sMothered TLC (Aug

Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds

WELCOME TO WREXHAM

NEW SERIES!

In 2020, Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) and Rob McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) formed The R.R. McReynolds Company and purchased the fifth-tier English soccer club Wrexham AFC. The duo had no knowledge of sports team ownership, leading many to wonder if this was a joke.

A character in the comedy Ted Lasso — in which Jason Sudeikis plays a hapless American college football coach hired to manage an English soccer club — wondered the same thing in a Season 2 episode. Reynolds and McElhenney responded with a tongue-in-cheek cease and desist order.

Actually, they’re quite serious about their team, its supporters and its community. Viewers can follow along every step of their effort to turn Wrexham around in the new FX documentary series Welcome to Wrexham.

Actor/writer Humphrey Ker (American Auto, Mythic Quest) is an integral part of the club’s operation, serving on the team’s board of directors and working closely with the owners. He gave us an insider’s peek into the world of Wrexham and the TV series:

You’re executive director of the Wrexham Football Club. What do your duties entail?

Humphrey Ker: The way I have come to describe it is that I translate Hollywood into football and football into Hollywood. By day, I’m an actor and writer based in Los Angeles. I’m from the U.K. originally, but I’ve been over here for about 10 years. I liaison between Rob and Ryan, and between Fleur Robinson our CEO, and Shaun Harvey our strategic adviser to the board, and act as essentially a translator between those two elements. What do Rob and Ryan want and need from the club? What are the club’s wants and needs from Rob and Ryan? And how best to maximize the success of everything we’re trying to do.

What was the state of Wrexham before Rob and Ryan bought it?

Historically, Wrexham is one of the great clubs of English football insofar as they’re the third oldest professional football team in the world. And we had a great history of huge crowds and some success, and they’ve won the Welsh Cup 23 times and all sorts of things to be very proud of. But over the last 15-20 years, the club has really declined in a big way and has suffered under the ownership of a few groups of people who were less interested in the success of the football clubs than they were in trying to squeeze as much money out