Trust News

Trust chair Tim Hartley, vice-chair Tracey Marsh and board member Keith Morgan tonight attended a meeting with other fans’ representatives.

At that meeting Alan Whiteley, chief executive of Cardiff City, explained proposals by Malaysian owner Vincent Tan to invest around £100m in the club.

The investment will improve the stadium, will build new training facilities and offer Malky Mackay money to strengthen the team. The plans would see the stadium expanded to 35,000 seats by 2014.

However, Mr Whiteley said that the investment comes as part of a package with conditions:

• From next season Cardiff City will play in red shirts, black shorts and red socks with a blue away kit.
• The Bluebirds badge will be changed to that of a dragon.
• But the name will remain as Cardiff City Football Club.

Vincent Tan and the Malaysian investors want the colour and badge changed to represent the fusion of the two cultures of Wales and Malaysia. This, Mr Whiteley, said would lead to new commercial and retail opportunities in Asia.

Tim Hartley said: “While we would obviously welcome the investment, I am personally disappointed with some of these changes.

“In our role as a Trust we will now canvass opinion among our members.

“Personally, I think the conditions proposed would mean that we would lose something of our soul as City fans. For generations people have been brought up as Bluebirds and to be told next season that we are Dragons wearing red shirts is perhaps a step too far.

“We are grateful to the Malaysians for their continued investment in Cardiff City. But I would urge them to think again and respect some of the central traditions of what Cardiff City has been and is.”

Vice chair Tracey Marsh said: “Although I’ve not been a City fan as long as many, there is a principle at stake and I feel that as fans if we agree to the conditions that we will be selling out.

“One of our favourite fans songs talks about ‘not taking my Cardiff away’. It seems that is exactly what is proposed as one City fan has said. I also worry what agreeing to this will mean in the future.”

Trust members can email their comments to help@ccfctrust.org

We’re delighted to announce that the £15,000 promised by Cardiff council in aid of the Fred Keenor statue appeal has been received and is now in the fund’s bank account.

Thanks very much to the council for their support.

We now have more than £71,000 in the kitty – and are closing in on our target of £85,000

I’ll Be There and the Keenor Appeal

We’re closing in on our target of £85,000 – less than £14,000 is now needed.

So, we hope you can help us get closer by buying a piece of Fred Keenor memorabilia –miniature statues (cost £39.99), special T-shirts (£14.99) and pin badges (two designs) at £3 each.

And any fan who buys ANY piece of Keenor memorabilia will receive a FREE copy of our famous club song, I’ll Be There CD… by The Stand.

You can pick up your Fred Keenor memorabilia and your FREE CD at the Trust office (near Gate 5) before Thursday’s Play-Off Semi-Final and for 30 minutes after the big match.

Please help us reach our target

Trust and the synagogues teams

Cardiff City fans organised a community football match against the two Cardiff synagogues as part of their drive to engage communities across the capital in our local football club.

The Supporters Trust won the match at St Joseph’s field in the Heath 8 – 3 with some superb goals from Alex Knight and John Howells.

The match follows a tour of the Cardiff City Stadium by 20 members from the Jewish community last month and following Sunday’s success, the game looks set to become an annual fixture. The match raised around £100 to help build a statue to commemorate Fred Keenor, Cardiff City’s 1927 FA Cup winning captain.

Trust chair Tim Hartley, said: “We have been working with different community and religious groups across Cardiff, taking them to City matches and playing friendly games against them.  We want to share our passion for the game with them so that they too will become Bluebirds fans. Football is a great way to promote friendship and community cohesion and we all enjoyed playing against the synagogues.”

Tim Hartley from the Supporters Trust receives a special Bluebirds ‘yarmulke’ (religious cap) from 13 year old James Salamon.

Neil Schwartz from the Cardiff synagogues said: “We all had a great day on Sunday. A match like this helps deepen the relationship between the Supporters Trust and Cardiff’s Jewish community, young and old, even though some of the older members might be feeling a bit sore! On the pitch my brain said one thing, my body another, but we would really like to thank the Trust for organising the visit to the stadium and for all their community work.”

Colin Heyman added: “The Jewish community in Cardiff has for long been a part of the life of the city in many ways, in work and in play. This was a great way to build on the links between Cardiff City FC and Cardiff’s Jewish community, some of whom are longstanding Bluebirds fans. One of the great things about it was that players ranged in age from 12 – 56!”

TheTrust was set up to give fans a voice in the decision-making process of the club, and to strengthening the links between Cardiff City and the community it serves.

Following an article in today’s South Wales Echo concerning a dispute regarding the ‘I’ll Be There’ charity single, the statement below has been issued to the Supporters’ Trust by Cardiff City Football Club:

“Acting in the best interests of the Cardiff City Supporters Trust and the Fred Keenor Statue Appeal, and rather than enter a small claims dispute which would invariably cost more than the £1,700 claimed, Cardiff City Football Club has made a full and final settlement payment of £1,000 to resolve this dispute – this despite the clear verbal sale or return agreement made with representatives of Acid Jazz Records prior to the production of the record.

“We expect to see large parts of these monies passed on to the statue fund in due course, along with any iTunes and additional vendor revenues earned.

“The club had, along with dedicating time, energy and free of charge resource to promoting the single, agreed sale or return terms, of which one hundred and three of the five hundred delivered units were sold, resulting in a total of £264.14 net sales.

“Following this payment, we would like to offer the statue committee and the Supporters Trust the remaining three hundred and ninety seven copies of the single, which they can use as they see fit to raise more funds.CardiffCityas a club has been a strong, active and visible backer of the statue campaign to date, of which this song was only a small part. We welcome the committee reaching their goals in what we hope is the near future.”