Stefan Borson stunned after ‘remarkable’ Wrexham deal agreed

Wrexham’s financial situation is under the spotlight after it’s emerged they have been granted £18million worth of public money to help fund their new Kop Stand. 

UK government state aid disclosures have revealed (via The Guardian) Wrexham have received the non-repayable grants from the Welsh government through the local council. 

Former Everton CEO Keith Wyness told Football Insider Wrexham’s agreement with the Welsh government is “absolutely despicable”. 

Wrexham are majority owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac (formerly McElhenney), who have helped the club achieve three successive promotions from the National League to the Championship. 

Meanwhile, the Allyn family purchased a minority stake in the Welsh side in October 2024. 

Government have made 'surprising' Wrexham move

Former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson exclusively told Football Insider it’s a “remarkable use of public money” to gift Wrexham £18m. 

Wrexham have recently been valued at up to £350m, while Apollo Sports Capital was confirmed as a new minority investor at the Stok Cae Ras, also known as the Racecourse Ground, on Monday (8 December).

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson said: “I've looked at this quite extensively. It does look quite surprising. 

“I mean, you've got a situation where very wealthy owners of Wrexham, they're all US based. I'm talking about McElhenney, Reynolds and the Allyn family. The Allyn family are a billionaire family. 

“So, you've got two celebrities that are probably worth in the hundreds of millions because they're also business people. They've made a lot of money in business, particularly Reynolds, so you're talking about extremely wealthy owners. 

“Just in January of this year, they repaid themselves £15m of a loan that was outstanding. They'd loaned into the club during the growth and have raised something like £30m from shareholders over the last year, so they don't seem to be short on cash.” 

Hollywood stars Reynolds and Mac are understood to have a combined net worth of around £300m. 

Wrexham backed to achieve promotion to Premier League

Meanwhile, Phil Parkinson has also been heavily backed in the transfer market, with Wrexham spending around £30m on new signings over the summer. 

Borson insisted the Red Dragons, who sit 12th in the Championship table, could soon be a Premier League club after analysing the situation around their stadium grant. 

“They're certainly solvent and the club is pretty close to the Premier League,” said Borson. 

“They're a few points off the play-offs and they've got great momentum. This could be a Premier League club in the next one or two years. 

“Now, it seems to me against that backdrop, the idea that the taxpayer would gift £18m to the club to build a stand, that seems to me to be a remarkable use of public money.” 

It was confirmed last week Wrexham have broken ground on the redevelopment of the Kop Stand, with the project set to be completed during the 2026-27 season and increase the stadium’s capacity to just over 18,000. 

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