Original subtitles

JACQUI: How old are you now? ARTHUR: 96.

JACQUI: Yeah, 96.

- I'll be 97 next March.

First match I went to

was 1931.

I was seven.

JULIE: So 90 years of following them?

- Up and down. - [laughs]

- Up and down.

SPENCER: And a football team is not just a football team.

It is something that really brings together

the community in a way that nothing else does.

SHAUN: There's a magic about football

that not everyone will get,

but the die-hard Wrexham fans I know certainly get it.

JULIE: "Three brothers who will be going to Wembley

to support Wrexham AFC with a combined age of 254 years."

JACQUI: That's it. - [Julie laughs]

- Had, uh, highs.

I've had very lows.

SPENCER: It gives people a real sense of community

and camaraderie

and belonging to something in a way that, without it,

they just wouldn't have.

And-and-and how dare somebody come from outside the area

and-and try to take that away from people?

[Buddy Holly's "Everyday"]

BUDDY: [singing] Every day, it's a-getting closer

Going faster than a roller coaster

Love like yours will surely come my way

A-hey, a-hey-hey

Every day, it's a-getting faster

Everyone said, "Go ahead and ask her"

Love like yours will surely come my way

A-hey, a-hey-hey

Love like yours will surely come my way

PERSON: Is it teatime for you now?

Oh-ho-ho-ho.

Are you hungry?

Are you ready for your tea? [gasps]

- Right, buddy, after we finish this...

you're not going to be able to sit and watch telly.

Mommy and Daddy have got to watch something

on the telly.

And it's about the football.

PERSON: Some people are worried

that Ryan Reynolds and his friend

are just doing it to make money.

[bright classical music]

- So that's what people want to know:

why have they chosen Wrexham?

Just to make sure that they're--

they're doing it for a reason that's a good reason.

There were some people

who bought Wrexham Football Club who didn't want it.

They wanted to knock the football stadium down.

- They wanted to knock?

- So that they could make money.

[light music]

[static crackling]

LOUISE: These are turbulent times

for Wrexham Football Club.

Its future is on a knife-edge amid talks of debts amounting

to millions and asset stripping.

SPENCER: Going back to the early 2000s,

the football club had a number of challenges.

It had owners who, eh, who-who frankly that-that

their sole reason for ownership

was not for the betterment of the football club,

and the football club was in danger.

LOUISE: For the last two years,

this club has been owned by one man,

and tonight we unravel the truth

behind rumors surrounding Alex Hamilton.

- Alex Hamilton was actually the-the owner

of the football club, but another gentleman, eh,

was, eh, was-was sort of fronting the ownership

for a while, and-and we didn't know

Alex Hamilton was in-in the background.

LOUISE: Two years ago, Alex Hamilton

bought the controlling share of Wrexham Football Club.

Keeping his own identity secret,

he installed a business associate as chairman.

Mark Guterman was a controversial choice

among fans.

He'd already taken local rivals Chester

into administration and relegated

from the football league.

BRYN: The club was sold to those two people,

and their, uh, idea of what the value of this football club

didn't really revolve around it being a football club.

LOUISE: A former solicitor who lives here in Cheshire,

Alex Hamilton was struck off by the Law Society

two years ago for charges

including allegations of mortgage fraud.

He appealed, and most of the charges against him,

including the mortgage fraud, were withdrawn.

Reinstated last year,

Hamilton now describes himself as a property developer.

BRYN: This was a time of, you know,

a lot of redevelopment work going on around the UK.

There was a bit more money flowing around again

in the economy and people were looking for opportunities.

Small football clubs are always financially vulnerable,

and this has long been the case in England and Wales.

Wrexham were in that position now.

They were vulnerable,

and I think these guys spotted that vulnerability

and recognized that in this big stadium site

that you have here, which is on the edge of town,

it's a prime position potentially for redevelopment.

LOUISE: The Racecourse is the premier sports ground

in North Wales.

The Ground has a long history, and fans recently invested

in its future by buying bricks in the new stand.

There's lots of building work going on here.

It's a prime site at the main gateway to the town.

If it had planning permission,

the Racecourse could be worth at least £10 million...

just the kind of land a property developer

might dream of finding.

[dark music]

SPENCER: Well, the history, the present,

and the future of Wrexham Football Club

is interwoven with the Racecourse stadium.

Without the Racecourse stadium,

there is no Wrexham AFC.

If the stadium goes, the football team goes.

