Daily Mail

Fantasy football! Movie star’s £2m bid for Welsh club

EMOTIONAL ECB CHIEF TOM HARRISON ON HIS CRUSADE TO FIX THE GAME

- By James Tozer

When fans of a struggling Welsh team heard rumours that A-list actor Ryan Reynolds wanted to help invest a game- changing £ 2million, they laughed it off.

But national League side Wrexham AFC has confirmed the link – although why the Deadpool star and fellow hollywood actor Rob Mcelhenney have chosen to take over the supporter-owned north Wales club has yet to be revealed.

Reynolds’s only comment to his 16.5million Twitter followers was a cryptic retweeting of a light-hearted message posted by a Wrexham student eight years ago, fantasisin­g about the actor being a nude model in her life-drawing class.

But what began as a joke might now result in one of the most unlikely club takeovers in British football history. Wrexham supporters’ trust director Spencer harris said he had known the identity of the club’s potential backers ‘for a little while’.

Their names had become public knowledge ‘a little bit earlier than it would in any other normal circumstan­ce’ due to the club being community-owned, he said.

At a special general meeting on Tuesday, 1,223 trust members – more than 95 per cent of those asked – voted for talks to proceed.

Mr harris said the decision enabled the club to move into ‘detailed discussion­s about what a takeover deal could look like’.

he said he had spoken to the actors, both 43, ‘several times’, describing them as ‘very serious, profession­al and successful people, not just as actors but in the business world as well’. Canada-born Reynolds stars as the irreverent, wise- cracking antihero Deadpool in the hit film series of

Hero: Reynolds as Deadpool the same name. Already one of the world’s highest- paid actors, he received a further boost last month when drinks giant Diageo paid £460million for a string of spirits brands, among them a premium gin in which the actor had a large stake.

As to the burning question of ‘why Wrexham?’, Mr harris said: ‘That’s a question for them in good time. We are a team with a proud history... and there’s lots of potential at the club, so why not?’ But an eight-year-old tweet might shed light on the surprise move.

In 2012, Lois Morus replied to a post from a friend complainin­g about the ‘middle-aged, mid-40s’ subject of their ‘awkward’ class, quipping: ‘I would have taken the course if Ryan Reynolds was the model.’

She added: ‘You never know when Ryan Reynolds is going to turn up in Wrexham.’ Sharing the message on Wednesday night, Reynolds said: ‘Yep, you never know.’ he added: ‘I’ve waited eight years to respond to this tweet.’

Within hours, his responses had attracted more than 130,000 ‘likes’.

As the supporters’ trust confirmed the investment plan by Reynolds and Mcelhenney – best known for his role in the US comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelph­ia – the two friends were stunned by the unexpected endorsemen­t.

Miss Morus, 27, who lives in Carmarthen, South Wales, said: ‘When you look back at your old statuses, you think “Oh, that’s a bit embarrassi­ng” – but you never really expect an A-list celebrity to bring it back to attention. I just can’t believe it, it’s not really sunk in, it’s all a bit bizarre.’

Miss May, 26, who lives on the Wirral, said the furore was ‘a little nuts’.

‘It would be insane if those messages were what got Ryan Reynolds to Wrexham,’ she told the BBC. ‘I can’t wrap my head round it. I’ve had so many messages. You can see everyone is very excited.’

Asked about the takeover on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said: ‘If he can play centre forward, I’m sure he’d be welcome.’

Wrexham mayor Rob Walsh told local media it was ‘potentiall­y very exciting news’.

‘The interest shown in the club by both gentlemen is really putting the town on the world map,’ he added.

Founded in 1864, Wrexham AFC are the world’s third-oldest profession­al football club. In 1992, they pulled off one of the all-time great FA Cup giant-killing feats by knocking out holders Arsenal in the third round. But in recent years, Wrexham have fallen on hard times, suffering relegation from the Football League in 2008 and being taken over by supporters in 2011. They now play in the national League, england’s fifth tier.

‘It’s all a bit bizarre’

Tom Harrison is sitting in the west London kitchen where he has spent the last six months steering English cricket through a Covid-induced financial nightmare that this year will cost the sport £200million.

His mind is elsewhere, however, reflecting on the segregated railway stations and schools of his upbringing in apartheid south africa.

The ECB chief executive is explaining the strength of his commitment to improving cricket’s shocking record on diversity, which he regards as just as important as the other aspects of his rather challengin­g job — maintainin­g billion- pound television contracts, rebuilding internatio­nal sport, designing biosecure bubbles and selling a new format of cricket to a sceptical audience.

The caricature of Harrison as a slick marketing executive who has sold cricket’s soul in the rush for TV cash provided by the Hundred belies the reality of a man with a deep feel for the sport and its timeless virtues of embracing meritocrac­y.

as an undergradu­ate at the University of manchester, he wrote his dissertati­on on the impact of sport in underminin­g the apartheid regime, and since joining the ECB five years ago, promoting diversity has been central to his role.

Harrison co-authored the ECB’s inspiring Generation­s strategy that aims to broaden cricket’s appeal, with a specific focus on increasing engagement in black and south asian communitie­s. Judging by Sportsmail’s revelation­s about the tiny number of BamE players and coaches on county staffs, it is sorely needed.

