Documentary lifts the lid on The New Saints FC

The owner of Welsh football champions TNS hopes a new fly-on-the-wall documentary will give viewers a better understanding of his club.

Cameras followed Mike Harris for “The New Saints – Road to Europe: The Mike Harris Story”, with the finished series available to view on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.

He said when the idea was first put to him, he had concerns about giving cameras total access, but he said: “Do you know what? After a while they disappear.”

Harris said he knew the series would show a fair amount of “cursing and shouting” alongside the cheering, but added: “Hey that’s sport.”

After taking over Llansantfraid FC in Powys in 1997, Harris changed the name to TNS – initially standing for Total Network Solutions, a company he also owned.

He moved it to Shropshire following a merger with Oswestry Town, and oversaw the team’s transformation into one which competed in Europe every year.

Last season, they became the first Welsh league club to reach the group stages of a European competition, when they progressed in the UEFA Conference League.

He said: “We’ve shown that Welsh clubs can actually make the cut, and that’s not easy by any shadow of a doubt.”

“Hopefully other Welsh clubs will follow in our footsteps,” he added.

As well as capturing events at the club, the series also hears stories about Harris himself and he talks about important moments in his life.

They include the death of his grandfather, who died by the roadside when he was just 17 years old.

“It knocked me about a bit really,” he recalled.

Speaking about the club he owns, he said he thought the documentary would show “football’s got many facets to it”.

But he said: “The first thing is it’s got to be enjoyable. It’s an entertainment business and people go to be entertained.”