[Spiro's "We Will Be Absorbed"]

ROB: So the club doesn't currently own the Racecourse.

We pay approximately $150,000 a year to lease the stadium.

Moreover, the club is also on the hook for any updates,

refurbishments, enhancements that we wanna do,

and we've been able to do a few of those.

But what we really wanna do is return the stadium

to being the crown jewel of North Wales.

But sadly, we have an entire stand called "the Kop"

that is, for all intents and purposes, condemned,

and we can't do anything with that

until the club once again owns the Racecourse...

which is proving to be...

difficult?

[beep beep] Hey, Shaun?

Can we get an update on, um, where we are with the purchase

of the, uh, freehold for the Racecourse?

- Um, it's proving to be, uh, a challenge.

The-the title deeds are old.

The Land Registry plans aren't as clear as you'd hope.

Um, we're just reviewing them all to get them all together,

and we're gonna get there as quick as we can.

RYAN: There's nothing that we can do to--

to maybe to help speed it up or-or expedite in some way?

- Well, some of these laws were drawn up in the 1400s,

so they-they didn't anticipate

the pace at which people would want to do things.

- It is frustrating, and it's annoying

and, uh, it's hard to-- it's hard to give you a--

a rationale as to why it should take this long

other than these things do.

I mean, I-I'm all for due process,

but we-we made a promise.

It's in our original mission statement.

The Racecourse needs to be back in club hands.

Everybody wants it to be back in club hands.

And yet months and months and months go by.

And the-I-look, my frustration

is that we can't start on the development process.

- Do we have a rough estimate as to when we'll have

some kind of answer?

- No, other than it can't take that much longer.

RYAN: Holy... - [laughs] I mean, it's just--

it's Kafkaesque.

Like, we are-- we're-we're trapped.

- And what-and what's worse is we're even on record

since we promised it that-that we're actually

on with it and we've got everything in place.

I'm amazed we've not had any-- had any more questions

from the public and the fans as to why it's taking--

why it's taking this length of time.

- Okay, well, I guess we'll talk later.

- Uh, bye, guys.

[beep beep]

ANNOUNCER: Oh, he's all on his own.

Can he make it five?

GERAINT: We are, uh, one of the oldest clubs

in the world.

[dramatic music]

Uh, and that's quite impressive in itself.

ANNOUNCER: No doubt about that in terms of Wrexham.

GERAINT: The Racecourse itself is the oldest existing

international venue that still hosts football.

HUGHIE: Better football, better prospects

to get what we so desire in Wrexham.

GERAINT: The name "the Racecourse"

was 'cause the venue was a racecourse.

The local authorities wouldn't allow betting,

and-and so the tenancy dropped off

and-and the football took over...kept the name.

ANNOUNCER: Can he make it five?

And Jones makes it five!

[cheering]

GERAINT: It's just been our home for all our existence.

[cheering, chanting]

[echo fades]

[static crackling]

LOUISE: When Alex Hamilton took over the club,

the Ground was owned

by Wolverhampton & Dudley Brewery.

They leased it to the club for £1 a year.

The club approached the brewery to buy the freehold.

And the very same day

that the brewery sold the Ground

to Wrexham Football Club,

it was immediately transferred to another company,

Damens Limited.

Damens is wholly owned by Alex Hamilton.

So the Ground belonged to one company

and the club belonged to another.

But both were controlled by Alex Hamilton.

SPENCER: Their idea was to separate the club

from the stadium and then bulldoze the stadium

and turn it into, um, into a profit.

[Spiro's "Wolves"]

BRYN: So they had, um, a plan, and it was a plan

to basically kill the football club, effectively.

They took all the investment out over a period

so it wasn't overt initially.

But it became apparent that things weren't--

bills weren't getting paid effectively.

LOUISE: The Inland Revenue is currently charging the club

£150 a day in interest

on a debt of more than £800,000.

Earlier this year, things got so bad

the bailiffs were called in.

They assessed the club's assets

down to the last plastic seat,

floodlight, and lawn mower.

If the tax bill remains unpaid,

those assets will be seized.

- You know, I couldn't believe

that they would treat the fans like that.

It's a--

Sorry. - [crew member laughs]

- You know, 'cause we loved it so much

and they were just destroying it for money.

And it was just so frustrating.

LOUISE: Mr. Hamilton refused our requests for an interview.

We went to the Racecourse,

where he was attending a board meeting.

Wales' Week In Week Out program.

