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With just over five weeks to go, the Trust is launching a Christmas initiative to help the work of Ty Hafan – and continue our blue theme in the stadium.

We will be selling blue Santa hats from the Trust office before the Reading game – and at other home games before Christmas.

The hats cost just £2 and £1 from every sale goes to the work of the children’s hospice at Sully.

And just a reminder that we have copies left of Mario Risoli’s excellent book on Cardiff City’s European adventures, From Tashkent with Love. It’s available for £15 for Trust members – a discount of £1.95. It would make a great Christmas present for any Cardiff City fan.

We’ve also still got a few copies left of the acclaimed Journey Back book by Paul Evans and Richard Holt. It is available for £17.50, £2 less than the recommended price.

The Trust office has also old programmes for sale, Fred Keenor statue T-shirts for just £1, statue badges and the special commemorative programme produced for the statue unveiling.

Trust chair Tim Hartley reports on the key points of discussion from a meeting of the England and Wales council of Supporters Direct (SD).

• SD and the FSF (Football Supporters Federation) have been working a new Memorandum of Understanding to spell out which areas each organisation is responsible for. It was felt however, that there should be joint lobbying on certain issues e.g. football licencing.
• SD gets the bulk of its money from the Premier League’s Fans Fund and reports back twice a year on progress against its targets. Here are some of the headlines for the last 12 months: 126 football trusts in England and Wales with 348,686 members. More than 100 trusts have had an hour or more of support from SD. Two new trusts and three new clubs have been formed. 8 training sessions for trust members have been held as well as 7 regional meetings.
• SD has carried out casework at Lincoln, Neath RU, Cheltenham, Reading and Forest Green Rovers.
• Two highlights of the Community Share schemes SD is working on are: Lewes FC raising £200,000 for a new 43G pitch and Wycombe Wanderers aiming to raise £500,000 to refinance the club.
• The Expert Working Group was launched at Portsmouth on  October 21. SD is keen to ensure that the terms of reference remain focussed on removing barriers to ownership and structured fans engagement. The Group is chaired by Joanna Manning Cooper. Other members are the Premier League, Football League, Football Association and Supporters Direct and representatives from the Portsmouth, Wrexham, Wimbledon and Swansea Trusts. The group will tackle different issues such as tax and insolvency at each meeting and should report by March 2015.
• The Welsh Government has offered to fund a feasibility study for the creation of SD Cymru. Robin Osterley and Tim Hartley are outing the proposal together. Tim is also arranging a visit to Merthyr Town for the new Sport Minister, Ken Skates.
• SD has helped list 29 grounds as assets of community value. There are 15 more applications in the pipeline. Tim is making the case for the WG to reverse its decision not to offer the right to list grounds in Wales.
• SD will produce its own manifesto in advance for next year’s General Election and urge the main parties to adopt its proposals.
• It was noted that there is little information on clubs websites about SLOs. SD is working with the FSF on a training module for all SLOs.
• We are keen to get guidance from the Local Government Association to ensure a fan sits on every council’s Safety Advisory Group.
• The ‘Watching football is not a crime’ seminar was well attended. Blanket measures are still being used against fans rather than the police targeting individuals.

Trust member David Collins will be signing copies of The Secret Premier League Diary of a Cardiff City fan, which he penned with Gareth Bennett.

The book, which costs £9.99, is a day-by-day diary of the Bluebirds’ first and only season in the Premier League.

The signing takes place at the Wellfield Book Shop in Wellfield Road, Roath, Cardiff, on Saturday, November 22, at 2pm.

The Trust is delighted to announce that we have co-opted two members to join our elected members and strengthen the board at this important time.

Sian Branson and Jeff Mansfield join the existing team of chair Tim Hartley, vice chair, David Craig, Jon Day, Brian Mertens, Keith Morgan and Phillip Nifield.

Both Sian and Jeff have written pieces setting out their views on the Trust.

You can join the  either at the Trust office (near Gate 5) on match days, online through Paypal at https://www.ccfctrust.org/?page_id=223 where you can also download a form and pay by standing order or cheque.

SIAN BRANSON

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watching the events of the past few years unfold at Cardiff City has been a real ‘eye opener.’

Like others, I was stunned and saddened when the rebrand became a reality in the summer of 2012. The shock of it was compounded by the absence of any sort of meaningful opposition. In fact, those like Keep Cardiff Blue (KCB) who did try to protest met considerable resistance from some supporters.

Despite there, seemingly, being little appetite for opposition to the rebrand, myself and others felt that we had to do something – our club’s history and traditions are really important to the city of Cardiff itself and not just the football club.

