Wrexham FC: Familiar Faces and Even More Familiar Divisions

Another week, another bewildering chapter in the Wrexham ownership saga. As one bid collapses amid pitchside pageantry, another emerges, bringing with it a cast of characters familiar to students of boardroom controversy.

A Ceremony on the Centre Circle

Last Saturday, before a match against Forest Green Rovers, a preferred bidder for Wrexham FC was announced. In a bizarre ceremony on the Racecourse Ground pitch, complete with cheerleaders, Stephanie Booth opened an envelope and declared herself the successor to the club’s ownership before singing the Welsh national anthem.

The substance of her bid, detailed in a leaflet distributed at the ground, appeared less certain. It proposed shareholdings starting at £1,000, a price likely to exclude many ordinary supporters. The pamphlet was also dismissive of the Wrexham Supporters Trust (WST) and what Booth termed “a few hot-heads”. Her business plan contained a particularly tactless threat to local businesses: “Every single local company will be approached to sponsor WFC and I will not be slow to name and shame those that refuse”. This aggressive fundraising strategy, coupled with a document that used the words “I” or “me” eighty-three times, did little to inspire confidence.

By Wednesday morning, the entire spectacle had unravelled. A message appeared on Booth’s Facebook page stating that the current owner, Geoff Moss, now wanted a “quick cash sale to an individual” and that her bid was “all too late now”. What changed so drastically between the on-pitch announcement and this sudden collapse remains a matter for speculation.

The Old Names Return

The Wrexham Supporters Trust, whose own bid was hampered by Moss’s refusal to grant them access to the club’s books for due diligence, has now officially thrown in the towel. In a weary press release, the WST noted the “needless antagonism promoted by Ms Booth” and confirmed its financial backer had withdrawn, reluctant to engage in a bidding war. The very supporters who had spent weeks rubbishing the Trust got their wish, only for the alternative to evaporate almost immediately.

The “individual” Moss is apparently favouring appears to be former Premier League footballer Ashley Ward. His interest, however, does not seem to be a solo venture. One name linked to the Ward bid is Colin Poole, a former executive at Shrewsbury Town. Poole has a history of his own. He was a co-founder of Claims Direct, a company which floated on the stock exchange netting him a reported £50m before collapsing into receivership in 2002. Poole had sold shares worth an estimated £10 million before the firm’s demise and was later disqualified from acting as a company director for ten years from April 2008.

Poole’s time at Shrewsbury is significant because of the people he may have encountered there, including Jon Harris and Rob Bickerton. These names were involved in the aborted Van Morton Investments vehicle, which pulled out of a bid for Wrexham after it was revealed that one of its backers was Stephen Vaughan. Vaughan himself admitted to being a stakeholder in that consortium. The question now is whether Ashley Ward is the former footballer Vaughan alluded to in February. If Ward, Poole, and Vaughan are connected, it would present a consortium where two backers would fail any fit and proper person test.

No Good Options

Against this chaotic background, another name has resurfaced: Stephen Cleeve. While he has been speaking a good deal of sense on his Twitter feed, his past disqualification as a company director will count against him. He has no previous known interest in football, and a loss-making non-league club is hardly an obvious investment for someone looking to turn a profit without causing irreparable damage.

The divisions among the club’s supporters, so evident in recent weeks, have not healed. While this disunity is not the direct cause of the last few days’ events, it has certainly not helped. A united front behind the WST from the outset might have offered a path towards a community-owned club, but entrenched disagreements have made that impossible. Even now, some still debate established facts, such as Booth’s directorship disqualification, which is a matter of public record at Companies House.

The collapse of two bids in a matter of days has done nothing to resolve the club’s profound crisis. With the WST diminished and the other potential owners trailing chequered histories behind them, Wrexham FC remains entirely at the mercy of whatever game Geoff Moss is playing.