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The Trust tonight issued a statement tonight in response to the comments today of Cardiff City chairman Mehmet Dalman:

Tim Hartley, chair of the Trust, said: “After the turmoil of the last week, the club needs stability and we are pleased that Malky Mackay is to remain as manager of Cardiff City. We also look forward to a dialogue now taking place between Mackay and Vincent Tan.

“Mr Tan should let the manager of the team get on with the job of keeping Cardiff City in the Premier League. I’m sure the strength of feeling shown by fans before and at the Liverpool game sent a clear message to him, as did the outspoken comments of many other managers and commentators throughout the UK.

“What this debacle has illustrated once again is that Mr Tan must engage in regular dialogue with supporter groups and fans generally. We will be making that point strongly when we meet Mr Tan on Saturday before the Sunderland game.

“One way he could build bridges with supporters would be to return the home playing kit to blue at the earliest opportunity.

“This episode highlights once again the need for strong supporter engagement in football clubs at all levels. Our friends in the Swansea City Supporters’ Trust have an excellent working relationship with the senior management of their club and a supporter director sits on the board. We’d like to see Cardiff City move towards that in the future.

“We urge Cardiff City fans to join the Trust and strengthen further the voice of the fans.”

Read the Cardiff City statement at https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/news/article/dalman-open-dialogue-is-key-1250825.aspx

The Trust is to meet Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan on Saturday, December 28.

It will be the first formal meeting the Trust has had with the club’s Malaysian owner and it was arranged before the latest email controversy involving Mr Tan and manager, Malky Mackay.

Tim Hartley, chair of Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust, said: “We have been pressing for a meeting with Mr Tan since he became owner of the club and we are pleased to be meeting him along with our friends at Cardiff City Supporters’ Club.​

“We have been pushing for greater engagement with supporter groups and fans generally. We hope that this is the start of a regular dialogue.

“There are many issues we will be raising with Mr Tan and will report back to members following the meeting.”

Three Trust board members met recently with the club chairman, Mehmet Dalman, and his team. Mehmet was very open about the challenges facing the club and was realistic about the power of a board which was answerable to a single large shareholder who effectively owns the club.

He told us that they are looking for new directors including someone who has football experience and for a director who has an understanding of markets in Asia other than Malaysia. It seems the far east is a real target area for the club.

We told the chairman that the anger over the rebrand is still very much alive and he listened to the arguments that we should wear blue as often as possible when we play away from home. I am not sure if it was as a result of our meeting but it was good to see the team run out in blue at Stoke.

We were particularly pleased that the Trust has been invited to meet the club’s owner and the board to offer them updates at their quarterly meetings. We will also meet separately with the management team on a regular basis. It’s important that the directors of Cardiff City understand what we stand for and that they get to hear about the work we are doing. The Trust can be an asset to the club as well as provide it with a structured means of communicating with fans.

The following media statement was made by the Trust in response to the comments by club owner Vincent Tan.

Tim Hartley, chair of Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust, said: “We are very
disappointed at the tone of statement from the club and we fear this will
further strain the relationship between Malky Mackay and Mr Tan.

“It is normal practice for any club manager to draw up a wish list before
the January transfer window.

“While the Bluebirds have made a steady start to their first season in the
Premier League, it is important to strengthen in January as all our rivals
no doubt will be. Malky Mackay was stating publicly the views of many fans
about the need to bolster the team to give the club the best chance of
remaining in the Premier League. Teams including West Ham United,
Sunderland, Hull and Crystal Palace are all looking to strengthen next
month.

“While Mr Tan has backed the club financially so have fans, They have
bought up every single season ticket available despite the undoubted
disquiet and anger over the imposed rebrand and changes to the club’s
identity.”

“We don’t want to see anything which undermines the manager and affects
the team following the excellent win over West Bromwich Albion.”

Mr Hartley added: “We are unaware of whether or not there was overspending
on players this summer but fans remain behind Malky Mackay.”

The Trust and Supporters’ Club are renewing our friendship with Chasetown F.C. for the game against West Ham on Saturday, January 11.

We have maintained our relationship with the Staffordshire club since our 3^rd round FA game against them in 2008, the year we reached the final. Following that game Chasetown were invited to play a friendly at the Cardiff City Stadium and since then Cardiff fans have visited the Scholars Ground.

It is now our turn to welcome the Scholars to watch us in the Premier League. We will be meeting their fans at Mavericks on Leckwith Road in Canton before taking our visitors over to the Stadium for the match. The club has very kindly given us tickets so that they can all attend the game.

If you are interested in joining us to celebrate ‘Friendship through Football’ then email help@ccfctrust.org