Non-League Football Sees Surge in Celebrity Investments
A few years ago, a magazine article described Peter McCormack as a "budget Ryan Reynolds." This comparison wasn't about their careers—McCormack is a former advertising executive turned podcaster, while Reynolds is a Hollywood actor—but rather their involvement in English non-league football.
Reynolds, alongside fellow actor Rob McElhenney, has propelled Wrexham into the Championship following a high-profile takeover in 2020. Similarly, McCormack aimed to achieve success with Real Bedford, a semi-professional club he acquired two years later.
To support his ambitions, McCormack, a Bedford native, secured a £3.6 million investment last year from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, cryptocurrency billionaires and founders of a precursor to Facebook. This investment is the largest in non-league football history.
McCormack humorously contrasts himself with Reynolds, stating, "My co-owners are worth 10 or 20 times what they [Reynolds and McElhenney] are. Really, Ryan Reynolds is the budget Winklevoss."
McCormack is at the forefront of a new wave in non-league football. Once considered an unfashionable world of uneven pitches and rundown clubhouses, the arrival of Hollywood stars at Wrexham has injected glamour into this previously overlooked arena, quickly spreading nationwide.
Traditionally the domain of local businesspeople, non-league clubs are now attracting celebrities, entrepreneurs, social media influencers, and foreign investors, drawn to the lower tiers of England's football pyramid, which includes everything below the fully professional League Two.
Average weekly attendances across the top four non-league tiers reached a record high of 117,586 last season, a 43% increase over five years and an 89% rise in a decade. Reynolds and McElhenney are no longer the only famous faces in the scene.
Rapper Stormzy and former Crystal Palace footballer Wilfried Zaha bought ninth-tier Croydon Athletic in 2023 to support their London borough. The club won promotion in their first season.
Further north, Westlife's Brian McFadden, along with Boyzone's Shane Lynch and Keith Duffy, became unofficial public faces of National League North club Chorley last year. Meanwhile, Chesham United's attendances have nearly doubled since Taskmaster creator Alex Horne became a club director and sponsor.
Line of Duty actor Vicky McClure and her husband Jonny Owen sponsored Merthyr Town's kit through their production company, leading to a tripling of attendances and a championship win. Little Mix's Jade Thirlwall became honorary president and shareholder of South Shields in 2020, and the club reached the sixth tier in 2023-24.
Social media has played a significant role in this popularity surge. A group of teenagers bought 10th-tier Walton & Hersham, marketing themselves as "the world's youngest football club owners" and gaining over a million TikTok followers. They have since been promoted three times and opened a 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, is on par with League One and Championship clubs. The only difference is the footballing product. The game has been glamourised positively."
Harry Hugo, after selling his global influencer marketing agency, purchased Farnham Town in 2022. The club partnered with online content creators and experienced back-to-back title wins to reach the Southern League Premier Division South.
"At the start, it was very sceptical and finger-pointy," Hugo recalls. "But now I'd say we're the hottest ticket in town. This is the greatest hobby in the world."
The Wrexham effect has also attracted foreign investors to semi-professional clubs. Earlier this month, former England striker Andy Carroll signed for Dagenham & Redbridge, coinciding with a Qatari takeover. Last year, King's Lynn Town received funding from Singapore, and a Los Angeles-based consortium invested in Telford United.
Elliot Stroud, who runs a website for football club investors, notes that interest in non-league clubs has surged, largely thanks to Reynolds, McElhenney, and their show "Welcome to Wrexham." "People saying they want to 'do a Wrexham' has become a bit of a term," Stroud admits. "It's definitely had an impact."
At Real Bedford, McCormack's ambition to take the club from the 10th tier to the Premier League has begun with three title wins. "Our club is unstoppable," he says. "Football disruption is great. The downstream benefit is the expansion of football itself. It's new energy."
McCormack hopes to transform Bedford, much like Wrexham has been transformed by Ryan Reynolds. "The Wrexham thing has been great for everyone," he concludes.