The 48- year- old is briefly overcome with emotion when asked how his childhood in south africa has influenced his tenure at Lord’s, with the odd tear discernibl­e even over the internet connection. ‘ i get emotional about this, because it’s in me,’ Harrison says.

‘That’s why i’m leading on this and i am not giving it to someone else to do. if there’s one legacy i can leave, it’s putting the steps in place to helping more people enjoy our game.

‘The reason i’ve taken this on is because it’s 100 per cent what we need to be about. i grew up in africa. i spent my early childhood in nigeria and until i was 15 we lived in south africa. i grew up in apartheid south africa and did my university dissertati­on on the impact of sport in dismantlin­g apartheid.

‘Growing up in south africa, prejudice was part of everyday life. as a boy, i didn’t really understand, because it was all that i knew.

‘i remember asking my parents why black people had to stand on a different platform when we were getting on a train, or why there were benches with signs saying blacks couldn’t sit on them.

‘When i went to see my house master at school to ask if i could take my friend segape mmesi back home for the weekend, he said no. He said i couldn’t take segape, but i could take marcus.

‘ This was when i was nine years old, so it was a formative experience, and has shaped my fundamenta­l beliefs about what’s right and what’s wrong.’

in addition to the incontesta­ble ethical argument about promoting equality of opportunit­y for all, Harrison makes a compelling economic case for widening access to the sport, which has become even more important given the crippling impact of Covid-19.

With just 33 players from ethnic minority background­s on their books this summer, it is clear that

‘When we see the statistics you’ve put out, it describes a very disturbing pattern to us’

many of the 18 counties are not reflecting their local communitie­s, thus limiting their appeal.

Harrison insists that must change if they are to continue receiving all of their ECB funding of up to £3.8m a year.

‘The bottom line is that promoting diversity will deliver a more sustainabl­e game,’ he says. ‘The future of the game depends on our ability to be relevant to the communitie­s we serve. You can have a game that is completely broken, but if you’ve got something that’s relevant and appeals to a wide range of people you will find a way through.

‘Alternativ­ely, you could have all the money in the world, but if you’re not relevant to the communitie­s you purport to be relevant to, or you’re discrimina­ting or you’re prejudiced, then no amount of money will save you from the oblivion you’re going to end up in.

‘We can pull pretty significan­t levers in terms of funding. But I actually think that we’re pushing at an open door.

‘The choices and options kids have these days are incredible, so in order to be relevant cricket has got to be aimed at as wider group as possible.’

While the ECB are putting pressure on the counties by threatenin­g to withdraw funding agreed through the County Partnershi­p Agreement, the governing body are also taking a lead themselves.

As part of Inspiring Generation­s, an inclusion and diversity strategy was launched earlier this year which will remain in place despite the painful cost-cutting measures that are being implemente­d, and build on the South Asian action plan introduced 12 months ago.

The tangible measures already in place include ECB- funded bursaries for black coaches and the appointmen­t of a diversity champion to the ECB board, Brenda Trenowden.

Harrison is also leading the process of recruiting a team of black influencer­s in the hope of driving engagement from that community.

‘I’ve spoken to black and Asian players, coaches, administra­tors and supporters at all levels of the game,’ Harrison says. ‘I’ve heard some very, very disturbing stories, but also rewarding ones. It’s not all bad, but there’s clearly a b big problem.

‘When we see the statistics y you’ve put out — and o obviously we have our own data — it describes a very disturbing pattern to us.

‘It’s personally very hurtful t to go through this process and hear these stories, from the very people we’re t trying to make this game b better for.’ The ECB have work to do themselves because, following the departure of Lord Patel of Bradford last month, the 11-strong board is all white and therefore in breach of Sport England’s governance code — an issue that is being addressed by new chairman Ian Watmore, who is expected to make a swift appointmen­t to fill the gap.

‘ There needs to be greater visibility in the people making decisions across the game,’ Harrison says. ‘We now have an all-white board at the ECB, which is not good enough, and we have some recruitmen­t to do over the next few months.

‘Change in this area has been too slow throughout the game.

‘This is not a new problem for cricket but it’s one that has to be addressed. Beyond individual schemes and strategies, we need to change the mindset of everyone in the sport to an “always on” attitude when it comes to inclusion and diversity going forward. It’s about education, visibility and leadership.

‘There are clearly societal issues which feed into this, but I don’t think that’s a good enough excuse. This is cricket’s problem and we have to sort it out.’

 ??  ?? Hollywood stars: Ryan Reynolds and wife Blake Lively
Hollywood stars: Ryan Reynolds and wife Blake Lively
 ??  ?? Hard times: Wrexham AFC were relegated from the Football League in 2008 and taken over by fans in 2011
Hard times: Wrexham AFC were relegated from the Football League in 2008 and taken over by fans in 2011
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 ?? ANNA GORDON ?? Reformer: Harrison is intent on change after Sportsmail revealed the extent of cricket’s diversity problem yesterday (left)
ANNA GORDON Reformer: Harrison is intent on change after Sportsmail revealed the extent of cricket’s diversity problem yesterday (left)
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