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Wrexham celebrity owners on commentary duty to mark five years since takeover

WREXHAM, Wales (AP) — Wrexham’s celebrity owners are swapping the boardroom for the commentary booth to mark five years since their game-changing takeover of the Welsh soccer club.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, who was formerly called Rob McElhenney, will take the mic for Wrexham’s home match against fellow Welsh team Swansea in the Championship on Friday. They will be calling the game on British broadcaster Sky Sports and will be joined by guests throughout.

“As with our decision to take over Wrexham five years ago, we genuinely have no idea how this is going to go,” Reynolds and Mac said, “but we will give it our best.

“Neither of us have called a sporting event of any variety, let alone a sport we basically learned the rules of five years ago.”

The Hollywood pair finalized their purchase of Wrexham for $2.5 million in February 2021, when the club was in the non-league fifth tier of the English game. Wrexham, which has become the subject of a fly-on-the-wall documentary — “Welcome to Wrexham” — that has given the team and city global notoriety, has achieved three straight promotions and is one more away from playing in the Premier League.

Wrexham is in sixth place, which represents the final playoff spot, with 10 games remaining.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

NYPD says dozens rescued from human trafficking during World Cup

▶ Watch Video: Inside look at security preparations for World Cup Forty-three people, including seven minors, were rescued from human traffickers during the World Cup matches in the New York City area, according to the New York City Police Department's Special Victims Unit.The rescue operations were carried out between June 11 and July 19 by specialized NYPD detectives who arrested 89 individuals."The surprise was really the outpouring of support behind the mission and the collaboration with all our partners," said Inspector Gary Marcus, commanding officer of the Special Victims Unit.Those rescued, largely the victims of sex trafficking, are now being supported with an array of social services for the victims, including food, housing and counseling.The 87 operations carried out during the World Cup have generated new leads, officials said, and law enforcement agencies are building more cases based on the investigations already underway."We have ongoing investigations now as a result of these operations," an NYPD official told CBS News.Major sporting events are known to law enforcement as hotbeds of human trafficking.Years in advance, the NYPD devoted significant resources to preparing for the World Cup. Eight matches were played at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, including the final on Sunday."When we talk about the outreach and the prep we do, a large part of that involved visiting the known sex offenders, particularly the known human traffickers, in our registry," Marcus said. "Whether they're on parole or probation for human trafficking, we visited them to make sure they're compliant with the terms of their release, and secondly, to let them know that the NYPD is watching."The matches were held in multiple cities around the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Preparations to secure those games and prepare for crimes like human trafficking were coordinated between local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.Police departments in many locations that hosted World Cup matches have made arrests and rescues connected to human trafficking, including in Georgia, New England and Missouri. Nationally, there were more than 673 arrests on human-trafficking charges made during the World Cup, and 61 adults and 13 minors rescued, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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