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Do any ‘Bluebirds’ fans out there want to take us down memory lane with stories from your days at Ninian Park? Author Lloyd Thompson (lloyd.thompson@blueyonder.co.uk) is publishing a book and your views may be published in it.

This is what Lloyd wrote to the Trust:

How did you feel when your team ‘upped-sticks’ and left your old ground? Were you upset, frustrated or annoyed at your Club relocating or was it the best thing that ever happened? I know how strongly I felt when my team Bolton Wanderers left Burnden Park and moved out of town to the Reebok.

Having watched The Wanderers at Burnden for almost 30 years of my life I felt so devastated that I felt compelled to write an article which was published in just about every fanzine and magazine at the time.

Since then dozens of clubs up and down the country have moved home and I am looking for fans who want to tell their stories in a new book that I am releasing.

I am already a published author and being a massive football fan I want to write a book about football by the people who know best, THE FANS! I would really like to feature your contributions about how real fans feel when the team they love leaves its ‘spiritual home’.

So, if you are interested in having your say then please email me your stories and feeling, this is your moment to have your say! By contributing you could very well be published!

Please note no payments will be made for any contributions but the opportunity to feature in what I know will be the book of the century, you will live on forever – payment enough!!!

The Trust Board wants to build up a fighting fund to enable it to meet any challenges that might arise and generally improve the Trust’s finances.

This will also cover the organisation of appeals, undertaking work to raise funds to donate to particular charities and to assist other groups raise funds through advice, guidance, the sharing of experience and encouraging our members to attend events.

To this end the Board wants to set up a Trust fundraising group and would like the wider membership to become involved.  So, if you are interested and want to know more please contact Board member David Craig @ fundraising@ccfctrust.org. David will then be able to provide you with details of what is planned.

We had great success with the Fred Keenor Statue Appeal and would like to use the experience we gained from that and, on behalf of good causes, benefit from the generosity, goodwill and enthusiasm of all Cardiff City’s supporters and their relatives and friends.

The Trust has submitted an objection to the Football Association to the plans to change Hull City’s name to Hull Tigers. Unlike the shirt rebranding, the FA can overrule a decision of an owner in the event of strong supporter opposition. Our submission is below:

Cardiff City Supporters Trust submission to the F.A.

Proposal to change  the name of Hull City FC

 1.      Introduction

1.1    Established in 2008, Cardiff City Supporters Society Limited (the Trust) is a democratic, not-for-profit group of supporters, committed to giving fans a voice in the decision-making process of the club, and to strengthening the links between Cardiff City and the community it serves.

1.2   The Trust shares the concerns of many supporters at the way football clubs are owned and managed simply as businesses without proper concern for, or involvement by, the wider social and football community. Football is our national game and we forget its roots in communities and its social importance at our peril.

2. Rebranding – Cardiff City and Hull City

2.1   In June 2012 the owners of Cardiff City FC announced they were going to rebrand the club by changing the colour of the home shirts from the traditional blue to red and by creating a new ‘dragon’ badge instead of the hundred year old ‘Bluebird.’ Fans saw these as radical moves which would alter the identity of one of Wales’s most historic football clubs.

2.2  These changes were announced without any consultation with fans or supporters’ groups. The Trust conducted a poll of its members.  Nine out of ten members said they had not been consulted adequately over the changes.

2.3  The experience at Hull City and the owner’s desire to change the historic name of the club has particular resonance with supporters at Cardiff. The Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry and the Government and the football authorities’ responses to it all supported the principle that supporters be given the opportunity to play a more active role in the decision making process of their clubs.

3. Conclusion

3.1   In attempting to change the name of Hull City to Hull Tigers the owner of the Club has shown a disregard for the history and traditions of a proud football club and we believe, of the wider game. Supporters of Hull, as was the case at Cardiff, have been treated solely as paying customers who can simply take or leave their loyalty like moving utilities supplier.

3.2  The Trust believes major changes to the location or identity of a football club should be subject to a formal consultation process, subject to established and pre-agreed standards.

3.3  In order to ensure compliance by clubs, these requirements for specified major changes should be a part of the football authorities’ licensing framework. Any changes implemented by a club without formal consultation should be considered a breach of the licence and sanctions imposed.

3.4  In view of the above we would urge the Football Association to reject the application to change the name of Hull City to Hull Tigers and we would ask you to again consider including safeguards on how such changes are decided in clubs’ licences.

Dan Rose, head of England and Wales Supporters’ Direct, spoke to members of the National Assembly about community ownership of sports clubs during a visit to Cardiff.

He was the main speaker at an All-Party Committee on Co-operative and Mutuals hosted by Pontypridd AM Mick Antoniw. Chair Tim Hartley and board member Phillip Nifield represented Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust.

Dan stressed the importance of football clubs which, he described, as the heartbeat of the community. He argued Wales was ripe for community ownership of sports clubs and also revealed plans to set up a Supporters Direct Cymru.

Dan also highlighted the position in Germany where many football clubs in the Bundesliga are 50% + 1 owned by fans who had a large say in issues like ticket prices.

Supporters Direct development manager, Kevin Rye, gave examples of community ownership of clubs in England while Meurig Price spoke about how the Merthyr Town Supporters’ Trust  had turned around the club with support from Supporters Direct and the local council. He explained the 3D pitch fitted last year was now used seven days a week by the community.

Rhondda AM Leighton Andrews, who is a founding member of the Trust, pledged to press the case with the Welsh Government to adopt the Localism Act which would allow sports grounds to be designated as assets of community value. It has already been adopted in England with Old Trafford and Anfield among the famous grounds already designated.

He stressed the importance of supporters’ trusts and their activities and praised the way the Cardiff Trust had acted over the behind-the-scenes problems at Cardiff Citydurintg the past few weeks.