Ryan Reynold's Wrexham club criticized for 37-minute private jet ride

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Ryan Reynolds and his soccer club have been criticized by an environmental group for chartering a private plane to whisk the squad to a match that was roughly a three-hour drive away.

Wrexham AFC has been climbing the ranks of British football since it was purchased by the Vancouver-born Deadpool star and American actor Rob McElhenney in 2020. It currently plays in the third-tier League One and won a match against the Wycombe Wanderers F.C. on March 15.

But the club is getting a red card from Fossil Free Football, which called out the team for opting to fly its players on a private plane from Hawarden Airport in Wales to Oxford Airport near Wycombe and back the next day.

That 37-minute flight required the plane to travel to and from its base on the Channel Islands each day, tallying up to “an incredible 1,860 kilometres in just two days just for this one match,” said Fossil Free Football campaigner Peter Crisp in an Instagram video.

By comparison, the squad could have driven by bus and covered the 275-kilometre distance between the two venues in roughly three hours.

“The crazy thing is, it’s only just more than three hours by coach from Wrexham to Wyckham and the airport they flew into is still more than 30 miles away” from the stadium, said Crisp, adding he’s skeptical that flying would have been better for the players than going door-to-door in a bus.

“And it’s certainly terrible for the planet,” he said.

Reynolds and other club officials were in New York a few days after the match for their work with the United Nations to promote the agency’s sustainable development goals, which include “climate action” and “responsible consumption” along with clean water, education, an end to hunger and other goals.

In a LinkedIn post, Wrexham said it is “committed to making a difference both on and off the pitch.” It invited fans and the global football community to take action.

Crisp pointed out what he called the hypocrisy of the club in touting its sustainability work with the UN, while “polluting their way across the country” and flying to the U.S. for pre-season matches.

“Football at all levels is threatened by increased rainfall and extreme heat directly linked to the burning of fossil fuels,” Crisp told Postmedia News in an emailed statement. “So there just can’t be room in the sport for short-haul, ultra-polluting and totally avoidable flights.

“If fans can travel a few hours to a match by coach or train, then so can teams like Wrexham; especially when their celebrity owners are also talking about positive impact and sustainability at the United Nations.”

Emissions from private jets have jumped 46 per cent from 2019 to 2023, according to a new European study published last November in the journal Communications Earth and Environment.

The study’s authors have urged for regulation to address the sector’s growing climate impact. 

chchan@postmedia.com