Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos become co-owners of fifth-league Italian team A.S.D. Campobasso 1919

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos have joined the celebrity craze to buy lower-tier European football teams.

The morning show host and actor has become minority shareholders of ASD Campobasso 1919, an Italian fifth division team, through an investment in the club’s majority shareholder, North Sixth Group.

The Hollywood couple hope their investment will help restore the Italian team’s success.

North Sixth chairman Matt Rizzetta announced the move on Instagram on Thursday. The details of the deal have not been disclosed.

Rizzetta’s statement read: “The Hollywood power couple has become a minority shareholder of the Italian football club ASD Campobasso 1919 through an investment in the club’s majority shareholder, North Sixth Group.

Wrexham has nothing on this underdog story! So proud to welcome @kellyripa & @instasuelos into the family as partners in our football journey.

“We bought @campobasso1919 because it was the ultimate underdog story, and there’s no better underdog story in Hollywood over the decades than Kelly & Mark.

Thank you for your support and belief in our vision and opening your hearts to these amazing fans who deserve to be put on the map in a big way! ‘Insieme’ the sky is the limit!’

The small club based in the Molise region of Italy reached its peak in the 1980s when it reached Serie B, the second tier of Italian football, and remained there for five seasons.

Campobasso, nicknamed ‘Lupi’, which means ‘wolves’ in Italian, was promoted to Serie C at the end of the 2020-21 season.

However, due to ‘administrative irregularities’, the Italian Football Association banned the club from participating in the Serie C competition.

As a result, it was forced to merge with another club and rejoin the fifth tier of the Italian football system.

The team was unsure whether they would compete in the 2022-2023 season until they were bought earlier this year by the North Sixth Group, a US holding company.

Consuelos and Ripa hope their investment can give the team another boost in the Italian leagues.

The longtime pair also invested in Ascoli FC, a team currently playing in the Serie B of the Italian football league, through North Sixth Group.

The story is similar to that of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s Hollywood takeover of Wrexham in November 2020.

Wrexham plays in the National League – the fifth highest in the English league system.

The Welsh club missed out on promotion in the duo’s first full campaign last season, before losing to Grimsby in the play-off semi-final after finishing second in the National League. This season, it is again three points behind leader Notts County in second place.

Nevertheless, the arrival of McElhenney and Reynolds has revived Wrexham, and Red Dragons supporters expressed their appreciation this week.

In a clip posted to Twitter this weekend, an emotional McElhenney appeared to be in tears as he drank with fans at a local pub.

Wrexham’s faithful chanted his name — and referenced Reynolds’ famed anti-hero Deadpool — as part of a chant instructing their new owners to save their stadium from “crumbling.”

The text read: ‘A famous old stadium collapsed less than a mile from the center of town. No one has invested a dime, so bring on the Deadpool and Rob McElhenney.”

McElhenney, enjoying a quiet moment alone in the pub, was clearly overwhelmed by the song as he fought back tears.

More A-listers have made forays into the football world with Matthew McConaughey a minority owner in MLS team Austin FC and Will Ferrell one in LAFC, who recently won the MLS Cup.

Meanwhile, Natalie Portman was a founding member of NWSL side Angel City FC and Christina Aguilera later joined as a minority shareholder.