I wanted to ask you, are you sure that the transfer

of the Racecourse Ground into your private campaign is legal?

- We came here... - Can you answer that question?

- We came here to deal with

a son passing away. - Asset stripping as well.

ALEX: [indistinct]

LOUISE: Mr. Hamilton, please answer my questions.

- I came here to deal with one topic,

which is a personal one of irregular support--

LOUISE: You've been in a board meeting.

You've been in a board meeting. Mr. Hamilton,

you are being accused of asset stripping this club.

What do you have to say about that?

- Gop. Total rubbish. LOUISE: It's not rubbish.

Why have you transferred

the freehold of this club into your own--

why have you transferred... - Excuse me a moment.

- The freehold of this club... ALEX: Excuse me.

LOUISE: Into your own company? Why have you done that?

- I had to deal with [indistinct] passing away.

LOUISE: Please stop and talk to us, Mr. Hamilton.

These are really important issues

we want to discuss with you.

Mr. Hamilton was not at the funeral.

He was attending a directors' meeting at the club.

Fans were getting worried.

They organized mass opposition to Alex Hamilton's plans.

He had dropped a bombshell.

He said the Racecourse would have to be sold

if the club was to survive.

Last July, he served a legal notice on the club

to leave the Racecourse within a year.

[crowd chanting]

After 130 years,

this season could be the last that Wrexham play there.

CROWD: We will not surrender!

[chanting indistinctly]

SPENCER: The supporters rallied round

and really fought hard.

- And I was only a kid and we were walking round the Ground

with-with banners and, you know,

just anything to save your club.

SPENCER: There was a lot of--

you could call it guerilla warfare really.

BRYN: It was a--

a campaign that was taken to their front doorsteps.

- The fans got together. - Mm, yep.

- Yeah. - And said, "We'll have

to do something drastic."

JACQUI: Yeah, we did. JULIE: Mm.

- And so we did.

BRYN: The fans gathered in the town in Cheshire

just over the border, where Alex Hamilton lived,

and they marched through the town

protesting against his ownership

of the football club.

LOUISE: It signaled a declaration of war

against the chairman.

[crowd chanting]

The very same day, Alex Hamilton responded.

BRYN: He'd walked up

and started talking to a few people there.

And this-this was in a week where he'd described the fans

as lowlife scum, and there he was in the middle of 'em.

[crowd chanting]

LOUISE: Fans thought his actions

were an attempt to incite trouble.

- [scoffs] We-we think he went on there

in the hope that somebody would hit him,

so that he could, uh, make a great political capital

out of the fact that we were football hooligans

and what have you.

[crowd chanting]

LOUISE: Hamilton has since been advised by the police

not to attend home matches at his own club.

[crowd chanting]

BRYN: In a fit of rage,

he decided that he was gonna resign.

And he scrawled it down on a napkin.

Basically, I think, wrote, "I resign"

and signed it "Alex Hamilton."

That was him saying, "I want out,"

and that was them saying, "Great. Fine. Off you go."

[tense music]

[dramatic musical sting]

ROB: Hey, hi, hi, hi, hi.

Have you heard from Shaun recently

about the Racecourse purchase?

RYAN: Yeah.

Yeah, it is taking a long, long,

long, long, long fucking time.

Um, but I also, you know, I also recognize

that this is not a simple thing.

ROB: I think the thing that drives me crazy

is that this is not a process

that is in place to protect people.

In fact, the people that are getting fucked

are the people that are marginalized

that are the ones that get fucked over

always in these kinds of... RYAN: Rob tends to be

a bit of a hothead.

Rob's like-if you were in a burning building,

Rob is-Rob is the first guy

who's gonna run into that building

and-and pull you out.

I might look at, like, the version

where we all get out.

[laughs] Like, okay.

Like... [laughs]

That window is molten lava.

I'm not gonna run through there

because I won't make it to the person.

[laughing] Like, wait, let's just take a second

and think about this.

So yeah. So what I'm saying is,

everyone would die in my version.

[both laugh]

Just Rob would die in his.

- You're so much more patient than me--you're so patient.

- I'm not so much more patient. I just drink more.

ROB: [laughs] Is that what I need to do?

I should just drink.

- And if you need any, uh, any gin,

I-I got a guy.

ROB: Oh, okay. All right.

Well... all right, I guess we'll just keep waiting.

- We'll just keep waiting. Um, yeah.

