Bend It Like Burnley
Ted Lasso meets Harry and Meghan, but even cuter.
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Picture this: You’re American and your dad works in investment banking. One day, his investment group announces that they’re going to buy a Premier League team and your dad is going to become the club’s new chairman.
After your family moves to the U.K. for his new job, your dad emails you a photo of a cute British boy who works for the team and suggests that you go on a date with him.
Eventually, you meet and start dating long-distance. You decide to take the leap to move to England and that cute British boy proposes to you on the pitch.
No, this isn’t a storyline on the upcoming season of Ted Lasso. This is the story of how Ashlyn Pace-Ferguson met her husband, Joe.
A Bit Of Backstory
Pace-Ferguson’s father, Alan Pace, and his investment firm, ALK Capital, purchased Burnley F.C. in 2020. Subsequently, Pace was hired as the club’s chairman, leading the family to move from Connecticut to Burnley.
*It’s time for a sports interruption*
In the 2021-2022 season, Burnley was relegated from the Premier League to the Championship after they finished in 18th place, but it’s looking like they’ll be promoted.
But! We’re! Not! Here! To! Talk! About! That!
We’re here to talk about a made-for-TV movie that I wish I had a producing credit on.
Pace-Ferguson went viral on TikTok after sharing her real-life sports love story that I can’t get enough of.
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I spoke with Pace-Ferguson who kindly answered all of my questions about what it was like falling in love across the pond, getting engaged on the football pitch, and more.
Enjoy!
Football: A Love Story
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Be sure to follow Ashlyn on Instagram here and TikTok here.
First off, can you tell me where you’re originally from and what you do?
I was born in London, England and spent the majority of my childhood in New Canaan, Connecticut until I was 18-years-old. I am currently a remote learning student at Brigham Young University and have a part-time job helping run social channels with Burnley Football Club.
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For those who haven’t seen your viral TikTok, can you share how your family ended up originally moving to England?
My parents, who are both from California, decided to move to London in the 1990s and lived there for over a decade. After changing job roles at his bank, they moved him back to the U.S in the early 2000s.
My parents raised us in Connecticut and despite living in the U.S. for many years, my parents always longed to move back to England. My dad worked on Wall Street and in investment banking in New York for many years, but later became interested in the world of sports business.
In the year just before COVID, my dad and his group of investment partners—ALK Capital—planned to buy a Premier League football team. After years of planning and discussing, the decision was made to buy Burnley Football Club.
He has now been the chairman of the club for over 2 years and our family has moved to Northern England.
Were you a football fan before your family moved?
I was a big football fan before we moved to Burnley. I grew up playing football or “soccer” and played for various teams for around 15 years. I spent a lot of time in London as a kid and loved going to Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea.
I was definitely not a die-hard supporter, but absolutely got a thrill from the game every time we would go to a match. Going to matches has always been something special I did with my dad, as neither of my sisters were very big into watching or playing football.
I love being a Burnley fan now, the fanbase is awesome. The environment of Turf Moor is absolutely electric on a match day.
So your dad became the chairman of Burnley FC. Can you share a little bit about what that job entails?
There’s a lot that can go into being the chairman of any sports club, namely making sure all aspects of the club from the financial to the football side are being run smoothly. He’s genuinely one of the busiest people you’ve ever seen and a big reason for that is because he wants to be involved.
It’s entirely possible to be the chairman of a club and not have many responsibilities, but my dad is very passionate about the club and wants to be heavily involved.
He’s a very hands-on person and on any given day can be found at the club, on the training ground, meeting with investors, or even in other countries investigating players.
When your dad initially sent you the photo of Joe over email (which is the most dad thing to do) what was your first reaction?
My dad and I are really close and we’ve got a great friendship, so obviously, anytime he recommends I become friends with someone or even go on a date with someone I’m interested to see what he’s come up with.
The funny thing about the timing of the email was it was literally sent to me the day after I had broken up with an ex-boyfriend I had dated on and off for 8 months, so I had told my dad, “I appreciate the email but maybe it’s a bit to soon, maybe give it a few weeks”.
It took me a few months to start going on dates again, so once I came out to England and saw Joe in person I was much more interested than I had been when originally seeing the email and also he was much cuter than my dad’s picture made him out to be.
The photo is from a low angle (my dad is 5’3) and generally speaking, the low angle isn’t the most flattering light for anyone .
