On my mind

MY feelings of guilt at loving football in a rugby community were compounded by an adulterous relationship with Cardiff City while holding a Swansea City season ticket. Of course, Arsene Wenger’s ‘beautiful game’ became a little ugly when those two teams met.

Yet all eyes are now on Wrexham Football Club, the oldest club in Wales, as the Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mcelhenney complete their takeover. They claim their goal is to improve the team, increase attendance, make a positive difference to the wider community and, above all, always beat Chester.

Yet any club takeover talk by celebrities, plutocrats, oligarchs, politicians, egotists or any member of the global super rich only brings to mind the rise of the two clubs whom many believe ruined football.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea, an unspectacular club, in 2003, and made it a global brand. What Bayern Munich’s Karl-heinz Rummenigge called ‘unacceptable lack of budgetary controls’ and Sir Alex Ferguson saw as profligacy in the accumulation of players led to obscene wages, unfair competition, squandered money and instant gratification.

What changed Manchester City from an average Premier League outfit to title winners was simply a wad of money.

Football is now a swamp of businesspeople aiming to make the maximum profit from their investment. What is outrageous is the source of City’s wealth. It is owned by United Arab Emirates’ Sheikh Mansour, a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi in what the popular press depicts as ‘bikini land,’ but condemned by Amnesty for its alleged human rights abuses.

It seems for the moment Wrexham are in Hollywood’s ‘safe house’ where ‘it’s always sunny.’

But will it be football or greed that scores the goals?