Rob McElhenney described it on social media as “an absolute banger” of a game and NFL legend Tom Brady clearly agreed, flying in from the U.S. to watch.
On the face of it, this was a relatively ordinary match, the team top of English football’s third tier against the side seventh in the league.
But that does not tell half the story.
Birmingham City versus Wrexham was, in fact, a fixture streamed on both sides of the Atlantic, watched live by David Beckham and with celebrity backers facing off against each other on opposite sides of the boardroom.
Big-spending Birmingham City ran out victorious, moving up to second in the League One table, but this match was as much about the story of the two clubs off the pitch as about events on it.
Richard Sutcliffe and Rob Tanner reflect on perhaps the highest-profile and most star-studded match the third division of English football has ever seen.
Brady, Beckham and the hottest ticket in town
Not so long ago, the biggest celebrity on view at Birmingham City was comedian — and lifelong fan — Jasper Carrott.
The one-time board member, who today has a suite named after him at St Andrew’s, even used to incorporate the Midlands club in his act. “You lose some, you draw some,” was how Carrott, a fixture on primetime Saturday TV in the UK in the 1980s, would joke about life as a fan.
Today, however, things have changed. Not only was City’s home packed to the rafters for the visit of Wrexham. But Monday also brought the sort of celebrity gathering usually reserved for a late-night chat-show sofa.
In the blue corner was Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion who jetted in from the U.S. to watch the club where he is a minority investor. Also hot-footing it across the Atlantic to make kick-off was McElhenney, the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator there to fly the red flag for Wrexham in the absence of co-owner Ryan Reynolds.
The Deadpool star may have been otherwise engaged, though he did get a video call from his co-owner before kick-off to let him soak up the atmosphere.
Rob McElhenney makes a video call to co-owner Ryan Reynolds before kick-off (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
McElhenney, though, was determined not to miss what was only his third away league game since buying the Welsh club, the first two having ended in defeat at Maidenhead United and Chesterfield.
Having presented an award at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night in Los Angeles alongside his wife — and fellow It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star — Kaitlin Olson, he swapped the red carpet for the red eye to attend what has to be the most glamorous fixture League One has seen.
Once in the Midlands, he wasted no time in searching out Brady. The pair had a long chat pitchside before arguably the NFL’s greatest player presented his counterpart with a Birmingham shirt, complete with ‘McElhenney 12’ on the back.
Rob McElhenney with his gift from Tom Brady (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Earlier, Brady had added to the already surreal nature of the evening by throwing inch-perfect passes with an NFL ball for a couple of City players to catch.
Then came the arrival of David Beckham shortly before kick-off.
This was the second time Goldenballs — the nickname wife Victoria famously bestowed on the former England captain — had watched Wrexham live, the owner of Inter Miami having been at Wembley in 2022 for the FA Trophy defeat by Bromley.
No doubt Carrott, who had a huge hit with the quiz show ‘Golden Balls’, will have approved.
Richard Sutcliffe
Tom Brady, David Beckham and Gary Neville are all in attendance for Birmingham City vs. Wrexham…
📼 @SkyFootball pic.twitter.com/yDQlKAFDDk
— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) September 16, 2024
Did the game live up to the ‘Real Madrid versus Harlem Globetrotters’ hype?
As a veteran of many a touchline bust-up down the years, Rotherham United manager Steve Evans may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But the irascible Scot’s light-hearted dig about these two teams may well have struck a chord with his peers.
“We’ve not played the Real Madrid of League One,” Evans told Rotherham’s official website when asked to assess his side’s start to the League One season, a clear dig at big-spending Birmingham.
“And we’ve not played the Harlem Globetrotters, who will turn up when Parky (manager Phil Parkinson) brings Wrexham here with the stars that come with the ownership there.”
Such big billing really needed to be followed by a big 90 minutes from someone. Sure enough, Birmingham and their record £13million ($17m) signing Jay Stansfield duly delivered on a night that left St Andrew’s rocking.
Underlining how you often get what you pay for in football, the striker started paying back that huge fee with two typically predatory finishes as the hosts came from behind to claim a deserved three points from a hard-fought encounter, with tempers boiling over just before the end.
