{"id":7461,"date":"2024-08-13T09:44:59","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T09:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/mafs-matchmaker-made-co-owner-of-sutton-united\/"},"modified":"2024-08-13T09:44:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T09:44:59","slug":"mafs-matchmaker-made-co-owner-of-sutton-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/mafs-matchmaker-made-co-owner-of-sutton-united\/","title":{"rendered":"MAFS matchmaker made co-owner of Sutton United"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Married At First Sight UK matchmaker Paul Brunson is pursuing a new type of match after becoming the co-owner of a fifth-tier football club.<\/p>\n

Paul is well known for sitting alongside Mel Schilling and Charlene Douglas on the couch during the reality series’ weekly commitment ceremonies. <\/p>\n

He says he’s a “recent but devout fan” of Sutton United FC and decided to invest in the south London club after attending his first match earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The National League club was relegated at the end of last season<\/a> and is due to face Tamworth on Saturday. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Earlier this year, Paul appeared on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch and after the hosts heard he didn’t have a football club to support, Sutton United was picked out of a hat for him.<\/p>\n

Paul says he had a “life-changing moment” when he then attended a club match, saying he “instantly fell in love with the game and the sense of community it fosters”.<\/p>\n

“I found myself celebrating goals with a man from a different age, nationality, and background,” he says. <\/p>\n

“This experience ignited my passion for football, and I knew I had found a new family.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Relationships expert Paul was born in the US but now lives in London. <\/p>\n

As well as MAFS, he’s also a host on Channel 4’s Celebs Go Dating and appears on ITV daytime show Lorraine as a relationships coach.<\/p>\n

Announcing his new venture, Paul says he’s “committed to furthering diversity and inclusivity within football”.<\/p>\n

“These clubs are the centrepiece of a community,” he says, “but most of the people I speak to in London have not gone to a local match.<\/p>\n

“In particular, people of colour told me they were fearful and they feared for what would happen in the crowd.”<\/p>\n

He says he’s dedicated to “ensuring that more people can experience the joy of football”.<\/p>\n

Part of his plans for the club involves inviting front line workers like police officers and NHS staff to home games to build a greater sense of community.<\/p>\n

“I’m not your typical football club owner,” Paul says.<\/p>\n

“But that being said, I couldn’t be more proud to be part of this team.”<\/p>\n

Paul joins three other co-owners of the club – none of which have an overall majority.<\/p>\n

BBC Newsbeat has contacted Sutton United FC for comment. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Married At First Sight UK matchmaker Paul Brunson is pursuing a new type of match after becoming the co-owner of a fifth-tier football club. Paul is well known for sitting alongside Mel Schilling and Charlene Douglas on the couch during the reality series’ weekly commitment ceremonies. He says he’s a “recent but devout fan” of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[279],"tags":[4246,4244,4245,4247,2057],"class_list":["post-7461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-coowner","tag-mafs","tag-matchmaker","tag-sutton","tag-united"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7463,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461\/revisions\/7463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}