Welsh government grants used to fund football club even though it is owned by wealthy movie stars
Wrexham AFC has risen meteorically through the English football leagues thanks to the deep pockets of Hollywood movie star owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Yet the club has also had £18m in help from other, unwitting backers: Welsh taxpayers.
The club has received almost £18m in nonrepayable grants from the Welsh government via the local council, according to UK government state aid disclosures – far in excess of the direct aid listed for any other football club in Britain.
Wrexham County borough council had previously said that the club would receive a “substantial amount” of a £25m Welsh government grant to redevelop the area around the Wrexham General train station next door to its stadium, the Racecourse Ground. However, the council has not previously revealed that the football club would directly receive most of that cash.
Wrexham is owned by Reynolds and McElhenney, who has changed his name to Rob Mac, according to UK and US company filings. Reynolds, the producer and star of the billion-dollar Deadpool film series, and McElhenney, the producer and star of comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, completed the takeover in 2021.