Waiting is, uh, my favorite color.

I will, uh, I will talk to you very, very soon

and uh, miss ya, love ya. - [sighs]

- Miss you, love you, miss you, love you, bye.

He's too nice.

He's too nice.

It just-it drives me crazy.

Not him being nice. That doesn't drive me crazy.

It drives me crazy that we have to...

just keep waiting.

We're past the due process

of-of protecting everybody involved.

We're-we're, uh, we're months past that.

It's-it's literally waiting for some lawyer

to call another lawyer

who's then gotta call a committee

and the committee meets once every three months.

And if they miss that because someone's got the flu,

then it gets kicked to the bottom of the pile

and another lawyer has to call another lawyer,

and in-and in the interim,

it's the team and the town that get fucked over

because in-under the auspices of protecting the club,

it's hurting the club because we can't do

any renovation.

We can't do any real updating

because everything has to go through this process.

And so we have this plan to-to revitalize

the-the-the stadium, and we can't do anything

until we get this information,

so needless to say, I'm a little bit frustrated

and Ryan is not because he's drunk or whatever.

[Spiro's "I Fear You Just as I Fear Ghosts"]

GERAINT: So Wrexham is a small town.

We had the mines starting to close down.

We had the Steelworks, and that was closing down as well.

And that has an effect with the football club.

The rent became too much.

So in 2014, the supporters got together and saved the club.

We had to raise £100,000. It was just amazing.

Kids were bringing piggy banks.

JACQUI: But we survived. ARTHUR: Yeah.

JACQUI: We survived. JULIE: We did.

JACQUI: We survived. JULIE: We did.

We rose again like a phoenix

of the ashes. - [laughs]

- You know, this is how-- this is how bully

Wrexham fans are. We come together

and we raised £127,000 in one day to save the club.

And Chester didn't when they were--

when they were going bust.

Their fans didn't rally round.

They went dead. Boomf.

Wrexham fans wouldn't allow that to happen.

JULIE: Oh, that's when-- that's when we took over.

When we managed to get control of it,

that really was one of the highlights for me.

Regardless of what we won with-with trophies and things.

That was marvelous, but to think

that we could safeguard the club,

that was just fantastic, you know?

And-and...

oh, gosh. [laughs]

[soft music]

BRYN: On one hand, the club was in safe hands again now,

but on the other, it's actually quite an expensive business

running a football club.

SPENCER: It's ordinary Joes

with whatever they can afford.

You know, the minimum some people are putting in it

is £12 a year.

You know, some people contribute

a lot more than that.

Some people only put in the minimum amount

but then do lots of volunteering

and-and-and contributing in other ways.

JACQUI: Walked up mountains literally.

Walked up Snowdon, didn't they? JULIE: Yes.

- To raise money... JULIE: Yes.

- For the club. JULIE: Yeah.

And didn't we do a-a collection

for the wages once? BOTH: Yep.

- Yes. - Yep, yep.

[overlapping chatter]

- Yeah, pulled together to pay wages.

JACQUI: We just passed a hat around.

JULIE: Kenny Pemberton... - Yeah, people--

JULIE: His house. - Yeah, people put...

JULIE: Gosh. JACQUI: Put money in and--

well, we all did, didn't we? - Mm.

And we've got a lot to be grateful

to the-to the Trust for.

And all those people who worked so hard.

JACQUI: Yeah, yeah. - I mean, we're members,

but there's people that worked harder than us.

JACQUI: Gosh, yeah. - Gosh.

- Frankly, the club has been struggling

from that point onwards to this very day.

If the club doesn't do so well

and the attendance goes down,

then the manager doesn't get as much money

as he was expecting to get to invest in his football side,

and so the football team isn't quite as good again.

So it's been an issue that's followed the club

through all the years

that the fans have been in control.

[melancholic music]

GERAINT: It's an outdoor setting,

so it does wear and tear, weathers.

It needs work all the time.

Obviously, behind the goal, we've seen "the Kop,"

uh, was closed 'cause we just didn't have the money

to-to keep it open.

Oh, God. It's all leaking, isn't it?

Uh, we used to get, uh, people complaining that the r--

when on a rainy day, the rain was coming through

and dripping on them.

They just drain money, don't they, football grounds?

BRYN: The club lost control of the stadium

and the club began this inexorable slide down

through the tiers into this position

that it now finds itself in, in this fifth tier.

So it had a-it had a seismic impact on the club.

