Former Cardiff funding director Martyn Ryan sits down with WalesOnline
12:24, 05 Apr 2026Updated 13:51, 05 Apr 2026
Martyn Ryan at Cardiff Arms Park
Martyn Ryan was involved at the cutting edge of Welsh rugby for 11 years as a funding director at Cardiff Rugby and wants to be part of the solution to fix the professional game in Wales.
After Cardiff entered administration a year ago, Ryan worked around the clock to assemble a strong consortium in an attempt to buy the club back from the Welsh Rugby Union. The consortium included Ryan himself, three Hollywood directors and Rhino CEO Reg Clarke, with ambitious plans to turn Cardiff into a force to be reckoned with, including a scripted TV series.
In the end, the WRU decided to grant a period of exclusivity to Ospreys owners Y11 Sports & Media, but should that bid fail, Ryan has revealed his consortium is ready to step into the breach with an improved offer.
“We understand why Y11 were preferred and we’ve reflected on that,” Ryan tells WalesOnline. “We’ve looked at the points where we didn’t score well in the process and we’ve worked on strengthening them.
“We’ve tightened up our funding agreements and we are looking at appointing an advisor. We don’t have any knowledge of what will happen, but given all the uncertainty we are just preparing to get involved again if something cropped up.”
Ryan has revealed that the consortium still intends to produce a scripted television series set in Cardiff, despite its failed attempt to acquire the rugby club from the WRU.
Speaking exclusively to WalesOnline, he stressed that the project would not resemble a sports comedy-drama in the mould of Ted Lasso, nor would it be a documentary.
He said the show would be fictional in nature, drawing tonal inspiration from Ozark.
“We’ve continued to work on that,” he tells WalesOnline.
“We are working on scripting and structuring it. Just to clarify, this is a fictitious series written for TV in the mood of Ozark.
“It would be a series about Cardiff, with storylines using Cardiff as a background and using Cardiff people in the same way Ozark uses its characters, with things like money launderers parachuted into the area.
“It would have some dark themes and some bad people in it.”
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Ryan made clear the series would not depict real-life events or focus heavily on rugby figures, although a behind-the-scenes documentary could follow.
He acknowledged that, had the club acquisition succeeded, it would have shaped the project differently from a commercial perspective.
“Clearly, if we had owned the club, we would have treated that in a certain way to maximise publicity with merchandise sales and that sort of thing,” he said.
“It is in early-stage preparation. We will be aiming for it to be shown in roughly three years’ time.
“We would aim for it to be on a streaming service like Netflix or Disney. If you look at what Ozark did for that area, it massively boosted tourism.”
However, he cautioned against portraying Cardiff in an overly negative light.
“You’ve got to balance creating a show with interest and edginess while avoiding the impression that the city is full of gangsters and druggies.”
Welsh rugby has been put through the wringer over the past year, with the WRU still planning to reduce the number of professional teams from four to three.
Politicians, former players and supporters fiercely resisted the proposal to cut a team.
Yet retaining the status quo should not be an option, with radical change needed.
“I refer you to an interview I did with your publication back in 2017 where I said we need to concentrate the majority of our resources into two sides,” said Ryan.
“If we could do it, I’d go for four teams with differential funding, but that would probably mean instead of a row at the start you’d have a row every year when you decide on the funding.
“We did it to an extent during Project Reset, which was an extremely well thought-through and balanced plan which effectively got rejected by the clubs.
“One thing we haven’t done well enough is the pro clubs coming together to solve their own problems. It would be great if we could arrive at a genuine consensus and argue that cohesively.
“To be fair I think Malcolm Wall (former PRB chair) did a very good job in difficult circumstances and had a real understanding of professional rugby.
“He didn’t finish what he set out to achieve but he always worked hard on behalf of the professional game to get the best outcome.
“But I am aware of the difficulty of achieving that solution and it may actually be easier to go to three teams, but I feel we need to explore that first.
“I think I’ve been through five renegotiations of the central rugby agreement during my time in Welsh rugby.
“There was lots of good in PRA25 and it could easily have been signed if Cardiff had not gone into administration.
“The spreadsheets will tell you three sides is the right idea and the numbers will also tell you that, but you also have to have a sense for the collateral damage that will bring.”
But Ryan is delighted to see the WRU planning to invest £28m over five years into the pathway.
“The numbers would say successful sides in Europe have to have budgets of at least £8.5m, but you have got some sides in Wales with budgets under £5m,” he said.
“How do we get our clubs up to that number? In the short term, you have to take money away from some to allocate to others.
