Supporters Dirct have issued a very important statement that addresses the Cardiff City issues, something that every football fan should be concerned with.

Following the announcement from the owners of Cardiff City FC that they intend to ‘reactivate rebranding proposals’ to radically alter the identity of one of Wales’s most historic football clubs in return for ‘investment’, we believe that this raises some wider and very serious questions about the role of supporters at their football clubs.

It is widely recognised that supporters must be given the opportunity to play a more active role in the life of their clubs, and that the position they occupy is not comparable to that of an ordinary customer or consumer.

This was reinforced last July by the Select Committee for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, following their inquiry into Football Governance in England and Wales. Their report supported our call for the introduction of proper, structured relationships between fans and clubs through supporters’ trusts, to increase the understanding between the two, and ensure a decision making process that takes into account a club’s most valuable stakeholder.

Kevin Rye from Supporters Direct said, “The Cardiff City case has resonance for all football clubs in England and Wales, where still on too many occasions, supporters are treated as paying customers who are considered to have no real ownership of the club they have, in many cases, supported for years. 

“In cases such as these, we believe that there is a need for a clear pathway for supporter consultation on issues such as the identity or location of a football club.

“We fully support the moves by the Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust to ensure that any changes that radically alter the identity of their football club are both consulted upon, and that the reasons for doing it are sound. It is vitally important to ensure that commercial based decisions are not made at the expense of the social value clubs offer to their supporters and wider community.

“We believe that if Cardiff city fans were part of the club’s governance, for example by having a supporter director on the board, then issues like this would occur less often.”

Photo: Action Images

Jesus_02 added 14:45 - Jun 9 Saints do not do supporter relationship very well either. The dealing of the Season tickets for the last two seasons has been handled very badly in my opinion. The relationship between club and supporters is very much a customer, service provider one. This is all very well when we are successful but I am unsure how it will hold up in the Prem. Its not all about costs, its about fans feeling like they are being taken for granted. In my opinion Cortese needs to look at other clubs and how they have a good relationships with their supporters. we don't have a waiting list for season tickets, we need to look to the likes of Fulham and Norwich as good examples. I also feel improvements in the "match day experience" have failed to materialist.

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Boris_ added 17:14 - Jun 9 Blue Birds - Red Dragons ... they're still c*nts.
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legod7 added 10:49 - Jun 10 When Marcus Liebherr bought the club back in 2009 what would the club have done if he had wanted to change the shirts to yellow to match the colour of his cranes. Would the administrator have turned the investment down.
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Rednose added 11:59 - Jun 10 Pretty unfair to compare Cardiff's situation to ours I feel. Marcus Liebherr and Nicolas Cortese, imo, were and still very respectful of our history and the supporters opinions, just look at where we were to where we are! However there's a ballance and its all down to business, more to the point bloody money! We're all still patting ourselves on the back for reaching the premiership, looking on newsnow and alike for snippets of info regarding new players, kit design, etc etc, but unfortunately chairman, owners, and investors are looking at one thing profit. This reports does three things imo: 1) Should make us Saints Fan's very proud to support a club with a fantastic legacy left by a very honourable decent man. Mr Corteses (another very honourable man) charged with the ballancing act made more the harder, by the fact that the current owner, who, although obviosly very respectfull and honourable to her fathers wishes may not be into her football as much as her late great father was. I'm afraid that football moves on and I'm if supporters want to be part of it at the highest levels then certain sacrifices need to be made in order to keep up. It's the money (the root of all evil) that's causing dissonance. (does'nt mean we cant make feelings known when needed though). 2) Compassion to those Blubird supporters that will be deeply hurt by this (I would be). Unlike my fellow support above I don't believe all are c!%ts. Perhaps only the ones that will drip on about this change, get drunk and mouth off more often than not, but then sing, shout and taunt opposing teams and their fans that they have the best club and team the world has ever seen. 3) The knowledge that football teams at the highest levels around the world are volitile and like life itself can be taken away from us at a blink of an eye. On that last note spare a thought for our blue neighbors down the M27.......Ha ha ha ha ha, oh oh, stop it, ha ha ha ha. Somethings will never change though.

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SingaporeSaint added 14:20 - Jun 10 Agree with Rednose here. Traditions of football and the passion it instills in us is what makes the game great. The sad thing is that the 'professional' game is pretty much all about business. For years money has ruled the game, but once upon a time it was rich fans, now very few fans are rich enough to own the clubs, so increasingly the clubs will be owned by businessmen with real money, and sadly not many of them are from the UK. Increasingly, (unless you want to be in debt) these new owners will be from the East - the middle East, Eastern Russia or Asia. The money in the game is already fuelled from Asia. People seem to think that Sky in Britain is funding the premier league - sky viewers would represent around 1/500 of the viewers of live BPL. In almost every country in Asia - you can see all 10 premier league games live (inc every game on Saturday).. It is on in many households across this continent. If everyone in the UK watched a game, its less than 2% of Asian potential audience. You can also see the influence of Asia on the adverts pitchside in the prem - it is 80% aimed at the asian audience - Asian firms, airlines and betting networks - esp on Saturdays... It is our game and I hope games will always be played in England. I am English who lives in Asia. Asia will increasingly influence our game, as quite simply it is where the money is coming from. We will directly benefit from some of this is Tadanari Lee has a good season. Saints have been so lucky with the Liebherr family. I find the Cardiff situation interesting, but in my view they are fortunate to have an investor who wants to fund a loss making enterprise and if they drive the Malaysians out and risk going to the wall - is that better?

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BlackRod added 15:32 - Jun 10 If I buy a company I can change anything I like about its product including the colour of the wrapper. Why should football be any different?
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the_dune added 18:50 - Jun 10 Meh.
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