North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has made fresh calls for a national football museum for Wales to be based in Wrexham.
Speaking in a Short Debate last year, Mr Isherwood said the people of North Wales deserve to have a Welsh National Football Museum on their doorstep.
The Welsh Government is currently in the process of appointing a contractor to complete a feasibility study on the football museum, but concerns have been raised that while the original commitment was to look into a football museum located in the north, the feasibility study looks at a more general sporting museum, which, potentially, could be anywhere in Wales.
Raising the concerns with the Cabinet Secretary for the Economy and Infrastructure, Ken Skates AM, in the Assembly Camber this week, Mr Isherwood said:
“I’ve had concerns raised with me regarding the feasibility study. The procurement document you referred to earlier today does, I’m told, talk of there being a sports museum anywhere in Wales, so I’m reassured by your comments (‘that the specification states that the preferred location is in Wrexham or elsewhere in North Wales’). But do you agree that it is important that what comes out of this ensures that the north-east is recognised for its pioneering role in promoting what’s become, for many, the national sport - some might argue it’s rugby union but, for many others, it’s football - recognising that this club (Wrexham AFC) started in 1872, that it’s where the first international match was played in Wales, where the Football Association of Wales was formed, and that it’s home, of course, to one of the world’s oldest football clubs?”
The Cabinet Secretary replied: “We will be engaging the National Museum Wales in discussions and deliberations as part of the feasibility study. As far as Wrexham AFC and football as a whole are concerned, north-east Wales has a very proud heritage in the sport. Many of us from that part of Wales would consider it to be certainly one of the national sports—probably the one that was most widely played by us when we were growing up—and we’re keen to make sure that any investment in a facility such as this serves to inspire people as well as to capture the past and to inspire people to go on to be very successful in football in the future.”
Mr Isherwood added: “I am aware that Wrexham AFC’s board members have expressed support for a National Football Museum located in Wrexham. Scotland has a national football museum in Glasgow, England has a national football museum in Manchester and Wrexham is the logical location for a National Football museum for Wales.”