Wrexham AFC: The fastest growing club in the world

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The name Wrexham may come as a mystery to football fans across the globe, but this Welsh city located in the borough of Wrexham county is quickly making a name for itself globally.

In a city of blue collar workers, they all share the same passion – their beloved Wrexham Association Football Club. A club that has some of the richest history that you will find across any sporting codes around the world. Founded in October of 1864, Wrexham AFC is the oldest Association Football side in the world. Nicknamed the Dragons, they are the heart and soul of this Welsh community and the football team competes in the National league, the English fifth tier.

The name Wrexham may be ringing a few bells in readers’ minds by now. The Dragons have rapidly rose to the top of football news tabloids across the globe in the past two years after its high profile sale to Hollywood Actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds in November of 2020. This created much noise around Wrexham, but what was to follow could not be imagined.

Whilst News outlets and football media pundits were debating the intentions of the club having American ownership, Wrexham was working tirelessly behind the scenes to put themselves back on the map. The rich history of the club, which includes the home ground of Racehorse Ground, is the world’s oldest international football stadium. The potentially bright future for the Dragons is one of the reasons why Reynolds and McElhenney jumped at the opportunity to buy at a price tag that cost the pair £2million ($3.32 million) in total.

With high profile owners, comes equally high profile opportunities. Disney+, the online streaming platform home to a whopping 221 million subscribers, saw the potential in the Wrexham AFC story – arguably one that is only just beginning. The documentary follows the club’s journey through the 2021 National League season in their pursuit to gain promotion into League 2. Reynolds and McElhenney have both stated that the goal for the club in 2022 is to be promoted to the next tier, with their long term vision for the Dragons eventually making a top flight appearance in the English Premier League.

Disney+ has done a compelling job in capturing the excitement and optimism surrounding the club. The ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ series paints the picture of a true underdog trying to survive and battle their way to the top. With the show’s episodes being released weekly in the midst of the club’s season, it has generated massive amounts of interest both domestically and internationally. A large focus has been tapping into the international markets and bringing Wrexham’s story to the world. In the United States, Wrexham merchandise sales spiked following the release of an episode. To measure the direct impact the documentary is having on its US viewers, a data science team from global e-commerce firm Pattern analysed consumer demand for Wrexham AFC merchandise on Amazon daily for the year to date. They found that merchandise sales skyrocketed by 47% on average the day after an episode is released – with Wrexham football shirts being the most in-demand item with an average increase of 113%.

With such an interest in the club, many new fans are asking the question of how they can watch Wrexham games. This is a key area of focus for Reynolds and McElhenney who both recognise the need for streaming of games being based in North America themselves. In a bid to capitalise on club interest, Wrexham approached the National League bosses with a proposal to stream Wrexham matches both domestically and internationally. The proposal was shut down which Reynolds described as ‘truly baffling’. Instead the National League is looking to create its own streaming service for the league.

Wrexham’s proposal to the National League was the idea of free international streaming to lure new fans towards the club and league. Domestic fans would pay £10 ($16) to stream live matches with all streaming profits being given to the National League. It’s obvious Wrexham’s new owners are trying to maximise the club’s growth by getting more eyes on the Dragons through live streaming matches.

The ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ documentary has shown the power and reach of streaming to a global audience. Reynolds and McElhenney’s focus is on connecting fans of the documentary to the club’s live matches, giving fans full access to their journey. As mentioned earlier, the revenue will come with growing interest in the club, and the spike in merchandise sales is a sign of that growth.

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Football NSW supports Female Coaches CPD as Women’s Football Surges

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Football NSW has used the platform of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to deliver a targeted professional development workshop for female coaches, bringing together scholarship recipients for an evening of structured learning and direct engagement with elite women’s football.

Held at ACPE last month, the session was open to female coaches who received C or B Diploma scholarships through Football NSW in 2025. Coaching accreditation carries a financial cost that disproportionately affects women, who are less likely to have their development subsidised by clubs or associations operating in underfunded community football environments. Scholarship access changes that equation at the point where many women exit the pathway.

Facilitated by Football NSW Coach Development Coordinator Bronwyn Kiceec, the workshop focused on goal scoring trends from the tournament’s group stage, with coaches analysing attacking patterns and exploring how those insights could translate into their own environments. The group then attended the quarter-final between South Korea and Uzbekistan at Stadium Australia.