When you came to the UK over your summer break and met Joe for the first time, what was your impression of him?
As mentioned in the TikTok, I thought he was so cute and I kinda felt star-struck and struggled to make eye contact with him. Anyone who knows Joe will tell you that he’s a very extroverted guy and very friendly, so the first time we ever spoke I was immediately put at ease.
Even on our first date, my stomach wasn’t feeling very well, but he was so sweet in making sure I was okay and helping me in every way he could. He is a gentleman in every sense of the word, very respectful and kind. That was the first impression of him and now years later he is that same way.
When you started dating, what was it like dealing with long distance? Across the pond even!
Long distance is so challenging for anyone, but we really did make the most of it. We made it a priority to FaceTime every day and spend quality time talking and getting to know each other.
There’s a big emphasis in our church on dating and having wholesome activities together, because it teaches you a lot about the other person and what they care about. We made sure to do all sorts of virtual “dates” which were so much fun.
We would play games, go on virtual zoo/art exhibit/museum visits, watch movies, make PowerPoint presentations for each other and so much more. Long-distance relationships are hard in many aspects, but Joe made it easy.
Did you have any football-themed dates? Assume attending matches were a few of them?
Surprisingly our very first date was actually to Old Trafford because we were given free tickets at a church event. We figured why not and it was cool to see both of us bond over football and have a lot of fun in general.
Joe and I used to play football often with other members of staff at Burnley Football Club, which was also so much fun. Joe and I have gotten to know so many different people in the football world, many from different Premier League clubs.
Those connections have allowed us to have so many cool experiences together at new places that we would never have seen otherwise.
You got engaged on the football pitch. Describe what that was like. Did you have a feeling it was going to happen?
Getting engaged in the middle of the pitch at Turf Moor was so awesome. Joe goes big when he has ideas, so I can’t say I was too surprised that he chose to do it there. After all, it’s the place we met, spent so much time together and brought us together in the first place.
Getting engaged there was almost symbolic of all that led up to us being together in the first place. I knew Joe was going to propose. We had talked about it to make sure we were on the same page about what we wanted and I had even shown him a ring I would like.
After doing long distance for so long, we learned how to communicate well with each other, but he really did try to keep the timing of the proposal a secret.
I had flown into England back in March of last year to visit Joe and a few hours after getting off the plane Joe said he needed to go to a “networking event” at the stadium.
I didn’t think much of it and just decided to tag along. He told me some of the doors weren’t working, so we needed to walk pitchside. Even when I walked out there and saw the hundreds of tea lights he had placed on the field, I was totally oblivious to what was going on.
I even said to Joe, “Wow, whoever did that for the networking event really went the extra mile!”. After seeing Joe laughing at that, I realized what was going on and all the LED boards in the stadium lit up saying “Ashlyn Pace will you marry me”.
Being on the football pitch in general is such a surreal feeling, but that was such an awesome moment that really couldn’t have been any better. Over the loudspeaker in the stadium, they played our song “All About You” by McFly and Joe got on one knee.
It was awesome. You can check out the full video of the proposal on either Joe's or I’s Instagram. I think they captured it perfectly.
Did you have any players from the team at your wedding?
We had a few members of staff from Burnley Football Club, but not any players. We’re friends with a lot of the players, but we tried to keep our ceremony pretty small and family-based.
Now that you’re married, what is a typical day for you like in Lancashire?
Joe and I spend most days at the club together, working in the office. We get to spend a lot of time together every day, which has been a dream come true. We spend a lot of time with our families which both live nearby and we’re at Turf Moor every match day. We’ve made lots of new friends in our married life and love exploring new places in and around Lancashire.
I must ask: What’s your go-to snack of choice to eat while watching Burnley matches?
You know, generally speaking, I don’t eat too much during the match itself, because we often eat right before. But if I do have a snack to nibble on it’s Hoola Hoops. Those are a favorite of mine.
And of course: Do you watch Ted Lasso?
My family LOVES Ted Lasso. The timing of the show coming out was right around when my dad was looking to buy the club, so it was a lot of fun for us to see comparisons to our own life experiences as Americans being a part of the world of football.
Culturally, I think that show is spot on. It’s hilarious. My little sister could probably quote that show for hours and my parents even have the Ted Lasso board game at their house.
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I want to know more the PowerPoint presentations they made for each other when long distance! How adorably nerdy