go to 16 teams for 2026-27 and it was a one-off opportunity to make that offer to Merthyr Town.

"I was absolutely thrilled that the FAW could make that offer to Merthyr Town and fully respect their view that playing in the English system is better for them."

The FAW had offered Merthyr a deal said to be worth up to £6m to join an expanded Welsh top-flight in 2026 and Mooney insisted there was also financial support available for clubs in the Cymru Leagues.

"We haven't spoken about the offer at all so where the numbers come from that are out there are a different story," Mooney said.

"We were very comfortable with our offer.

"We've got a huge plan for the Cymru Premier and we've already said we're putting £6m into the league itself but that money's always available.

"There's millions and millions of pounds available over the next few years for clubs who want to improve their facilities.

"We've got loads of talks going on with Cymru Premier clubs across the country of really ambitious projects that are similar to the types of things we were talking about Merthyr.

"We're really ambitious for Welsh football."