Meet Phil Harding, the new member of the Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust. Phil was one of five Bluebirds fans winning a seat on the board following elections.
Trust chair Tim Hartley is pictured at the AGM with City legend Jason Perry (left) and Rob Phillips, BBC Wales soccer commentator.
Young people from the South Wales Valleys and Cardiff will be coming together next week to promote friendship and understanding through football.
Groups from Merthyr Tydfil and Pontypridd will meet up with colleagues from the Butetown, Riverside and Grangetown areas of Cardiff to discuss issues important to them and, of course, to play some football.
During the day at the University Fields in Treforest there will be sessions from Show Racism the Red Card, which tackles racism in grassroots football. New Links Wales will also discuss the temptations and issues surrounding the use of legal and illegal drugs. There will be skills coaching sessions and the day will end with a friendly football tournament.
The event is being organised by Game On and Dynamic Sports Development who are already engaged in getting young people into football and the event is sponsored by the Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust.
Trust chair Tim Hartley, said: “These young people come from very different backgrounds and some of them will have rarely ventured either out of the valleys or Cardiff. We want to develop them as footballers of course but also to help them get new life skills and to make new friends.”
Dane Facey from Game On Wales said: “As key partners, we are encouraging young people from a variety of communities first areas, to come together and develop positive personal experiences that can increase interaction and social development between young people.”
Ali Abdi from Dynamic Sports Development said, “It’s a fantastic opportunity for our young people to engage with other young people of the same age and learn, understand and appreciate similarities and respect differences. It will create a real opportunity to foster and encourage new and lasting friendships between young players from across South Wales.”
The event takes place at the University Playing Fields, Treforest from noon on Thursday, May 30th.
The result of the elections to the Trust board were announced tonight. There were six candidates for the five places on the nine-member board.
The votes cast were Tim Hartley 150, Keith Morgan 139, Brian Mertens 117, David Craig 108, Phil Harding 100 and Phil Jones 80. Congratulations to Messrs Hartley, Morgan, Mertens and Craig on their re-election and to the new member of the board Phil Harding. There were 11 spoilt votes. The turnout in the election was just over 27%.
Thanks very much to Geraint Jones, who organised the election, and to those members that helped count the votes.
Bluebirds legend Jason Perry and BBC Wales soccer commentator Rob Phillips will be attending the Trust’s annual meeting next Tuesday, May 21st, when they will round the evening off with a review of the past season.
The meeting takes place at the Llandaff Institute in High Street, Llandaff, Cardiff (7pm for 7.30pm)
The results of the recent elections to the board will be announced with six candidates contesting five places,so there will be at least one new board member.
This is also an opportunity to chat to board members and raise any issues with them.
All Trust members welcome.
The Trust today issued the following statement which follows on the recent fans’ survey. It says:
The Trust would like to congratulate manager Malky Mackay and all Cardiff City players on their success in winning promotion to the Premier League and clinching the Championship title. It is a fantastic achievement.
The financial support of Tan Sri Vincent Tan, our Malaysian owner, has also been absolutely crucial in the club achieving a dream many of us thought that we would never see.
We believe it is important at this time to ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction and that there is a strong sense of unity after such a momentous period in the club’s history.
Our recent fans’ survey showed a clear majority did not want to see any further branding changes such as removing the Bluebird from the club crest or changing the name of the club in any way.
We are very pleased that Mr Tan has given a very clear commitment to the media that there will no further rebranding, including no change to the name of the club with the Bluebird also remaining on the club’s crest. This is excellent news as we believe any further major rebranding would be unnecessary and create further disharmony among supporters.
The Trust believes it is important that there is a period of stability as we enter very exciting times for the club and its supporters.
The fans’ survey also showed strong support for a return to the traditional blue kit when we play at the Cardiff City Stadium.
History and tradition are very important to many Bluebirds supporters while appreciating the club has to move forward.
We urge Mr Tan to seriously consider returning the first team home kit to blue at the earliest opportunity with red becoming the away kit. We are sure if that were to happen it would be warmly welcomed by an overwhelming* majority of supporters.
Once again, congratulations to Cardiff City on their promotion.
*The results of the fans’ survey carried out in March can be viewed at https://www.ccfctrust.org/?p=2919