Craig Bellamy's Future with Burnley: FAW's David Adams Responds
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 did nothing wrong in exploring a return to club football.
Bellamy, whose FAW deal runs to the end of Euro 2028, has never hidden his ambition. International football excites him, but the day-to-day grind of club management still tugs at him. When Burnley – a club where he had already worked and one he knows well – came calling after Scott Parker’s exit, he listened.
Talks took place. Speculation exploded. Reports claimed he had accepted the Turf Moor job. Then came the twist: Bellamy stayed put.
From Adams’ perspective, the process was messy on the outside but honest on the inside.
“The way it played out was unfortunate, things get leaked these days,” he told the BBC’s Feast of Football podcast. Noise built around Bellamy’s future, yet Adams says there was no mystery behind closed doors. “Internally, Craig has always been very open and transparent about opportunities.”
The FAW knew exactly what Bellamy wanted long term. “We all know that Craig wants to eventually go and work in club football, he’s made that very clear across his time here,” Adams said. So when Burnley asked to speak to him, the answer was yes. “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 himself was heavily involved. He held regular conversations with Burnley chairman Alan Pace, just as he had during the discussions that led to Bellamy leaving the Lancashire club in 2024 to take the Wales job in the first place.
“We were happy for Craig to go and speak to them,” Adams explained. Then came the confusion. “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’.”
For Adams, that phone call underlined the relationship. “Craig’s very transparent, we speak a lot, we get on well, so that’s how it landed really.”
The FAW, though, cannot afford to be caught cold. As Bellamy’s stock rises and clubs keep watching, Adams has to think a step ahead.
Behind the scenes, succession planning is constant. “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.
There is already a clear template. “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,” Adams added. The preference is obvious: “someone who is connected to Wales, is passionate about Wales and has Wales in their heart.” It has worked over the last decade, and the FAW would “try and stick to that profile ideally” when the time eventually comes.
A “game-changer” for Welsh women’s football
Adams’ remit stretches far beyond the men’s senior job, and the women’s game in Wales is entering a landmark period.
News that Cardiff’s Principality Stadium will host the women’s Champions League final in 2029 has electrified the FAW. Adams called it “absolutely incredible, a game-changer for us.”
Cardiff is no stranger to the elite stage. Cardiff City Stadium staged the women’s Champions League final in 2017, the same year the men’s showpiece was held across the city at Principality Stadium – rebranded as the National Stadium of Wales for Uefa events.
The difference now is the scale of interest. Adams has seen it with his own eyes. “When I first came into the job, we were getting maybe 1,000 people at Rodney Parade for women’s games,” he said. “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.”
The impact of seeing top players on the biggest Welsh stages, he believes, will be huge for the next generation. Young girls watching role models at Cardiff City Stadium and Principality Stadium is, in his words, “just inspirational for those players.”
On the pitch, the women’s national side has already broken new ground. Under Rhian Wilkinson, Wales qualified for a major tournament for the first time by reaching Euro 2025 in Switzerland. The next target is even bigger: a first World Cup.
They continue their 2027 World Cup qualifying campaign with a double-header against Albania in October, a key checkpoint in their push to join the global elite.
And the horizon stretches further still. The 2035 women’s World Cup will be staged in the United Kingdom, with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales all hosting matches. Wales want to be more than just a venue. They want to be there, and they want to compete.
That ambition demands depth. FAW leaders know the player pool must keep growing, in both quality and quantity. Progress has been striking, but Adams is clear-eyed about the work left to do.
“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.”
The next step is critical. “Now we’ve got to try and make sure the girls graduate out of that system and play in the top leagues across Europe,” Adams stressed. That, in his view, “gives you the best chance of qualifying consistently for major tournaments.”
So Wales stand at a fascinating crossroads. A high-profile men’s manager courted by clubs but committed, for now, to the national cause. A women’s side stepping into major tournaments just as the country prepares to host some of the biggest games in the world.
The structures are being built. The stages are booked. The question now is whether Wales can turn this moment into a lasting era.
