When I was asked to appear live on the BBC TV news channel
earlier this evening, I chose to wear this shirt. It’s a replica of the one that
Cardiff City’s
players were wearing when my father took me to
Ninian
Park for the first time in March
1975 on the day before my eighth birthday.
Sheffield
Wednesday were the Bluebirds’ opponents on that occasion. The Owls were rock
bottom of the Second Division table, while City were just one place above them.
Predictably, the match ended in a goalless draw. The crowd of 6,621 jeered,
slow hand clapped and chanted ‘what a load of rubbish’ at regular intervals
throughout the ninety minutes. Midfielder George Smith ripped off his shirt and
threw it at manager Jimmy Andrews after being substituted. His replacement,
Johnny Vincent, missed a late penalty and City were booed off the field
following the final whistle. Both teams were relegated to the Third Division a
month later.
It was a pretty grim start to life as a Cardiff
fan all things considered, but the side did contain three players who are high
in the rankings of my all-time favourite Bluebirds. The men concerned are Phil
Dwyer, John Buchanan and Willie Anderson. Not exactly the greatest trio of footballers
this planet has ever produced, but every one a legend as far as I’m concerned.
Tan
Sri Vincent Tan won’t recognise those names. He never saw any of them play in
the blue of Cardiff City.
Indeed, there aren’t too many players he has seen play in the blue of Cardiff
City. By all accounts, Mr Tan didn’t
see his first game of professional football until May 2010 and he’s only seen a
handful of games since then. Nevertheless, the Malaysian overlord has today
dictated that the club I have been devoted to since I was schoolboy should radically
alter its identity. The claim from the club’s subservient board of directors is
that the bizarre changes they are implementing are necessary in order for the
Bluebirds to reap future financial rewards from a worldwide commercial market.
And if you believe that load of nonsense, you’ll believe anything.
Cardiff
City is a mid-ranking Championship club
that recently managed to sell just 23,000 tickets for a play-off semi-final
against West Ham United. Under the circumstances, perhaps a commercial marketing
strategy in South Wales might be more appropriate.
As
far as I’m concerned, a significant part of Cardiff City Football Club has died
today. During the last thirty seven years, I’ve firmly nailed my colours to the
mast and those colours have always been blue. According to the club’s owners, the future is red. I wish them well with that, and with their attempts
to generate fire and passion. I just hope the supporters don’t end up getting
burnt by this particular dragon.
We've had some run-ins in the past, but always appreciated your views. Was sad to read how disillusioned you have become over recent years, though in truth it's exactly how I felt & why I stopped following Cardiff a couple of years ago. Truthfully, while I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a Cardiff fan, stopping going & supporting is the best thing I did. I hope you find solace in whatever decision you ultimately make, but have to say I admire your stance.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, though we often disagreed, if more Cardiff fans had your spine I wouldn't have stopped supporting them. Citing many of the reasons you did, primadonna players, the way the game has gone in general, being treated like vermin by the club, but most crucially of all, the attitude of our fans were the reasons for my disenchantment.
While I consider it a privilege to have met some intelligent, articulate Cardiff fans prepared to stand up for what they believe in, many, many more care not a jot & are blighted by ignorance & a win at all costs mentality regardless of the consequences. That's doesn't mean it's for you or I to say they are wrong & we are right, but quite simply I quickly came to the conclusion that it was not a set of supporters, hence inextricably a club, that I wished to be associated with any longer so I simply stopped doing what I no longer enjoyed. Every reason I started follwing Cardiff was because they were different, they were unique from the deluge of "plastic" supporters in South Wales, but now we are not so much the same, but fundamentally significantly worse than everything I despise about the likes of Man City, Man United, Liverpool etc.
As for the red thing, I will treat the fatally flawed plans to commercially exploit Asia as a result with the contempt they deserve, if you say so Mr Tan... time will yet again tell that the spineless, inarticulate majority of fans who roll over belly up on the whim of the latest "saviour" will be made to look incredibly foolish indeed.