So, in the spring of 2013, we put together a supporters group called Bluebirds Unite. Our aim was simple – to oppose the rebrand and demonstrate our pride in our history and long established identity.

We organised several events such as a celebration walk, a petition with more than 10,000 signatures calling on Vincent Tan to reverse the rebrand and a number of protest marches.

In the early days of Bluebirds Unite, I had the good fortune to meet Trust chair Tim Hartley, an enthusiastic supporter of our own group. From regular contact with Tim I began to understand the great work the Trust did, such as fund raising for Ty Hafan, initiatives promoting City’s history, supporting the drive to kick racism out of football, the alternative shirt campaign and work with Supporters Direct on a UK-wide scale.

Club politics had always pretty much passed me by but from speaking with Tim it was clear that the Trust does lots of things that often go under the radar. I offered my support as I feel that Supporters’ Trusts provide a direct route for fans voices to be heard at their football clubs. Also, being part of an umbrella body like Supporters Direct gives fans even more clout.

At a time when clubs are moving further away from their fan base, I feel passionately that supporters need to have far more say in how their clubs are run. They are community focal points with long held traditions. We need to make sure we protect these cherished institutions.

I really hope that in the coming months and years Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust significantly grows its membership and becomes a powerful voice in the running of our club. We all want to see the Bluebird soar again, let’s work together to make it happen.

JEFF MANSFIELD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I joined Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust not long after I moved back home in April 2013, after many years away, most recently living near Portsmouth.

I’d seen what happened at Pompey at first hand: after  seven years in the English Premier League, finishing 9th in the table and winning the FA Cup along the way, Pompey were relegated and went into freefall. A series of unknown ‘investors’ suddenly appeared, ready to grab a piece of what was left, and it really looked as if the club was finished.

Many Pompey fans thought it had all been worth it for the seven years they’d had in the big time, but as events developed they began to see that there really was an alternative to the ‘benefactor’ model, that there was a better way to run a club. They put up the money to buy a share of their own club and they were on their way.

I didn’t want anything like that to happen to us, so I joined CCST because I believe football clubs should be run like any other business and be partly or wholly owned by their fans, together with investors who should get a fair return on their investment. CCST, with its strong commitment to that ideal, and its community values, was the right place for me.

So now I serve as co-opted Secretary to the Board, organizing meetings and generally helping out, and I’m happy to be able to contribute to the future of the Trust and our community-based club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trust board member Phillip Nifield gives his personal take on the latest missives from the owner of Cardiff City.

In an article this week in the Guardian in reference to fans, Mr Tan makes the bizarre statement: “They just don’t support” while in an interview with the BBC he says the switch from blue to red has benefited the club by raising its profile around the world.

You can read the out-of-touch Mr Tan’s comments in the links at the bottom of this article

Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan has certainly put Cardiff on the map through his ridiculous rebrand – and made the club a laughing stock the world over.

In his latest interviews, he continues to show disrespect to the supporters – the paying customers of the club.

He has attempted to destroy our history, our tradition, our identity but will never succeed.

It is difficult to think of another business that has treated its customers with such contempt – Gerald Ratner, who once described goods sold from his jewellers as “total crap”, is the name that springs to mind.

Mr Tan – when he decides to visit the Cardiff City Stadium next – needs to take a good hard look around and see how many supporters are wearing his beloved red. Very, very few.

And I hear sales of the red home shirts for the current season have been pathetic – after similarly dismal sales during the Premier League season. As they say, Mr Tan needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

I’m delighted to say that well over 2,000 of the Trust’s alternative blue shirts have been sold with £5 from every sale going to the Ty Hafan children’s hospice.

It just doesn’t make business sense for Mr Tan to continue to produce goods that few want. The club could be earning considerable income from blue home shirts – but he stubbornly refuses to change.

Could anyone imagine the wealthy owners at clubs like Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool ever announcing a colour change?  It just wouldn’t happen.

The protests over the change from blue to red will not cease – why would fans want to stop campaigning for restoration of our heritage?

Of course, Mr Tan would probably be viewed as a hero if the rebrand had never happened. He has pumped huge amounts into the club – although he still has yet to keep his promise of converting debt to equity.

But his attitude over the colour change really beggars belief.

He has turned lifelong supporters off for good while others have told me that while they go along to games they no longer feel the same passion. He has knocked the stuffing out of them.

Mr Tan has had numerous chances to unite the club by announcing a return to blue. He’s failed to do that which suggests he’s content to have thousands of discontented fans.

What a way to run a football club.

LINKS:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/29/vincent-tan-cardiff-phd-football-management

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-29847950