So was it the Hollywood influence that caused the fan groups to take off? Or was it the documentary series?<\/p>\n
“It’s the underdog story,” explained Pedersen. “You want the small teams to succeed. It’s a traditional club, and one of the oldest.”<\/p>\n
But it wasn’t just the story that the Norwegian fans fell in love with.<\/p>\n
“We can relate to the Welsh people. When we are there, it’s almost like meeting another Norwegian. That’s why we enjoy it so much when we visit, because we’re almost the same. <\/p>\n
“Norway is a small country with lots of hard-working people – we see ourselves the same.<\/p>\n
“They are so welcoming – their hospitality and friendliness. That’s why I love the Welsh people.”<\/p>\n
Paul Jones is the chairman of the Wrexham Supporters Federation (WSF), who hold regular meetings for the official fan groups and, in turn, feed back any thoughts to the club. <\/p>\n
The WSF was formed in 2007, starting with UK-based groups such as London Reds and Manchester Reds. “Nowadays we’re international,” Jones says proudly.<\/p>\n
“It’s very surreal at times but I welcome it with open arms.<\/p>\n
“It’s gathered pace. Prior to Reynolds and McElhenney taking over the club the average American didn’t even know what Wales was, never mind Wrexham – and that’s totally changed.” <\/p>\n
There are 25 supporters’ groups as part of the WSF – including the Bavarian Red Dragons, in Germany, and the Ukrainian Dragons. But, outside of the WSF, there are fan groups in Iceland, Thailand, Australia and more. <\/p>\n
“The first time I visited Wrexham I fell in love with the people, first and foremost,” explained Matthias Matthiasson, founder of the Wrexham Icelandic Supporters Club.<\/p>\n
“It’s an amazing town with amazingly kind people, and the people make the club.<\/p>\n
“I absolutely feel an emotional connection to the club and the people of Wrexham.<\/p>\n
“Soccer is the most popular sport in Iceland and, just like in Wrexham, the teams are nothing without the supporters.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So was it the Hollywood influence that caused the fan groups to take off? Or was it the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-627395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}