Cardiff City, Swansea and Wrexham told they could be ‘thrown out of English leagues’
Wrexham should be made to play in the Welsh league if they want to use government funding.
That is according to ex-Everton, Aston Villa, and Aberdeen chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who is “very angry” at Wrexham using Welsh government funding to redevelop the Racecourse Ground.
Wrexham have been valued at £350million, and are owned by American stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac.
The decision to grant Wrexham non-repayable grants has been described as “surprising“, in a move which will increase the capacity of the Racecourse Ground to just over 18,000.
Wrexham issue needs to be looked into ‘a lot further’
Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – thinks the system should be fair for English and Welsh clubs.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast, Wyness believes the club’s owners should be reinvesting more of their own money into the club.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “Now beyond this, this brings up the question if the government of Wales is going to allow them to do this? Is it time for Wales and Welsh football clubs to be in their own league and take Cardiff and Swansea out of the English Football League and Wrexham out of the English Football League and let them play in a Welsh league, because you can’t have clubs like Stockport who are very close to Wrexham not getting government aid as Wrexham have done.
“So I’m very angry about this and I think, we need to look into this a lot further and it’s the wrong use of government money. We’re seeing, we’ve just seen the last budget when there’s been all sorts of issues around, handouts and all the rest of it.
“I won’t go into the political issues, of course, but nevertheless, this is not the right use of government money when you’ve got two very healthy, well-heeled American owners and good revenues coming into the club and they have access to capital to be able to do this themselves. And if they want to do it, they should be reinvesting in the club.
“And if they’ve got any state aid at all, certainly on putting on other events, that might be the right time to do it, but not in terms of building a stadium that will give their club more valuation and more money for themselves. So as you can tell, I’m quite exercised about this and I think it’s wrong.”
Wrexham complete second high-profile deal
Wrexham have sold a minority stake of the club to Apollo Sports Capital, who also own Spanish club Atletico Madrid.
The deal will further boost Wrexham financially, as the club aim to get promoted to the Premier League in the near future.
The Welsh club are currently 12th in the Championship table, just three points off the final play-off spot.