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Senior faith, union and community leaders from Cardiff Citizens, part of national community organising charity Citizens UK, and the Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust, have written to Cardiff City FC chairman, Mehmet Dalman today, asking him to announce that Cardiff will become the first football club to pay all their staff the Living Wage (£7.65 an hour) before the season ends.

The letter also informs Mr Dalman that young people from the communities involved will march to the Cardiff City Stadium before kick-off on the last game of the season against Chelsea on May 11th to hear the Club’s answer and hand over the funds they have raised to encourage the Club to adopt the Living Wage. Dozens of local people are expected to save up and donate £1.34 (the gap between the hourly Minimum Wage and the Living Wage) to the Club.

They will be accompanied by a giant ‘Bluebird for a Living Wage’ created by local young people, which will be carried in a procession through Grangetown before the game. Local youth football teams have already agreed to host a Living Wage Cup 5-a-side tournament and community fun day at a local park to raise funds.

A petition has also been launched in support of the campaign: https://citizens.nationbuilder.com/ccfc_petition

Cardiff City has an estimated annual wage bill of £18 million for its players, but the cleaners, stewards and hospitality staff who are vital to its success are paid as little as £6.31 an hour, the National Minimum Wage.

The Living Wage is a voluntary measure supported by over 650 employers across the UK who commit to pay all of their directly-employed and sub-contracted staff enough to live, rather than just enough to survive. The Living Wage is currently £7.65 an hour.

Accredited Living Wage employers in Wales include Cardiff Council, Wales & West Housing, Burns Pet Nutrition, Taff Housing Association and KPMG.

Cardiff Citizens and the Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust wrote to Mr Dalman earlier this year. The Club replied saying that the Board would consider introducing the Living Wage.

El Bashir Idris, a young leader with Cardiff Citizens, said: “The players, the Club itself, and the city’s economy have all benefited from the Club’s success to the tune of millions of pounds, yet essential matchday staff are paid rock-bottom rates. That can’t be right – and we are calling on the Club to announce that they will introduce the Living Wage soon.”

Tim Hartley, chair of Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust, said: “The minimum wage is just that, the legal minimum. The Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust believes that the club not only can, but should, pay the Living Wage to all its staff.”

Richard Weaver, a leader with Vale of Glamorgan Citizens and lifelong fan, said: “We all love our local Club and were very proud when they got promoted to the Premier League. We would be even prouder of our Club if they showed their appreciation of the community and their staff by becoming the first ever Living Wage football club.”

A hospitality worker at the Club speaking under condition of anonymity, said: “An extra £1.34 an hour might not make a difference to a Premiership footballer, but it will make a massive difference to me and the staff who are struggling to support our families and make ends meet.”

Statement from Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust following the club’s relegation from the Premier League:

Chair Tim Hartley said: “The relegation, which many of us expected, was confirmed at Newcastle yesterday. A season that started with such optimism is all over bar the shouting with the Bluebirds starting again in the Championship in 2014-15.

“The season’s end provides an opportunity for the club owner, Vincent Tan, to build a new era with the supporters of this football club.

“This means starting a regular and meaningful dialogue with fans and supporter groups. The new season also provides Mr Tan with an opportunity to wipe the sheet clean and build severely damaged relationships with supporters.

“One immediate action he should take is to announce that blue will once again be the colour of the home shirt and the traditional club badge will also be restored.

“If Mr Tan continues to ignore the wishes of its long-standing supporters, it is inevitable that protests will continue next season, deflecting from efforts to return to the Premier League at the first opportunity.

“If Mr Tan has learnt anything from this season it is that he can no longer ignore his customers – the fans of Cardiff City, many of whom have followed the club through thick and thin over decades. We look forward to meeting Mr Tan at the earliest opportunity.”

Some journalists and Trust members have been confused and are uncertain over the difference between debt and equity as it impacts on Cardiff City.

Trust board member Keith Morgan, an accountant and football finance expert, has set out the position.

DEBT OR EQUITY – WHAT DOES IT MATTER TO CARDIFF CITY?

Many people have raised the issue of Vincent Tan`s continued delay in carrying out his promise  , made publicly on several occasions , to convert all of the loans he has made to the football club into shares and to make the club debt free.

