Welsh Government grants Wrexham AFC £100k after club got caught in geographic pandemic support gap
Wrexham Football Club has had a £100,000 grant from Welsh Government, after a period of confusion on if pandemic support should originate from UK Government or Welsh Government.
As we have previously reported Wrexham Football Club was the only club out of 66 other league members not eligible for an avenue of UK Government pandemic support, apparently due to being a Welsh club in and English league system.
In late January the Welsh Government announced a £17.7m grant based fund to support spectator sports in Wales, with football allocated £1.5m of the total pot, however Wrexham was also not included in that tranche.
We reported on an FOI that revealed Welsh Government had decided not to allocate cash to the club as they were unaware the club would not be entitled to support through Sport England via the UK Government’s Sports Winter Survival Package until after its own funding support was announced.
Club co-owner Rob McElhenney has previously commented on the matter saying “We don’t need their money.”
Today the Welsh Government have confirmed a grant of £100,000 has been made, with the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism Dafydd Elis-Thomas MS saying: “Following an exchange of correspondence with the club, they were invited to submit an application to the Spectator Sports Survival Fund 2020-21 so officials could formally assess its eligibility.
“The application was deemed eligible for support and Wrexham AFC were offered a Funding Award grant in the amount of up to £100,000, which was accepted and paid in one instalment.
“It was awarded on the basis the sources of funding the Welsh Government expected to be available to the club from the UK Government had not materialised so they had not been afforded the same opportunity as their competitors to access support to mitigate the impact of the net losses.”
Lesley Griffiths MS has been in regular contact with Wrexham AFC and has made representations to Sport England, the UK Government and Welsh Government on the matter.
She said: “I’m delighted this issue has been resolved. Once it became clear Wrexham AFC had been excluded from UK Government support, I approached the Welsh Government and it has stepped up to the plate.”
“After the takeover, Wrexham AFC is fortunately in a much more secure position financially, but it was the principle of the matter that was important to me. I didn’t want to see Wrexham AFC missing out on something it is perfectly entitled to just because the club is located in Wales.
“I am sure this funding will have a positive impact and will be welcomed by supporters.”
The letter seen by Wrexham.com confirming the allocation is below:
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