North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood is backing calls for a Welsh National Football Museum in Wrexham and said it could act as a memorial to the 266 miners who lost their lives in the Gresford disaster.

Speaking in a Short Debate on the subject in the Assembly this week, Mr Isherwood said people in the region deserve to have a Welsh National Football Museum on their doorstep.

He said: “Wrexham has an excellent local museum, and I commend its current Brymbo Fossil Forest free exhibition, but people in North Wales can only visit one of the seven free-entry National Museum Wales sites within a realistic 60-mile radius travelling distance, whereas people in Cardiff and Swansea can visit six. Because Wrexham is football’s spiritual birthplace in Wales, the region’s people do deserve a Welsh national football museum.

“Wrexham’s Racecourse stadium has a 200-year history as a sporting venue. As well as horse racing, the Racecourse was also used by Wrexham cricket club, and it was the club’s members who formed Wrexham football club in 1872. It’s where the first international match was played in Wales; where the oldest international ground in the world is located; where the Football Association of Wales was formed; and home to Wrexham AFC - one of the world’s oldest football clubs.

“A national football museum in Wrexham could also act as a memorial for the 266 miners who lost their lives in the Gresford disaster, where many of the men working that day had switched shifts so that they could watch a home game the following Saturday at the Racecourse.”