How 'Wrexham effect' is transforming non-league football

A couple of years ago, a magazine article described Peter McCormack as a "budget Ryan Reynolds".

The comparison had nothing to do with their contrasting day jobs as a former advertising executive-turned podcaster and his Hollywood actor counterpart, but entirely related to their involvement in English non-league football.

While Reynolds - alongside fellow movie star investor Rob McElhenney - has revelled in sending Wrexham catapulting through the leagues into the Championship following a high-profile takeover in 2020, McCormack had boldly set his own sights on doing the same at Real Bedford, a lowly semi-professional club he acquired two years later.

To aid his cause, Bedford local McCormack secured a £3.6m investment last year - the largest seen in non-league football - from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of a forerunner to Facebook and now cryptocurrency billionaires.

It is here McCormack takes exception to the Reynolds parallels.

"My co-owners are worth 10 or 20 times what they [Reynolds and McElhenney] are," says McCormack mischievously. "Really, Ryan Reynolds is the budget Winklevoss."

The outspoken McCormack is at the forefront of non-league football's new wave.

Long considered an unfashionable world of bobbly pitches and run-down clubhouses, the recent arrival - and rampant success - of Hollywood nobility at Wrexham has injected a slice of glamour into a hitherto-neglected landscape.

Swiftly, it has spread across the country.

Peter McCormack wants to take Real Bedford's men's team to the Premier League and its women's team to the Women's Super League

Previously the sole domain of local businessmen - and, less commonly, businesswomen - growing numbers of clubs are now benefitting from the weight, and substantial cash, of celebrities, publicity-hungry entrepreneurs, social media gurus and foreign investors enticed by the lower reaches of England's football pyramid, which encompasses everything below the fully professional League Two.

Average weekly attendances across the top four non-league tiers reached an all-time high of 117,586 last season, marking an increase of 43% over the past five years and 89% in a decade.

Reynolds and McElhenney are now far from the only famous faces on the scene.

When multi award-winning rapper Stormzy and former Crystal Palace footballer Wilfried Zaha bought ninth-tier Croydon Athletic in 2023, their motivations were boosting the London borough in which they both grew up.

The club immediately won promotion in their first season.

A couple of hundred miles further north, Westlife boyband member Brian McFadden told of aspirations to follow Reynolds' path when he and Boyzone singers Shane Lynch and Keith Duffy became the unofficial public faces of National League North club Chorley last year.

Elsewhere, Chesham United's National League South attendances have almost doubled in the two years since television hit Taskmaster became the club's shirt sponsor, courtesy of recently appointed club director, and the show's creator, Alex Horne.

Similarly, Line of Duty actor Vicky McClure and her husband Jonny Owen sponsored then seventh-tier Merthyr Town's kit through their production company for three seasons from 2021-22. The club's attendances have almost trebled since and they were crowned Southern League Premier South champions last season.

Little Mix popstar Jade Thirlwall became honorary president and shareholder of her local non-league club South Shields in 2020, before donning the Mariners' scarf in her debut solo music video. The club reached the sixth tier for the first time in 2023-24.

Stormzy celebrated promotion with AFC Croydon Athletic players after the Combined Counties Premier League South play-off final in 2024

Social media has played a significant part in the popularity surge.

When a group of teenage friends bought 10th-tier Walton & Hersham six years ago, they marketed themselves as "the world's youngest football club owners" and rapidly earned more than a million TikTok followers.

They have since been promoted three times and opened the club's sister academy in Florida.

"The amount of people following non-league football today compared to five years ago is night and day," says owner Sartej Tucker.

"Non-league football, from a brand perspective, really is on par with League One and Championship clubs. The only difference is the footballing product. The game has been glamourised in a positive way."

After selling his global influencer marketing agency for a multi-million-pound sum, Harry Hugo searched for non-league clubs within a 25-mile radius of his house and purchased Farnham Town in 2022. They have partnered with various online content creators and experienced back-to-back title triumphs to reach the Southern League Premier Division South.

"At the start it was very sceptical and finger pointy," he recalls of his venture into non-league football. "But now I'd say we're the hottest ticket in town to get five minutes with. This is the greatest hobby in the world."

Boyband stars Brian McFadden, Shane Lynch and Keith Duffy (left-right) promote Chorley FC and attend events there

The Wrexham effect has also spread far beyond home shores, with ever-increasing numbers of foreign investors putting money into semi-professional clubs.

Earlier this month, former England striker Andy Carroll signed for National League South side Dagenham & Redbridge on the same day the club announced a Qatari takeover from their American owners.

Two National League North outfits last year received funding from overseas, with King's Lynn Town securing cash from Singapore and a 15-person consortium of Los Angeles-based investors putting their money into Telford United.

Elliot Stroud runs a website for people looking to invest in football clubs. Within a year of launching his company in 2023, he created a separate portal purely for non-league clubs, which now occupy 70% of his time. The reason, he says, is Reynolds, McElhenney and their Welcome to Wrexham TV show.

"People saying they want to 'do a Wrexham' has become a bit of a term," admits Stroud. "It's definitely had an impact.

"It's amazing how many potential investors I speak to who just want to talk about the show, how realistic it is to do what they've done, and how much money it will take. It very, very often comes up in conversation."

At Real Bedford, McCormack's ambition of taking the club from the 10th tier to the Premier League has begun with three comprehensive title wins. Continue at this rate and his side might one day meet Wrexham in the upper reaches of English football.

"Our club is unstoppable with what we want to do," he says.

"Football disruption is great. The downstream benefit is the expansion of football itself. It's new energy.

"Wrexham, as a town, has been transformed by Ryan Reynolds and I love it. Hopefully we are going to transform Bedford - the Wrexham thing has been great for everyone."