Wrexham owners in media storm after controversial TV coverage

Wrexham, perhaps the UK’s most-hyped football club outside of the UK, have found themselves at the heart of a media backlash along with TV broadcasters following their recent game against Swansea City.

Sky Sports, the rights holders to England’s second division, offered what many are labelling biased coverage, as Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob MacElhenney were invited to commentate on Wrexham’s recent game against their Welsh rivals.

Swansea have gone public with their feelings, with chief executive Tom Gorringe writing in the club’s official programme that “build-up and coverage of the game itself left a lot to be desired on those particular scores.”

“We have the Sky Sports cameras in attendance once again,” he added in the notes published ahead of the game against Coventry City, “although hopefully coverage of this fixture will be more balanced than what we witnessed around our game at Wrexham last weekend."

“The advert failed to mention that we were playing at all”

“While I don’t think anyone would dispute that we want to continue to grow the profile of the EFL product, the means by which we do so should be balanced and impartial."

He took a clear swipe at Sky Sports, stating that “the advert for the commentary of the game failed to mention that we were playing at all.”

Gorringe then went on to say that both he and “a number of members of our staff” felt that “we were very much an afterthought” and that “our hosts were given priority at every opportunity”.

He stressed that “as a club we would strongly suggest that greater critical thought is given to how these situations are handled moving forward."

“This is a position that I will discuss with the EFL next week,” he concluded.

While Swansea’s manager was interviewed both before and after the game, this is a league broadcasting obligation and is not part of the editorial decisions that surround a match-day TV product.

Since the Hollywood pair’s takeover of the club, Wrexham have become a common theme in the English football media discourse. At the time of writing they sit in 7th place in the EFL Championship, level on points with Southampton in 6th but behind them on goal difference.

Swansea City were League Cup winners in 2012-13 and went on to have a European dream the following season, playing against the likes of Napoli and Valencia in the UEFA Europa League. They last played in the Premier League in 2018 and are now part-owned by both Luka Modric and Snoop Dogg. If Sky Sports can get Reynolds and McElhenney on commentary duty, let’s see Luka and Snoop in the booth.

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