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The Trust is delighted to announce that we will be offering Cardiff City fans an alternative blue shirt for next season.

Fans can vote for their favourite design out of four options which can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/o52djzy and in the South Wales Echo from Monday.

The high quality shirt is the brainchild of Trust member, Phil Jones, who said: “The embryonic idea was to develop a well designed, good quality blue shirt with the added benefit of supporting a great local charity. Since then it’s just snowballed. I’m delighted that it will become a reality.”

The shirt chosen by fans will be available post-free from the shirt manufacturers, Kukri, the official kit suppliers to the England team for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. They will be manufactured in the British Isles.

Shirts will cost £27 for adults and £22 for children with £5 from every shirt sold going to the Ty Hafan hospice. The shirt will be available through online order only and full details of how to order will be provided next week.

They will feature the Trust’s Bluebird badge on the front and the logos of Ty Hafan and Supporters Direct on the sleeve.

It is expected that the shirts will take no more than 20 working days to be delivered from order, ensuring fans get their shirt well in time for the new season.

The Trust board has unanimously backed the alternative shirt, which is also supported by Cardiff City Supporters Club, Bluebirds Unite, the 1927 Club and messageboards – CCMB and Cardiff City Forum.

Trust chair Tim Hartley said: “It’s great to see fans coming together in support of the blue shirt, while also raising money for Ty Hafan. This is a constructive way that fans can show their feelings and we again call for the views of the majority of supporters to be listened to.”

See the four shirt designs below

The Against League 3 campaign issued a Press Release today which is reproduced below.

Since launching our campaign 2 weeks ago, Against League 3 has generated fantastic support from all areas of the national game. AL3 continues to stand against, and offer vocal opposition to the FA Commission’s proposals to introduce ‘B’ teams into the English competitive football pyramid.

Supported by Supporters Direct and The Football Supporters Federation, we have now also received backing from a number of fans groups and supporters trusts from across the country. In addition to this, a number of clubs and chairmen based in lower leagues continue to speak out against the plans.

The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust said: ”The game in this country exists for the enjoyment and benefit of the entire footballing community, whatever the size of the club and its fan-base. For the FA Commission to want to impose such radical and potentially damaging changes to the underpinning football pyramid without so much as a word of consultation with representative supporter groups, such as the Football Supporters’ Federation and Supporters Direct, is totally unacceptable.”

Spirit of Shankly said, “We are opposed to the formation of a new league and B-teams. It is in solidarity with supporters and clubs further down the league pyramid, that we oppose such changes. We are disappointed and angry, though not surprised, at the lack of consultation and engagement with national supporter organisations or individual trusts. We will be encouraging our members to work closely with the FSF and Supporters Direct and attend their forthcoming Summit. We will discuss a similar protest to the one of June last year, against the football authorities who so willingly try to ignore and exclude us.”

We have now emailed the FA, asking for official recognition of our campaign, and the number of people standing against the proposals. In that email we asked to meet with the FA to talk about our concerns as fan views have not yet been taken into account at any point since the creation of the commission itself.

The correspondence we have received from fans has asked us for organised action. We continue to plan that aspect of our campaign, but we see no reason why the FA would refuse to communicate with us when our aims are essentially the same: we all want to improve the national game.

AL3 is incredibly grateful to all those who have backed our campaign.

South Wales Central AM Andrew RT Davies is sponsoring an event at the Senedd on Tuesday, June 3, to promote the campaign for a limited pilot of Safe Standing at Premier League football matches.

The event is being held in association with the Football Supporters Federation and the Trust will be represented at the lunch-time event.

Stadium safety and architecture has changed dramatically since the days of sprawling terraces and on June 3 Assembly Members will have an opportunity to take a close look at how ‘rail seating’ works, with a display model. The seating is used successfully in the German Bundesliga.

It was reported earlier this year that League One Bristol City plan to install rail seats, which can either be unlocked or locked to create a standing or seated area inside a stadium.

Bristol City’s development of Ashton Gate starts in the summer, and Bristol Rugby will ground-share with them from the start of the 2014-15 season.

The all-seated Wedlock Stand will be replaced with a new stand and plans are in place to install 2,202 rail seats, if regulations permit it.

Further redevelopment in the Dolman Stand, to the side of the pitch, could see a further 1,568 rail seats incorporated in the stadium.

Trust chair Tim Hartley presented his annual report to the Trust’s AGM:

As a Trust we identified 4 main aims for this year. Below is our progress against those aims over the season.

• Dialogue – with the club to represent fans effectively.

• We have met the Chairman, Mehmet Dalman, the CEO and his team and briefly the club’s major shareholder, Vincent Tan. We also had the opportunity to give the club board a presentation on the Trust’s work.
• We have had a good working relationship with the Supporter Liaison Officer, Tom Gorringe, but many of our questions, (conversion of debt to equity, ongoing commitment to the club etc), remain unanswered.
• We ask questions put to us by members and always give a full report of what is discussed. The annual Trust survey was answered by more than 1,000 people this year.
• Participation – to be more involved in the club and get fan representation at board level.

• Mr Dalman appears to understand that the Trust is not a threat but a critical friend. However, translating that into formal fan representation won’t be easy.
• The Trust Board considered buying more shares as suggested in the Members’ Survey. Any shares we could buy would be tiny compared with Mr Tan’s and we decided this would not be the best use of our money.
• We have a commitment that a Trust representative will attend every club board meeting and they will support joint projects between us and the club.
•     Community – strengthen the bonds between the club and the community.

We have organised events with community groups, are partners in an oral history project about the City and organised the reunion event with the 92-93 promotion side.

• The Trust is sponsoring the LGBT Unity Cup and we will also have a stand again at the Grangetown Festival.
• We are campaigning to get Cardiff City to become the first professional club to pay every member of staff the Living Wage rather than the Minimum Wage.
•     Connection – with other trusts, politicians and stakeholders.

• We have lobbied parliament, the Assembly and government for changes to the way football is run.
• We have been part of the Premier League Trust Group and met many trusts.
• I’m on the Supporters Direct Council and campaigning for a SD Cymru office.
• We have attended cross party groups and parliamentary committees.
• We work with the Football Supporters Federations and the Supporters Club and have campaigned for cheaper away tickets and a trial of Safe Standing.

This letter was sent to the Trust by Neal Widdows

“I am an aspiring sports writer who has come up with a book idea that I would be very grateful for your help and support with.

The draft title of the book is ‘A blueprint for football’ and the idea is that the book will act almost like a manifesto from football supporters across England’s four senior divisions, illustrating precisely what the people who really care about the game want from English football.

The idea is to come up with a list of topic areas decided upon by fans, and then we use those opinions to create a survey where fans then vote on what changes they want to see in the English game.

Listed below is some topics I have come up with so far:

Finance: FFP, Wage Caps

Tickets: Prices, away allocations, away prices, cost of away travel, categoristion

Technology and Refereeing Standards

How to help the national team

League Structure: League 3 etc

Supporter Experience: Concourses, Food, Disabled Access etc

Television: Sky or terrestrial, PPV etc

Governance: Premier League, FA

Disciplinary Process

Merchandise: Kit Prices, Frequency of new kits etc

Winter Break

What I am doing right now is carrying out research on what other topics fans want to see in the book. Therefore, I am contacting supporters’ trust of all 92 clubs to ask for their opinions on what they want to discuss.

Therefore, I would be extremely grateful if you could share this with the members of your club or trust so that we can reach as many fans around England and ensure that we create a book that captures the thoughts of the great English football fan. ”

Anyone interested in contacting Neal with regards to the book should email me at nealwiddows@gmail.com

Thanks,

Neal Widdows