- I didn't see a lot of hope under the Trust ownership

and that's not a dig at them because, you know,

they've put their time in and I respect them for it.

So it's not a dig at them in the slightest.

I just didn't see an out for the club.

I didn't see a-- I didn't see a way forward.

Um, a lot of fans didn't see a way forward.

- You know, those times were real bad, real low,

really low because you--you knew we didn't have the money

to get players.

You knew players weren't getting paid on time.

So it was just a knock-on effect

and it was-it was a terrible time to be a fan.

It's been... [laughs] it's been a terrible time

to be a fan for a long time now

to say the truth.

- Sam walked in and he said, "You'll never guess

who's bought Wrexham Football Club."

And I said, "Who?"

He said, "Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney."

I said...

"As in Ryan Reynolds

as in actor and Rob"-- I said, "I don't know him."

He said, "Oh, yeah, you wouldn't know him.

Always Sunny in Philadelphia." I said,

"Oh, yes. Right, okay."

Uh, I said, "You're joking."

"Nope, that's right," he said.

"They've bought it." [laughing] I said,

"I can't believe it."

Funny though, how, you know, a little bit of good news...

- Rubs off. - Suddenly boosts

everything up. - Rubs off.

- Yeah. - Yeah, I mean, that's amazing.

Isn't it? - Mm.

- What's happening now for me

is reward, um,

for the-the effort and the sacrifices

that supporters have put into football club over the years.

- And when they came into buy it this time,

I was a bit suspicious and I thought,

"You know, are they going to love the club like we do?

"Are they really going to-to have

the-the best interests of the club at heart?"

And I just hope they don't let us down.

You know, it's, um, you know, we--

well, we pray that they don't let us down.

- They better not. - Yeah.

- You-you wouldn't cross a Wrexham fan.

- Don't, 'cause Wrexham-- Wrexham fans don't forgive...

- They don't forgive easily. - Very easily.

[light music]

[phone chimes] ROB: You have some news

for us?

Is it good news? - Well, it is.

After, uh, many months of trying

and, uh, frustration,

I would like to congratulate you.

You are now the proud owners of the Racecourse Ground.

- Whoa! - Yes!

Oh, my God! RYAN: Come on!

There we go!

- Wrexham AFC owns the Racecourse Ground

and, uh, you've made it possible

and, you know, and keeping-- and keeping true to your words

in the mission statement, so congratulations.

- Truly, you have made it possible--

you, um, HK and Shaun and-and-and Ryan.

Like, I-I've just-- I-I hadn't--

I lost my patience with it so long ago

that I had to check out of it completely

and I just appreciate you guys.

- This is why Shaun wanted to do it over Zoom

is he-he wanted to see your angry,

scrunched-up, sad little face, Rob,

blossom into a smile.

RYAN: Having the oldest international

football stadium on the planet under our stewardship

is, like, both elation

and weirdly, I can feel an ulcer growing

as we speak. - [laughs]

- Oh, have you got the email I've just sent you?

'Cause there is a second bit of news today.

- Oh! SHAUN: If you open--

If you-so there you go.

So if you want to open it up,

they are your first rendered images

of the new stand

the AFL architects have put together for us.

- Wow! - Oh.

Wow.

- That is a big-time football stadium right there.

That is a-- - And that's just one stand.

That's just "the Kop" stand. - Yeah.

- So-so what would be the next stand

that we would do? - Ugh, give him an inch,

he'll take a mile, Shaun.

I'm so sorry about--

Wait, when can we--when can we show this to the public?

- Uh, I need to go through the Council with Levelling Up Fund.

We probably need to warn a couple of people

at the Council it's coming out,

and then we can arrange a public launch

and I think it'd be really useful to do that

because you have to have a pre--

uh, a pre-application consultation period--

ROB: A pre-application consultation period?

SHAUN: More bureaucracy, I know.

But at least-- - It's incredible.

Let's just put it out. Let's just put it out.

Let's just put it out. SHAUN: At least, at least--

no, don't just put it out yet.

We-I'll-I'll give you the-- I'll give you the nod

when you can put it out. - Incredible.

- Thank you, Shaun. Thank you for that great news.

- Pleasure. RYAN: That is so neat.

- We're putting out the video.

We're putting out the video, we're putting out the video.

Bye, love you, love you, bye. - Oh, boy.

- Okay, bye. - Bye, bye, bye, bye.

[grand orchestral music]

[child giggles, seagull cries]