FAW eyes more Wales games at Wrexham's Racecourse

Chief executive Noel Mooney says the Football Association of Wales (FAW) wants Wrexham’s Racecourse stadium to host more internationals once the new Kop stand has been completed.

The Racecourse – also known by its Welsh name Y Cae Ras – is the oldest international football ground still in use having staged Wales’ first home game in 1877.

The ground has hosted 95 senior men’s internationals in total, the most recent of which was a friendly against Gibraltar in 2023.

One completed, the Kop stand will be able to accommodate 7,500 fans and will help to take the overall stadium capacity past 18,000.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, Mooney said it was “brilliant to see the Cae Ras taking shape”.

“We celebrated our 150th year this year up in Wrexham, where the association was formed,” he added.

“We’ve played in Wrexham over the last few years, both the male and the female national teams have played there. They’ve really, really loved playing at Wrexham because it’s the spiritual home.

“Our relationship with Wrexham is outstanding. We’re talking to the club a lot about how we can use the stadium more but for sure, we’d love to play more internationals there.”

Wrexham are looking to further develop the Racecourse with chief executive Michael Williamson stating that the ground’s ideal capacity would be between 26,000 and 29,000.

Wales women have played games in Newport and Llanelli along with Cardiff City Stadium, which has become the home of Wales men’s team.

There have also been suggestions that Craig Bellamy’s side could play some fixtures at the 74,500 capacity Principality Stadium.

Mooney said a bigger capacity is essential if the FAW are to bring senior men’s qualifiers back to Wrexham.

“We would love to play more matches in the Cae Ras, and as we can, we certainly will,” Mooney added.

“The challenge for us is obviously the capacity. Cardiff City’s is 32,000, 33,000 whereas Wrexham – even when it’s complete – will be 17,000 or so.

“When we play Portugal, Denmark, Norway in the Nations League, we’ve sold a lot of campaign tickets. So the problem is we could have 18,000, 19,000 campaign tickets sold and therefore it makes it impossible for us to play a World Cup qualifier if you’ve that many season tickets sold.”

He added: “How can you deny someone going to use their season ticket and so on?

“What we need Wrexham to be is a capacity where we can bring the competitive senior matches up there.”