Some fans are of the view that it makes no difference on the basis that “he only owes the money to himself” now that he holds a significant majority of shares in the club`s parent company. However, unfortunately, this is simply not the case.

As long as Vincent Tan continues to be a creditor of the company then it gives him two significant powers

1)     To control the board of directors by appointing the majority of the holding company board – Malaysian employees of his who can simply outvote the UK directors – even though Vincent Tan is not officially a director himself (although under UK insolvency law , should the company enter a formal insolvency , he would be regarded as one because of that control he exerts)

2)     More importantly, he can demand his money back at any time as it is not a term loan to be repaid over a period of time, but is repayable on demand like an overdraft. There appears to be a wide disparity between Vincent Tan`s own claims that he is owed £70m to £80m by the club and the claims of the Chairman Mehmet Dalman that Vincent Tan has put in up to £140m. Whichever figure is correct , the club simply does not have the money to repay it even with a sell-off of a lot of players and Vincent Tan taking all the end of season Sky TV payment plus next season`s first instalment of “parachute” payment. (The football authorities may not allow this to happen anyway if they believe the club may fold financially as a result and hold on to the money until the position is clear).

If Vincent Tan honours his promise to convert all debt into shares, then he is no longer owed any money and can make no demand for repayment from the club. His outlet for recovering his money would then be a sale of his shares to a new investor. Two other routes are NOT available to him in the foreseeable future.

1)     A float on a Stock Exchange, either in the UK or Singapore or Malaysia. The club simply does not qualify for such a float due to its record of financial losses and lack of growth potential ( a relegation would half the club`s income while as it would have to finish well up the Premier League on a consistent basis to significantly improve this season` income level). The inability of the club to follow this route was confirmed by the Chairman at a recent meeting with supporters` representatives.

2)     Paying himself back with big share dividends each year. This would be a breach of UK law as companies are only able to do so out of cumulative profits – i.e. all of the £millions of losses from past years would have to be cleared first. The recently amended budgeted profit for the current season is about £12m even playing at the top level with all the Sky income that entails, so it would take ages for this to happen.

So Vincent Tan sticking to his promise to convert all his debt into shares DOES make a difference to the club`s financial stability – a very big difference. I am sure that most fans hope that he will honour that promise as soon as practicable as it was first promised to be done when the Langston debt was settled, which happened several months ago.

Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust Membership Group

A major exercise has been undertaken to clean up the membership database to ensure it is up to date and accurate.

We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help with maintaining the membership records, in order to keep the database up to date and accurate.
If you feel you can help please contact Paul Evans via members@ccfctrust.org who can provide further information.

The Trust received a response from the Football League last week after it raised the issue of full consultation by owners with fans when rebranding is proposed.

Commenting on the response (below), Trust chair Tim Hartley said: “It is good to see the League recognise the all-important role that fans and supporters groups should play in major decisions, including the rebranding of a club.

“We welcome their clear statement that ‘formal consultation has a part to play’ when things like the playing colours and crest, the name and the location of a football club are being considered. We agree with the League that further discussion is needed and look forward to receiving the response of the other footballing authorities.”

Responses are awaited from the Premier League and Football Association.

Thank you for your letter dated 26^th March 2014.

The issues you raise are clearly very sensitive matters for football supporters and we appreciate the importance of traditional values.   As you recognise, a change of name is already covered under FA rules and the case of Hull City was considered by the FA Council earlier this week.

However, club owners equally feel that they have the right to determine the policies to be adopted by their club.  Ticket prices, for example, is another matter over which there has been much public debate but, not unreasonably I would suggest, owners are always likely to insist that this must remain a business decision.

So, whilst we would agree with you that there is a balance to be struck here over some aspects of the club’s identity where formal consultation has a part to play, further discussion is needed – particularly around where the lines are drawn.  Otherwise, there will be a fear amongst owners that this is simply ‘the thin end of the wedge’.

Nevertheless, we understand your concerns and would support the idea of these being debated further with other football stakeholders.

Kind regards

Andy  Williamson, Chief Operating Officer

The Football League Ltd