Wrexham AFC, the football club co-owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, used taxpayer funds to re-lay its pitch, even though initial grant documents assessing the state investment did not reference the works. The club has been awarded £18 million in grants, with the first £3.8 million tranche in February 2022. However, legally required state aid documents relating to that initial grant made no mention of the pitch works.
The Guardian recently revealed questions over whether the £3.8 million grant was lawful, after the council acknowledged that, at the time of the award, it did not have a contract or a final assessment of whether subsidy control principles had been followed. The council had previously stated that “all due diligence and checks were in place ahead of the transfer of any funding”.
Club’s Rise and Investment
Reynolds and Mac bought the club in 2021 and have invested significantly, propelling them from the fifth tier of English football to a potential shot at promotion to the Premier League should they qualify for the Championship playoffs this month. Wrexham AFC spent £1.7 million upgrading the pitch last summer with undersoil heating, new drainage, and stitching with plastic fibres to improve its longevity, according to a report in the Athletic, which noted “no one could have failed to notice just how lush the new surface looked in the August sunshine”.
Grant Agreement and Retrospective Changes
A month later, on 17 September 2025, the council signed a contract detailing how the club could use the full £18 million – including pitch works that had already been completed. Neither the draft nor final assessments of the £3.8 million grant from 2022 make any reference to works on the pitch, despite the draft including plans for the £18 million in spending. The retrospective addition of the pitch works to the 2025 grant funding agreement suggests Wrexham AFC was given unusual leeway in deciding how to spend taxpayer money for its own benefit, without legally binding controls in place.
Stefan Borson, a football finance expert and head of sport at the law firm McCarthy Denning, questioned why the council had pushed ahead with the rest of the grant in 2025, given the significant change in the club’s financial circumstances. By that time, Reynolds and Mac had led promotion to the lucrative Championship, attracted large sponsorship deals, and secured millions of pounds of new investment from the US billionaire Allyn family. Shortly after the grant, the private equity group Apollo also invested millions.
“During summer 2025, the club spent £2 million improving its pitch, presumably with a view to helping its players achieve a sporting advantage,” Borson said. “We now know these works were paid for by the taxpayer. The fact that the grant funding agreement was not entered into in 2022 means that the change in financial status of the club could have led to a rethink as to the scale of the grant commitment.”
Subsidy Control Concerns
The documents do make repeated reference to an aim to meet Uefa category 4, the highest standard, which includes some pitch requirements. However, Alexander Rose, a partner specialising in subsidy control at the law firm Ward Hadaway, said the “principles assessment was light touch given the sums being awarded”. He added: “Very little consideration was given to the subsidy to re-lay the football pitch, which was more contentious given it was covering an operating cost of a football club.”
Wrexham council did not respond when approached in relation to the pitch. However, in response to previous reporting, the leader of Wrexham council, Mark Pritchard, said: “All due diligence and checks were in place ahead of the transfer of any funding and we refute any accusations to the contrary.” He said the earliest draft subsidy assessment was “based upon the original concept – this was reviewed and amended as the scheme evolved, culminating in the final assessment”. Pritchard added: “The grant represents a small investment compared to what the club will be investing at the Racecourse, the oldest international stadium in the world that still hosts international matches.”
In response to previous questions, a Wrexham AFC spokesperson said: “These funds have helped to contribute to overall improvements to the Racecourse Ground facilities and the development of a new Kop Stand – such improvements being key to ensuring the world’s oldest international football stadium still in continuous use, remains exactly that.”
Reynolds is the producer and star of the billion-dollar Deadpool film series, while Mac, who has changed his name from McElhenney, is the producer and star of comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
