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Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust tonight expressed its dismay that a scheduled meeting tomorrow involving owner Vincent Tan and the Trust and Cardiff City Supporters’ Club has been called off.

Chairman Tim Hartley said: “We are very disappointed that this meeting has been postponed at a time of great instability at the club. We’ve been told that Mr Tan will meet the Trust when the new manager is appointed and we now look forward to that meeting.

“Given the recent off the field debacle, we believe it is more important than ever that Mr Tan engages with supporter groups and the fans generally. This meeting provided Mr Tan with an immediate opportunity to start building bridges with fans and that opportunity has been missed.

“There are many questions the fans still want answered, around corporate governance and transparency, the club’s financial future and the rebranding. We will put these to Mr Tan at our rearranged meeting which needs to be held as soon as possible.”

Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust issued the following statement today:

“We are not surprised at the departure of Malky Mackay which looked inevitable following the breakdown in the relationship between Malky and Mr Tan.

“We’d like to thank Malky sincerely for his massive contribution to Cardiff City. He will always be fondly remembered by Bluebirds fans as the manager who took Cardiff City to the Premier League for the first time. He is undoubtedly one of the best and most popular managers in Cardiff City’s history.

“The Trust always found Malky very approachable and he was passionate about doing his best for Cardiff City. He had an excellent rapport with fans and appreciated the importance of supporters to any football club.

“Recent off the field controversies have damaged the relationship between the club and fans.

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

“This whole 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.”

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.