A clash between Paul Mullin and Krystian Bielik soon escalated to plenty of pushing and shoving before James McClean, the Wrexham captain, became embroiled in the bust-up. A yellow card apiece for Mullin and Bielik followed, while Parkinson sensibly substituted his captain.
Bielik was then shown red for a foul on Andy Cannon, a sour note to end an otherwise fine evening for a club whose £25m recruitment drive this summer looks certain to bring the desired effect.
Richard Sutcliffe
Birmingham, a comatose giant finally waking up
In the early 1990s, Vince Overson, who was captain of Birmingham City at the time, was asked whether the club that carries the name of England’s second-largest city was a sleeping giant.
He replied it wasn’t a sleeping giant. It was comatose.
The club was heading towards the third tier of English football for the first time in its history. Now they are at the same level for the third time. They briefly opened an eye for a spell at the turn of the century when they were in the Premier League and won the League Cup, only for the rot to set in again.
Now it feels like Birmingham City, the comatose giant, are finally awakening under the U.S. ownership of Knighthead and Tom Wagner.
There have been many false dawns before, especially when they were taken over by Carson Yeung, a hair stylist from Hong Kong who bought the club for £70million ($92m) but ended up serving prison time for money laundering. The team were struggling, the St Andrew’s stadium was crumbling and the fanbase were protesting. It was a dark time.
Forget Wrexham’s Netflix documentary, a Hollywood horror movie could be made about Birmingham’s recent history.
But even the most downtrodden, soul-sapped Birmingham fan has renewed belief now under the new owners. Where before there has been a lot of smoke and mirrors, this feels real. Birmingham fans can see the light again.
With Brady as a figurehead minority shareholder and the exciting plans that Wagner and Knighthead have for the future, Birmingham fans are getting excited for the first time in many years.
Rob Tanner
A shedload of ambition on and off the pitch
It must feel surreal for those Birmingham fans who have followed the club through the thick and mostly thin years to see their club now being promoted as an international brand.
Not only was the directors’ box decorated by American and British sporting royalty in Brady and Beckham, and a Hollywood actor, the game was streamed in the U.S by CBS Sports.
Previously, the Small Heath and Bordesley Green areas of Birmingham would only be seen on U.S. screens in an episode of Peaky Blinders. The real Blinders owned the Garrison pub on Garrison Lane outside St Andrew’s.
On the morning of the game the club announced Delta Airlines had also joined the bandwagon as ‘official airline partner’ and their Nike shirt sleeves would be adorned by the company’s logo.
It is a long way from the days when the shirts were manufactured by small brands, and the shirt sponsors would be local car dealerships, a toothpaste brand for one game only at Liverpool (because it was on television), and even Co-op Milk.
The half-time entertainment used to involve a roofless shed being brought to the centre circle for fans from the crowd to be given the chance to chip the ball into it, similar to NBA fans getting to shoot from mid-court. It was short-lived and so hated by the supporters that the very sight of the shed entering the pitch would be roundly booed.
With Knightheads’ ambitious plans for the club, who knows what comes next? Lady Gaga or Katy Perry serenading the crowd at half-time, perhaps?
Rob Tanner
CBS’ EFL deal looking like a smart move
This game was the only show in town thanks to the fact the Premier League, a staple part of Sky’s Monday schedule since the very beginning of the league in 1992, had a rare night off.
This meant a light being shone not only on two clubs who epitomise the gobalisation of modern-day football but also on the vibrancy of the English football pyramid.
Where else in Europe or beyond could a third-tier match attract a sell-out crowd of 27,980 as well as a trans-Atlantic audience thanks to the game being shown live on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Network in the United States?
It’s not just the celebrity factor boosting League One, either. Fans are clamouring for tickets elsewhere, too, with Bolton Wanderers’ 4-0 defeat at home to Huddersfield Town on Saturday drawing a crowd of 22,532, while no less than nine clubs boast an average attendance of more than 10,000 this season.
Throw in the vast numbers who continue to pour through the turnstiles at Sunderland, Leeds United et al in the Championship and even Bradford City in the fourth tier, and it is perhaps no wonder CBS Sports pushed so hard to become the home of the EFL for the next four years in the United States.
Richard Sutcliffe
(Top photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
