A Pincer Movement: The Fight for Wrexham FC Continues

On Christmas Eve, as most of the country prepared for the holidays, a legal charge was placed against The Racecourse Ground. This detail, revealed only this week, is the latest alarming development in the story of Wrexham Football Club’s future. The charge acts as security against a debt, placed in favour of the Rugby Football League and Super League. If the debt is not paid, the charge-holder can take possession of the property. For a football club that has played at its home for one hundred and thirty-eight years, this is a dangerous turn of events.

The debt in question belongs not to Wrexham, but to the Crusaders, the rugby league club with whom they now share a ground. The Rugby Football League loaned Crusaders £700,000 last year while the club was in financial difficulty. It is understood this is to be paid back interest-free, at £70,000 per year over ten years. As a condition for allowing the financially troubled Crusaders to continue in the Super League, the RFL understandably wanted security on its loan.

But how can Crusaders secure a loan against a property they do not own? The Racecourse Ground, for now, still belongs to Wrexham FC. The answer is simple: they can do it with the permission of the property’s owner. And since the owners of Wrexham are effectively the owners of Crusaders, that permission was easily granted.

Tenants in Their Own Home

This situation places Wrexham in something of a pincer movement. The club already faces the prospect of paying rent to play at a ground it theoretically owns, after ownership was passed to a holding company called Wrexham Village. It is now also dependent on Crusaders maintaining their debt repayments to the RFL. Failure to do so could see Wrexham’s home seized to cover a debt that is not even theirs.

Losing control of a ground is a perilous moment for any club. For Kingstonian, the story had a silver lining. When their ground was sold and purchased by AFC Wimbledon, they were left as tenants. Yet their landlords are sympathetic; Kingsmeadow’s colouring still reflects Kingstonian’s red, white and black, and their rent is nominal. They lost their biggest asset but found a degree of security.

The opposite end of the scale is occupied by FC United of Manchester. Without a home of their own, they are forced to pay a crippling £5,000 per match to rent Bury’s Gigg Lane. This vast expense prevents a club with average crowds of 2,000 from paying the sort of wages one might expect. Their herculean effort to build their own ground at Ten Acres Lane, funded by a community share scheme, is driven by the desire to escape the financial trap of renting.

A Future Dependent on Others

Wrexham now appears to be facing the worst of both scenarios. The club is having its most significant asset drained from it while its short-term future becomes entangled with the financial stability of a rugby club. Unsurprisingly, this latest development was not made public by the club itself. A joint statement issued last Friday on the Crusaders websites by owners Roberts and Moss made no reference to the charge at all. How supporters are expected to trust these individuals is a mystery.

The idea of a new, supporter-owned Wrexham has been raised, though it is not without complications. Would a phoenix club be forced into the Welsh league system? This is a prospect that supporters seem unlikely to favour, and unity is precisely what they need at this moment.

The club's supporters seem to be the only ones who give a tu’penny damn about its fate.

The Football Association ought to be looking very seriously at the situation unfolding at The Racecourse Ground. The Crusaders deal is not the single make or break moment, but it adds another thick layer of uncertainty to a status that has hung over the club for far too long. In the meantime, the battle for Wrexham FC will continue.