Documentary follows football club started from scratch with dream of climbing Welsh pyramid

Mark Mansfield

A football club started from scratch with no players and no ground is setting out on an unlikely journey which its founder hopes could one day take it to the top of the Welsh game.

Cardiff Town FC will begin life at level eight of the Welsh football pyramid this season after recruiting its first squad through Facebook adverts, local groups, leaflets – and even a chance encounter in a bank.

The entire experiment is being filmed for an online documentary inspired by Welcome to Wrexham, with founder Keri Lovell admitting he has no idea how the story will end.

Lovell, a photographer and former professional rugby coach, had been considering the project for around six months before deciding to see whether he could create a football club from nothing.

He said: “I loved the idea of creating a Welcome to Wrexham-style documentary on a shoestring budget and whether it was actually possible to even find players, let alone try and win anything.

“The challenge for me was always the building of a brand new club and documenting that journey, which is why I chose to start it from scratch.

“The really important thing for the documentary is that I don’t know how this ends either. We’re not making a programme about a club that already exists and looking back on it.

“We’re filming it as we build it, so the audience is finding out what happens at the same time as we are.”

Recruitment

Finding enough footballers willing to sign for a club which, at that point, barely existed proved to be the first major obstacle.

Around 40 people eventually applied, 32 attended trials and Cardiff Town has now signed a squad of 16.

Lovell said: “Recruiting players was easily the hardest thing I have had to do and still continues to be.

“As you can imagine, trying to recruit from a Facebook ad or a random leaflet handout to a team that doesn’t even exist yet is not the easiest approach to things.

“You need players to buy into something that isn’t even real yet and so I was incredibly nervous about it.”

Some recruits have arrived through less conventional scouting methods.

Lovell added: “Some of the recruitment stories have been pretty random too. Like Alex, who works in the bank where our club has an account.

“I went in to sort a problem out and ended up signing Alex for the squad!”

Cardiff Town will play its inaugural season in the Cardiff Combination League at level eight – the bottom tier of the Welsh football pyramid.

It would require seven promotions to reach the JD Cymru Premier.

The club has also secured Pontcanna Fields as its home ground for the 2026/27 season and trains there on Tuesday evenings.

‘Dream big’

Lovell estimates the first season will cost between £8,000 and £10,000, although some of that is attributable to cameras and other equipment needed to make the documentary.

Kit, pitches, player registrations and training facilities account for much of the remaining cost.

He is currently funding the project himself but is looking for sponsors to help meet the bills.

Alongside the financial challenge has come a considerable administrative burden, including registering players, establishing bank accounts and dealing with safeguarding requirements.

Lovell said: “It takes a HUGE amount of effort to do all the paperwork to sign players, start the club, bank accounts, safeguarding etc.

“It is not for the faint-hearted and everything seems to move very slowly.”

His previous experience includes working as a professional rugby coach and serving as director of rugby at Old Penarthians RFC, which he says has given him an understanding of how grassroots sports clubs operate.

The new squad includes players who have previously competed at levels five and six of the Welsh pyramid, alongside younger players with little experience of Saturday league football.

Ambition

Lovell accepts the first season is an unknown but makes no secret of his long-term ambition.

He said: “It will be a learning curve for us all but long term I will be working really hard to try and grow all aspects of the club.

“I guess the dream would be the very top, Cymru Premier and Champions League football.

“If you can’t dream big then what can you do? Obviously, saying Champions League football when we’re starting at Level 8 sounds completely ridiculous right now, but that’s kind of the point.

“The whole project is about seeing what happens if you start with nothing and keep building.”

Lovell, a lifelong Cardiff City supporter, also hopes Cardiff Town will eventually develop beyond the documentary and become part of the community.

He added: “We’re starting from nothing, so there are opportunities for people to get involved as players, coaches, volunteers, sponsors or supporters.

“We’d love it to become something the Cardiff community feels is theirs.”

The club’s progress is being documented on its Cardiff Town FC YouTube channel.

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