Wales book Estonia warm-up match

Wales will play Estonia in a friendly on 29 May as preparation for the following week's 2010 World Cup qualifier away to Azerbaijan on 6 June.

John Toshack's side had originally hoped to play Kazakhstan, but when that fell through opted to play Estonia.

The friendly match will take place at Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli, before Wales head to Baku to face Azerbaijan.

The Estonia game will be the first ever senior Wales international to be staged in Llanelli.

It follows on from the Under-21 Uefa qualifier between Wales and Luxembourg that was staged at the ground in March.

A crowd of almost 3,000 watched Brian Flynn's youngsters win 5-1 at the new £23m Parc y Scarlets in their Uefa Championship qualifier.

Wales have only played Estonia once before with the previous encounter also a friendly, held in Tallinn at the Kadriorg Stadium in May 1994.

Mike Smith was the Wales manager who oversaw a 2-1 win, with Ian Rush and David Phillips scoring the visitors' goals.

Wales have hosted international football matches in Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham and even Liverpool.

I would be more than happy for us to play more games here - I hope that happens Wales U21 manager Brian Flynn

So playing a full international outside Wales' three major footballing centres will be a break from tradition.

Llanelli is a traditional rugby stronghold but the hope is to push international football in west Wales following the success of the U21 fixture.

"They really want us to use the place and have done everything to make us welcome," said Flynn after Wales' 5-1 over Luxembourg on 31 March.

"The pitch is outstanding, I have no complaints about that. And the stadium suits us just fine.

"The crowd of 3,000 was first class. I would be more than happy for us to play more games here - I hope that happens.

Parc y Scarlets - home to the Scarlets rugby region and the Llanelli RFC rugby team - offers the Football Association of Wales a fresh venue in south Wales.

The ground - which replaced the 129-year-old Stradey Park as Llanelli's main rugby ground in 2008 - has a 14,870 capacity.

But Uefa rules mean the terraces cannot be used, so the capacity will be reduced to approximately 11,000 for football.

Scarlets managing director Gareth Davies said: "This is fabulous news for the stadium, Llanelli and the whole of Carmarthenshire.

"To have secured a full international soccer fixture just six months after we moved here is a remarkable achievement.

"It underlines the quality of Parc y Scarlets and its staff, the ground's great flexibility and our determination to make it one of our country's most dynamic venues.

"We thank the FAW for being so forward-thinking in their approach to bring senior international soccer to a new venue."