Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney to pay Wrexham staff lost furlough wages

"These were sacrifices that were made by members of staff and players without any expectation of necessarily getting that money back."

Wrexham players and staff who missed out on their full wage while on furlough are to have any lost money paid back to them by the club's new owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

The furlough scheme was introduced by government last year to help those who could not work due to the coronavirus pandemic. Those on furlough were paid up to 80 per cent of their normal wage - up to £2,500. Many football clubs took advantage of the scheme, which proved vital in ensuring their survival after gate receipts and other revenue streams dried up.

"The club is going to be paying all the furlough money that members of staff and players had surrendered to help the club last season because our feeling is that was done to help the club when the club was in a tough time," Humphrey Ker, Wrexham's newly appointed Executive Director, is quoted as saying by The Leader. "Now that the club is in less tough time, we appreciate that support from the people that gave it to us. "It just seemed like the right thing to do on our side of things, and we will aim to be guided by that as a principle. "These were sacrifices that were made by members of staff and players without any expectation of necessarily getting that money back. "Most of this stuff was agreed and happened long before we were in the picture but our mantra is we want to turn this place back into a positive environment where we all work together to head in the same direction. "That was just a little gesture that we could make that said to everybody that we were serious about doing that as well as just saying we were serous about doing it."