“That has been interpreted as shutting one region. For the first time in all of the time I’ve been involved, the union are looking closely at the pathway and development.
“That is a positive because in my view that is where the real deficit has arisen over the last 10-12 years.
“When I first came to Cardiff we had a training ground up in the Vale and we had just had players like Xavier Rush playing for the club.
“I think the first game I went to when I joined the board in 2013 we had Leigh Halfpenny, Alex Cuthbert, Sam Warburton and Gethin Jenkins. It was a strong side.
“The ecosystem was as good as anywhere with the Vale and everything else. What has happened is the ecosystem in the other countries has moved on hugely, particularly the hothouse school atmosphere.
“We haven’t kept up. I think this is the first time the union have really addressed that.”
Ryan was a funding director at Cardiff for over a decade and Welsh rugby has been propped up by wealthy benefactors since the game went open in August 1995.
In the new licence agreement put forward by the WRU, there remains a significant reliance on funding directors, but unlike years gone by they will have no say over the rugby side of the operation, with central contracts mooted.
Ryan believes the model needs to change but insists it would be very difficult to replicate the Irish system.
“Historically in Welsh rugby you had benefactors like Peter Thomas, Rob Davies and the Scarlets boys who had huge emotional attachment to their clubs and communities,” says Ryan.
“They’ve put in significant amounts of their own money and their return has been emotional, with performance on the field and broader cultural involvement.
“I don’t think there are many people like that around anymore.
“They were guys who grew up in the 60s and 70s where there was a much more emotional link between the clubs and the fanbase.
“You have to now have investment which at least shows some return and that will probably have to be capital return.
“We are stuck in an unfortunate hybrid so it needs to be developed.
“The new model the union have put forward needs to be improved but I think it is heading towards the right mix of secured investment to provide sustainability and also attracting private sector involvement which will earn a return in some form, whether that be capital or income.
“It would be very difficult to move to an Irish system like some people have suggested.
“Let’s not forget the Irish system has a number of in-built differences to Wales. You’ve got four sides that are hundreds of miles apart drawing on very different traditions inside major cities.
“Through their schools system they’ve got essentially a free development system paid for by the private sector.”
With the Gallagher PREM moving to a franchise system, with the aim of expanding from 10 to 12 sides by 2030 and further expansion down the line, Ryan believes it should be a strategic aim of the WRU to put forward Welsh contenders.
“Turning down the places in the English leagues in the late 90s was the biggest strategic mistake the WRU made, probably in the history of professional rugby,” he said.
“To turn down an opportunity to be involved in the largest rugby market in the world in a significant way beggars belief.
“I was chatting to the chairman of a West Country PREM side at Cheltenham and there is an enormous amount of appetite. Their fan base in particular love games against Welsh sides and love the passion they create.
“You should never say never but you’ve only got to look at the last week; they increased their minimum salary spend to £5.4m.
“We are a way away from that at the moment but their window is opening in four years’ time to admit two new sides.
“I think we should certainly be trying to put ourselves into a position to be eligible.
“The TV deal that the Premiership has is far superior to the one the URC has. It has a much bigger deal with a different TV audience so that would increase significantly.
“On top of that you would expect gates and hospitality to rise.
“Let’s say Cardiff played Bristol Bears, we could move it to the Principality Stadium and we’d get at least 50,000 people there.
“You’d then get more cash, more sides and better overseas players and you’d attract better Welsh players and more cash to invest in your training facilities.
“It would be transformational over a period of time.”
Whatever Welsh rugby’s new structure looks like, the game in Wales cannot afford to exclude an individual with Ryan’s track record.
Ryan is a former partner and chief operating officer at Genesis Investment Management, responsible for operations, governance and finance, managing teams in multiple international locations.
As part of a team he helped transform Genesis into one of the largest investors in emerging market equities, with $38bn in assets under management at his departure in 2015.
Evidently he understands how to grow a business, but he also cares deeply about Welsh rugby and the local communities.
As a former second row at Old Penarthians, he remains heavily involved with the club and is a patron at London Welsh.
With the WRU searching for a new chair to replace the outgoing Richard Collier-Keywood, it would seem daft not to consider an individual with Ryan’s successful track record and love for Welsh rugby.
“If I was asked would I stand for the job? Probably,” he tells says.
“I think I’ve got a range of experience that would be useful. I’m involved with the Old Penarthians, I’ve been involved with London Welsh and the Welsh Exiles.
“I think I’ve got a good feel for the game in Wales but we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves there.
“But would I throw my hat into the ring? Yes.”
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