Craig Bellamy's Future with Wales: Insights from FAW's David Adams
Craig Bellamy was right to sit down with Burnley in the summer. That is the firm view of Football Association of Wales chief football officer David Adams, who insists the Wales manager’s flirtation with his former club was both honest and inevitable.
Bellamy, whose FAW deal runs to the end of Euro 2028, has never hidden his ambition to step into club management. When Burnley came calling after Scott Parker’s departure, the pull of Turf Moor – and a club where Bellamy had worked before – was always going to be strong.
He listened. He talked. Then he stayed.
From the outside, it looked messy. Reports suggested Bellamy had accepted the job, only for him to remain in charge of Wales. Inside the FAW, Adams says, the picture was far clearer.
“The way it played out was unfortunate, things get leaked these days,” Adams told the BBC’s Feast of Football podcast. “Naturally, the longer things go on, people start to make their own noise in some respects.
“Internally, Craig has always been very open and transparent about opportunities. We all know that Craig wants to eventually go and work in club football, he's made that very clear across his time here.
“For him to go and speak to Burnley was the right thing to do, knowing that he does want to do that at some point.”
Adams was not just watching from a distance. He held regular conversations with Burnley chairman Alan Pace, just as he had during the process that saw Bellamy leave the Lancashire club in 2024 to take the Wales job.
“We were happy for Craig to go and speak to them,” Adams said. “And then unfortunately, the way it played out was that they were saying he had accepted the job when he hadn't.
“Craig was telling us the same thing as that and then one morning he rang and said ‘I'm staying’.
“Craig's very transparent, we speak a lot, we get on well, so that's how it landed really.”
The episode underlined a reality the FAW cannot ignore: Bellamy is ambitious, and club football will come calling again. Adams knows he has to be ready.
Behind the scenes, the succession planning never stops.
“Behind the scenes in my job, I have to be alert to these things and I have to have a list of people in the background that I'd speak to if [Bellamy's departure] ever materialised,” he said.
“We've got a profile of what we're looking for, which we've been pretty successful in doing by selecting former international players into the role.
“That's always our preference, to find someone who is connected to Wales, is passionate about Wales and has Wales in their heart.
“That's been a really good profile of manager to look at in the last 10 years and we would try and stick to that profile ideally.”
While Bellamy’s future will remain a talking point, Adams’ gaze is not fixed solely on the men’s dugout. He describes Cardiff’s Principality Stadium being awarded the 2029 women’s Champions League final as a “game-changer” for Welsh football.
Cardiff City Stadium staged the women’s final in 2017, the same year the men’s Champions League showpiece came to the Principality Stadium – rebranded as the National Stadium of Wales for Uefa events. This time, the country’s national arena will host the biggest club night in the women’s game.
“It's absolutely incredible, a game-changer for us,” Adams said.
He has seen the shift with his own eyes. “You've seen the growth in the women's game. When I first came into the job, we were getting maybe 1,000 people at Rodney Parade for women's games.
“We got 15,000 at Cardiff City Stadium in this last campaign, so you can see the growth and how quickly the game is moving.”
Packed stands and marquee finals matter, but Adams is just as animated about what it means for the next generation. Young girls watching their heroes at Cardiff City Stadium and the Principality Stadium, he says, is “just inspirational for those players.”
The senior women’s side has already broken new ground. Under Rhian Wilkinson, Wales qualified for a major tournament for the first time, booking their place at Euro 2025 in Switzerland. The next target is clear: a first-ever World Cup.
The 2027 qualifying campaign continues in October with a double header against Albania. Beyond that looms an even bigger stage. The 2035 women’s World Cup will be held in the United Kingdom, with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales all hosting games.
The FAW wants Wales not just to be there, but to compete. That means more than one-off successes; it demands depth.
Despite the rapid strides, Adams is blunt. The job is far from done.
“Our goal is to create a pathway, which hasn't been there for women's football, where girls can actually play in a talent system which prepares them to play in tournament football on a consistent basis,” he said. “I don't think we're there yet, personally. I think what we've done in the last three years is fantastic, with the girls' regional programme.
“But now we've got to try and make sure the girls graduate out of that system and play in the top leagues across Europe.
“That's what gives you the best chance of qualifying consistently for major tournaments.”
Bellamy’s decision to stay, the 2029 final, the long road to 2035 – they all feed into the same question for Welsh football: can the structures now being built turn fleeting breakthroughs into a lasting era?
