Wrexham owner interest in SPFL comes to light as 'hammering' fear from Hearts, Hibs + Old Firm proved too much

Hearts and Hibs have been named as two of the factors as to why Wrexham’s Hollywood backing didn’t end up in Scotland.

Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds are both famed in the US for roles across films and TV like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia plus Deadpool. They are the owners of Welsh side Wrexham and have backed their transformation from National League side in England to League One club pushing for promotion to the Championship.

Their success has been platformed in the backdrop of the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ series through Disney. It was the former who started the club hunt and McElhenney's parents were of Irish descent. British actor and comedian, Humphrey Ker, helped introduce him to UK football’s landscape and aided his quest for a team to back with Hearts and Hibs playing a role.

Hearts and Hibs on Wrexham owner’s mind

Now a director at Wrexham having worked on the project from the ground floor, Ker has said that both the League of Ireland and Scotland were looked at as possible options. Naming League One duo Queen of the South and Arbroath as examples, McElhenney turned attention south as Hearts, Hibs, plus Rangers and Celtic, would prove too much of a challenge to try and topple.

He told the Fozcast: “I was in charge of identifying a club. Initially, he wanted to do it in Ireland or Scotland, because he's from Ireland. So he was like, what about Shamrock Rovers? And I was like, look, League of Ireland's got great clubs, historic clubs. It would be brilliant in many ways, but it'd be like throwing a brick into a pond. If you put your time and energy and resources into a League of Ireland club, you win the League of Ireland instantaneously, and no one comes close to you, and there is s no drama there.

“Scotland's interesting. You could start with like an Arbroath or a Queen of the South or something like that, they are like down there, the bottom there, and build them up. But then you are always going to get this thing where, okay, you probably get them to Premiership but you're going to run into Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen, and then obviously Celtic and Rangers. Then we will get hammered every time we play them, we might beat other people, it's going to be a bit strange.

Why Hollywood moved into Wrexham

On why it was eventually the club in Wales, Ker said: “The thing with the longest room for growth, I think, is English football.

“Having a background in TV and storytelling, the narrative around Wrexham was perfect. A historic club fallen on hard times, owned by the fans, survival by the skin of its teeth. But an incredible sense of self. Every game we play is across the border derby. It doesn’t matter who you are playing, there’s a bit of needle. We looked at Aldershot as they were alphabetically the first team in the National League. We looked at Hartlepool United, Carlisle United.”