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The Trust office at the Cardiff City Stadium reopens before the Manchester City game on Sunday, August 25.

We’re looking for volunteers to help man the Trust office, near Gate 5, during the forthcoming  Premier League season.

The office, which board member Brian Mertens has responsibility for, normally opens 90 minutes ahead of kick-off and closes 15 minutes before the start of games.

It deals with members’ enquiries, applications for membership and as well as selling old programmes and a range of other goodies and ticketing for events the Trust organises.

If you can spare some time on a rota system, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Just email help@ccfctrust.org

Ali Abdi, Tim Hartley and Jarred Harvey with the winning ATL team.

The Trust has helped youngsters from Cardiff and the south Wales valleys come together to promote friendship and understanding through football.

We joined the Coalfields Regeneration Trust’s GameON Programme and Dynamic Sports Development to host another highly successful inter-community event for 14-18-year-olds at the House of Sport next to the Cardiff City Stadium.

Targeting Communities First areas, the day brought together teams from Trallwn, Fernhill, Merthyr Tydfil, Mountain Ash and Grangetown.,Butetown and Riverside, all in Cardiff. ATL from Cardiff Bay ran out winners beating Grangetown 1-0 in a tight final. The friendly football tournament also included a workshop on drug and alcohol awareness run by Neno Mendes from the substance misuse organisation, New Link Wales.

This is the second such session the Trust has supported following our May event at Treforest. The football allows 14-18 year olds from different backgrounds and communities to share experiences and cultures and make friends. We are hoping to support a regular GameON league and will support their work with other football trusts across Wales.

Trust chair, Tim Hartley said: “Some of these young people will have rarely ventured either out of the valleys or north of Cardiff. It was great to see them playing and talking together. These sessions are all about football of course but we also want to help them get new skills and make new friends.”

Jarred Harvey from GameON Wales added: “We are encouraging young people from different Communities First areas to develop positive personal experiences. Working together we saw that they can increase interaction and social development through football.”

Ali Abdi from Dynamic Sports Development said: “This event was another big success. We are managing to engage young people of the same age to learn, understand and appreciate similarities and respect differences.”

Trust Board members Phil Harding and Tim Hartley joined other Premier League supporters groups at the first meeting of the newly created Supporter Liaison Officers (SLO) held at the Cardiff City Stadium. Here they explain what the new role means for us as fans and how clubs and supporters are working together to improve the away fan experience. 

The new supporter liaison officer is being brought in by UEFA to ensure better communication between clubs and fans. The SLO will provide a focal point for supporters to ensure their voice is heard in decision making at the club. UEFA President, Michel Platini, says, “Better organised supporters can be nothing but positive in terms of projecting the positive side of supporter behaviour as a counterpoint to the widely reported negative elements.”

Cardiff’s SLO is Tom Gorringe who is also the club’s sales and marketing officer. He says it’s important to have a club employee in the role so that the fans voice is heard ‘at the top table’. Tom told his fellow SLO’s about how Cardiff have been named ‘family club of the year’ more than once. He also unveiled a new online ‘Away Fan Guide’ which offers those travelling to Cardiff information on ticketing, travel and all the city’s attractions.

The meeting concentrated on away fan issues. There was concern at the way all fans are treated when they travel, subjected to searches, turned away from pubs and generally made to feel unwelcome. The Premier League knows that the pre match experience is an important part of an away trip and we are all pushing to make it as hassle free as possible. The league now has an Away Fan App which it is still developing.

One of the roles of the SLO is to seek fans’ views. Tom has stolen a march on all the Premier League clubs and has created a Twitter account where we can contact him – @thgorringe. Tom also said that the City are introducing an Away Fan twitter account so that those visiting Cardiff will have an constantly updated stream of information from booking tickets to live travel updates and guides to the ground. All 15 clubs represented at the meeting said they too would like to offer such an account.

Malcolm Clarke from the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) said away fans always seem to be put in the worst seats. I remember the vertigo I felt as we climbed to the top and back of the stand a Newcastle a couple of years ago. A dreadful experience! We voted unanimously for the Premier League to tell clubs to offer decent seats to all away fans.

As a Trust we have heard complaints many times about the price of some away tickets. From this season, Stoke will provide free away travel to their fans in an attempt to get more of them travelling. Phil raised the issue of pricing directly and suggested we all support the FSF’s ‘Twenty’s Plenty’  campaign to cap away tickets at £20. The income made from away tickets is small compared to TV rights so it wouldn’t really hurt the clubs. There was a vote on categorisation of games and it was agreed that clubs should have set prices for different seats whatever team you are playing.

Other matters discussed included smoke bombs and flares. Research shows that 83% of fans believe they are unsafe, rising to 87% of those attending matches. Five clubs now support a Safe Standing pilot and it is surely now a matter of time before the government offers clubs a chance to consider introducing safe standing terraces. We also discussed free transport to grounds on match days and playing DVDs of vintage matches in the away end before kick-off. I voted for the Leeds FA Cup game to be played in our end at Old Trafford this season.

It was good to meet other Trusts, Supporters’ clubs and, of course, the Premiership’s new SLOs. The role could be very important in ensuring fans views are heard and acted on. But the job must be taken seriously. It was disappointing to hear one SLO, say, “The role was thrown at me in the last few weeks on top of my day job and is not even a designated role.”

Our own Tom Gorringe made a great impression on the rest of the Premiership and has obviously hit the ground running. We are looking forward to working with him over the coming weeks as he draws up a plan to embed a culture of proper dialogue between the fans and the club at Cardiff.

Tim Hartley, Trust chair

Tim Hartley, chair of Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust commenting on the announcement, said: “Fans will be very relieved that his historic debt and the wrangle between the club and Langston has been finally settled.

“If the figures being talked about are correct and the settlement is below the original value, then Cardiff City must be congratulated on the settlement.

“We now look forward to Vincent Tan converting his loans to the club into shares. The long term aim has always been a debt free club which manages its finances in a prudent manner.”

Local MPs Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South & Penarth) and Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) have lent their support to the Trust’s campaign for more consultation with supporters before any major changes are introduced at  Cardiff City.

The Trust has been meeting politicians to discuss the government’s demand for a more formal and structured approach to fan engagement.

Both MPs agree that the club needs a communication plan to engage with the community it serves and to allow supporters to have their say. This would include regular fans surveys, presentations on future plans and meetings with officials and the club’s owner.

The Trust is grateful for the continued interest and support of our MP’s, Assembly Members and councillors as we push to ensure the fans’ voice is heard.