Representing Cardiff City Football Club (Holdings) Ltd at today’s Extraordinary General Meeting were Chairman Peter Ridsdale, Group Finance Director Alan Flitcroft, Company Secretary Alan Whiteley and board member Steve Borley. Apologies were given for the absence of missing board members Keith Harris and Dato Chan Tien Ghee.

The Chairman opened the meeting at 10am by giving the shareholders some background information regarding the House of Sport land sale proposal, which was the only official item on the agenda. While doing so, he confirmed the board would take questions from shareholders later in the meeting regarding the club’s current financial situation, and he then invited any questions specific to the land sale proposal.

A shareholder asked if the price of the land in respect of the proposed deals with Borley Engineering Services Ltd and PMG Developments PLC had been valued independently. Peter Ridsdale confirmed that it had and stated that the council were fully satisfied that the best value on the deals had been achieved.

Shareholder Mike Roderick asked if the deal regarding the House of Sport was in the best interests of the football club as it appeared to him that a valuable future income stream was being sold off in order to service current debts.

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Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust has launched a corporate membership scheme targeted at businesses across South Wales.

And Caerphilly-based Draig Business Services Group has become the first to sign up for membership of the Trust.

As with individual membership there are three categories – Andy Legg, Jason Perry and Phil Dwyer – with fees of £250, £500 and £1,000 a year respectively.

All membership comes with a variety of benefits. The full package for the £1,000 membership offers listing on the Trust’s website, priority sponsorship options at Trust events, free adverts in every Trust magazine and a pledge that 50 per cent of the annual fee will be used to buy shares in the club. In addition, corporate members get a framed membership certificate and are also entitled to a vote in any organised ballots.

Board member Anthony Wedlake, who has developed the corporate membership scheme, said: “We have recognised as a Trust the importance of being an inclusive organisation and are now able to open our membership to businesses as well as individuals.

“We believe the membership benefits will prove attractive to businesses across South Wales. And the more members the Trust has, the more impact it can have on behalf of supporters.

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Membership Numbers

I’m happy to report that within the space of the last fortnight, the Trust has gained no less than 182 new members. The online membership facility has been proving a big success and we have also had plenty of new members signing up either by mail or in person at the Trust base within the new stadium.

I would therefore like to offer a very warm welcome to all of the new members who have signed up within the last couple of weeks. Your support is very much appreciated, as is the continuing support of the rest of our members.

Membership Secretary Dave Sugarman told me earlier today that we currently have 858 registered members, and he reckons there are around 20 more applications pending that have arrived during the last couple of days. They will be processed early next week. Dave said the last of the online membership packs were posted out this morning, and they included new members in Spain, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand. We know there are thousands of Bluebirds dotted all over the world, so hopefully plenty more exiles will be signing up through our online system in the near future.

I want to offer my sincere thanks to Dave and Tracey Marsh, who between them have managed to register the new members and get all of the membership packs out in such a short space of time. It’s been a terrific effort from both of them.

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In a letter to Club Secretary and Board member Alan Whiteley, Trust Secretary Geraint Jones said that the Trust welcomed the decision to call the meeting.

But Geraint Jones added: “We note with concern that Cardiff City Football Club (Holdings) Limited has not called the meeting to clarify the company’s financial situation, but instead seems to have been forced into this position as a result of the decision to sell a valuable asset to an existing director (Mr Steve Borley), this being the only item in the order of business for the meeting.”