Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:06 pm on 27 November 2018.
The report's findings are a vindication of the campaign launched three years ago, when I and Plaid Cymru colleagues first went public on this, alongside Wrexham Supporters Trust directors, when we launched our campaign at the Racecourse ground. Back then, of course, we argued that a national football museum should be based in Wrexham, the spiritual home of the game. It's where football started in Wales, effectively. It's still home to the oldest existing international stadium in the world, as well as the third-oldest football club in the world. It's where, of course, the founding fathers of the Football Association of Wales met many, many years ago. But also, not only history, but future football as well, because the FA, of course, have invested in that future with a national football development centre being located at Colliers park in Wrexham. And Plaid Cymru made the case for a national football museum in our 2016 election manifesto and, of course, we ensured that this feasibility study happened as part of our budget agreement with the Welsh Government. But, this isn't the end of the story, far from it, there's much more work to do, and I would like to see the Government now bring forward a timetable to make sure that we do realise this ambition as soon as we can.
There are a few areas where I diverge from the findings of the report, or the recommendations, first of all, of course, in relation to the governance model. In order to be a proper national museum, I think it's appropriate for this proposed national football museum to be part of the National Museum Wales family, rather than—a glorified local museum might be unfair, but certainly having a lesser status. Secondly, it still remains my ambition that the museum is incorporated into a future redevelopment of the Racecourse. It's a great pity that that prospect was dismissed in a single paragraph in the feasibility study, but, certainly, as a party, we are keen to see this development happen and we'll continue to press for the museum to be a catalyst for that redevelopment at the Racecourse ground, albeit maybe that ambition is now something that we have to consider in the slightly longer term.