Boyzone and Westlife in talks to become latest celebrity investors – in Chorley FC
Former members of Irish boybands Boyzone and Westlife are in talks to become the latest celebrity investors in British football – at non-League Chorley FC.
The National League North side have revealed that ex-Boyzone band-mates Ronan Keating, Shane Lynch and Keith Duffy and one-time Westlife star Brian McFadden are in discussions over becoming “the face” of the club.
The news follows last year’s takeover of Chorley by Reset Events Ltd, the leaders of which have close ties to Lynch, who has already attended several of matches at Victory Park and will do so again on Saturday when the club play Solihull Moors in the fifth round of the FA Trophy.
The club’s chief operating officer, Tom Clarke, told Telegraph Sport Lynch would be joined at the game by Keating, Duffy and McFadden ahead of further talks with the quartet about investing.
The news also comes barely a week after another former boyband member, ex-Take That star Robbie Williams, was unveiled as president of boyhood idols Port Vale.
Clarke admitted Chorley’s move had been inspired by the likes of Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s hugely successful investment in Wrexham, whose 15-year exile from the professional game ended last season.
That was chronicled by a fly-on-the-wall documentary, Welcome to Wrexham, and Clarke said Chorley could follow the same model.
“It’s a tried-and-tested method,” he said. “It’s worked very well for them.
“There are obviously rumours around other fairly well-known pop stars getting involved with other football clubs. English football is very much a sexy place to be at the minute, a very cool place to be. It’s a fantastic platform for any business, any entrepreneurial type business, or anybody that’s already been or is currently in the limelight.”
Reynolds and McElhenney’s ultimate goal is to take Wrexham into the Premier League and Clarke said there was no reason why a boyband-backed sixth-tier Chorley should not aim as high despite having never previously played in the professional game.
He said: “There are a number of very, very talented individuals involved in what we’re currently doing, and so I think that the ceiling could be very much the top.
“Naturally, that comes with growing pains. Naturally, that comes with challenges that we’ll have to overcome along the way. I fully recognise that.
“It’s not a, ‘Click a button and turn into Wrexham’, or anything else like it overnight. We’re not Wrexham. We’re Chorley. We’re proud about that. Chorley’s a very affluent town.
“It’s really quite an exciting place to build something that hopefully sits at the heart of that town.”
The club added in a statement: “This is a game-changer that has the potential to bring our town into the limelight like never before, generating a buzz and publicity that will shine a bright light on Chorley.”