The structure of the evening mattered as much as its content. Female coaches in community football rarely have access to elite competition environments as a professional resource. The gap between the level at which most women coach and the level at which the game is analysed and discussed tends to reinforce itself. Placing scholarship recipients inside a major tournament, as participants rather than spectators, closes that gap in a way that a classroom session cannot.

Female coaches remain significantly underrepresented across all levels of the game in Australia. The pipeline that will change that depends not only on accreditation access but on the professional networks, peer relationships and exposure to elite environments that male coaches have historically taken for granted.

The workshop forms part of Football NSW’s ongoing commitment to developing female coaches through scholarships and structured learning opportunities.

Record Pathway Breakthrough: Football NSW Report Highlights Power of Access and Equity

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Football NSW has released its 2025 Player Development Report, documenting a year of significant growth across its Talented Player Pathway programs for girls, boys and regional players, and offering the clearest picture yet of how the state’s talent identification infrastructure is reshaping who gets access to elite football development in Australia.

The report distinguishes between three streams: girls, boys and regional, where each operate under the umbrella of the Talented Player Pathway, which encompasses Football NSW’s Youth Leagues, Talent Support Program and state teams. Across all three, the numbers point to a system that is identifying more players, reaching further into the community, and producing more national team representatives than at any previous point in the program’s history.

A Girls Pathway Coming of Age

The girls program recorded some of its most significant outcomes to date in 2025, headlined by the inaugural Future Sapphires Program, a dedicated development environment for 2009, 2010 and 2011-born players that ran 140 training sessions, 16 high-level matches against boys teams, and identified 20 players for national team involvement across its first year alone.

The Talent Support Program conducted 494 player assessments across 119 club visits, with 117 additional games provided for TSP players throughout the season. At the Emerging Matildas Championships, Football NSW fielded three state teams, with the Under-15s Sky team claiming the championship, the Under-16s finishing as runners-up, and the Under-15s Navy placing third.

The pathway-to-national-team conversion rate was striking. Of the 23-player squad selected to represent the Junior Matildas at the AFC Under-17 Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers, 13 were from Football NSW, a 56.5 percent representation rate from a single state federation.

“This report does not simply provide data and numbers,” said Girls Player Development Manager Nadine Shiels. “It highlights our progress and validates the standards we set.”

The equity implications of that pipeline are significant. Elite female footballers in Australia, have historically faced a narrower and less resourced development corridor than their male counterparts. Programs like the Future Sapphires and the TSP are structural interventions in that imbalance, reshaping access mechanisms that determine which players get seen and which do not.

Boys Program Deepens its Reach

The boys Talent Support Program underwent deliberate restructuring in 2025, reducing squad sizes from approximately 90 players and five teams to 54 players and three teams per age group, while extending match duration from 50 to 70 minutes. The intent was to raise the standard of the best-versus-best environment rather than simply widen it.

The results support that confidence. To date, 155 players who have participated in the boys TSP have transitioned to A-League academies, with approximately 35 progressing to A-League Men’s competition and a further 30 representing Australia at junior national level across the Under-17, Under-20 and Under-23 squads.

The 2025 season added four Talent Development Scheme matches for players born between 2007 and 2009, delivered in collaboration with Football Australia and targeting potential Junior Socceroos and Young Socceroos selection. The program also hosted the inaugural A-Leagues/TSP Tournament at Valentine Sports Park in December, featuring Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory, Western Sydney Wanderers, Sydney FC, Macarthur Bulls Academy and a TSP Select team.

“Our purpose is clear- not only to identify talent, but to prepare it,” said Boys Player Development Manager Philip Myall.

The Regional Question

Perhaps the most structurally significant section of the report concerns regional development- the stream that most directly addresses the geographic equity gap in Australian football’s talent pipeline.

Talent identification in Australia has historically concentrated in metropolitan areas, where NPL clubs, A-League academies and state federation programs are most densely located. Players in regional and rural NSW face a structural disadvantage that has nothing to do with ability and everything to do with geography. Fewer club visits, reduced access to high-performance environments, and reduced visibility to the coaches and scouts who determine national team selection saliently reflect a systemic barrier.

The 2025 regional TSP involved 241 players across 57 training sessions, 18 hub matches and 58 additional tournament games, with Football NSW coaches present at local association fixtures and regional tournaments including the Bathurst Cup and Country Cup. Regional players were also integrated into Elite Game Days at Valentine Sports Park, directly competing against metropolitan TSP cohorts and A-League academy players.

“The program has continued to enable identified players to progress and be part of the greater football elite player pathway,” said Regional Development Manager Andrew Fearnley, “with opportunity to progress and be identified into national youth teams.”

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