Truro City FC rising up the English soccer ladder with Canadian helping hand

Hamilton Spectator

4 days ago

Eric Perez brought pro rugby league to Canada in the form of the Toronto Wolfpack. Now the Toronto native is helping Truro City FC climb the ranks in English soccer.
Truro City is already on the move, having won the National League South title to become the first club ever from Cornwall in the southwest tip of England to win promotion to the National League, the fifth tier of English football.
The club, founded in 1889, has already come a long way.
'We took over this club and it was averaging 75 diehard fans a game,' said Perez, who is Truro City's chairman and CEO. 'It was playing an hour and a half away in Plymouth. It hadn't been home for years. One of the previous owners had sold the (football) ground … And when we took it over (in November 2023), it was second to last in the table.
'Fast forward to now and we just got promoted to the National League, we've got our own ground (in Truro) — we averaged almost 1,990 fans a game this year, multiple sellouts as well. And we won the league with a much lower budget than some of the other teams.'
The next goal is to get the team into League 2, the bottom tier of the English Football League which operates under the Premier League.
Perez, who had ties to the region in a previous role as chairman of the Cornwall RLFC rugby league club, led a Canadian consortium in purchasing Truro City from Kernow Sport, who also owns the Cornish Pirates rugby union team.
Looking at the region, he saw an opportunity for the soccer team if he could get it back in front of its home fans.
'To be fair, the fans showed up in their droves from the first game on,' he said. 'It was not like we had to slowly win them over. They were so happy to have their club back in Truro. It had been gone for four years.
'They showed up and they kept showing up all season.'
Perez says the ownership consortium numbers around a dozen and is mainly comprised of Canadians, mostly from Toronto, with some Americans.
'People I have known for most of my life,' he said.
Promotion came down to the final round of matches, with Truro heading into the weekend atop on goal difference and the title up for grabs among the top six. But Truro defeated St Albans City 5-2 on April 26 before a record crowd of 3,597 at the Truro Community Stadium to seal the deal, finishing ahead of Torquay United on goal difference of just two goals to secure the lone automatic promotion place.
Fans invaded the pitch after the final whistle.
'Unbridled elation,' said Perez. 'Nobody, nobody thought we could do this. Nobody.'
Truro wasted little time on Decision Day, racing into a 3-0 lead after just 10 minutes.
Truro's success even drew kudos in the House of Commons.
'I start by congratulating Truro City football club, who have gone from homelessness to league champions in one season,' Jayne Kirkham, Labour MP for Truro and Falmouth, told the House on April 30.
'Can I add my congratulations to Truro,' added Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
In an open letter to supporters the day after promotion was secured, Perez called it 'a historic moment in the proud history of Truro City Football Club, a moment that belongs to every single one of you.'
Truro begins pre-season play Wednesday against League One's Plymouth Argyle ahead of its opening game in the National League on Aug. 9 at Wealdstone FC. At home, 800 seats have been added to the Truro stadium, upping the capacity to 4,100.
Other teams in the Enterprise National League, as it is known, include Aldershot Town, Carlisle United, Hartlepool United, Rochdale and Scunthorpe United.
'We do have a lot of work cut out for us but we were favoured to go down this year,' said Perez.
Half the playing roster was professional and the other half semi-pro last season. This season, all the players will be pros.
Perez was a founder of Toronto Wolfpack, eventually stepping away in a bid to establish a second rugby league side in Ottawa before the pandemic put paid to the plan.
The Wolfpack made it to the top tier of English rugby league but folded in 2020 after standing down during the Super League season, saying it could not afford to play the remainder of the season with the pandemic preventing games from being played in Canada.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 13, 2025.