' A LETTER TO VINCENT TAN '

Read this on Mikes board and had to post it on here so more people see it and hopefully the echo print it and its gets to be seen by Tan. Really emotional letter and puts things into perspective.

A letter by Don Corleone

n over 45 years of supporting Cardiff City FC I've not been one to attend Player of the Year functions and have never met a player or a manager but it has always been my club and I've been a season ticket holder for many of those years travelling all over the country to watch my team.

In that time I have only felt compelled to write to my football club twice, both on emotional issues, and I wanted to highlight the difference in the response to both letters.

The first time was in 1988 when my brother was badly beaten up on the way back to his car after an away Welsh cup tie in Kidderminster. I wrote to the club telling them what happened and asked if they could send him something to cheer him up in hosptial and give them the ward address. The then manager Frankie Burrows visited my brother and gave him a signed team photo, which was a fantastic gesture.

Onto 2014 and I felt compelled to write to the club again, this time on a more personal issue to me as I now have a serious illness. I sent the letter on October 30th. Though I suspected as much I received no response or even an ackowledgement. It didn't surprise me but still saddens me. The letter would have remained private but as it was probably binned by the club I've published what I wrote below

The club obviously cares a lot less for its supporters in 2014 than it did in the lower league days of 1988.....



Tan Dato' Seri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun
Owner
Cardiff City Football Club
Cardiff City Stadium
Leckworth Road
Cardiff CF11 8AZ


Date: 30th October 2014


Dear Mr Tan,

I've never written a letter like this before, perhaps its my serious illness affecting my emotions but I am writing to you as one father to another to please review and reverse your decision to re-brand Cardiff City and to return the club to its blue kit and bluebird badge.

Let me explain, I have been a Cardiff City supporter for well over 40 years and have held a couple of season tickets for many years now, despite the fact it is a 350 mile round journey for me from my home to attend home games.

My 3 sons were all born in England but brought up to be Cardiff City supporters. They were very proud to follow their father's club, attending games with me all over the country whilst the team struggled in the lower leagues. They would boast to their school friends how they had been to see Cardiff play at, for example Barnet or Oxford, when most of their friends said they supported Liverpool or Manchester United but had never seen them play live. Of course they have since seen Cardiff win a play-off final at the Millennium Stadium and been to Wembley on 4 occasions, something they could only dreamed of when supporting them in the lower leagues.

However since the re-brand my sons say they cannot bear to watch Cardiff City in an all red strip and will not attend any more games while we play in red with a dragon badge. I did continue to attend, more out of habit and to see my brother and some friends (originally we bought around 34 season tickets together when we moved to the new stadium, now there are only about 10 of us left) - the enjoyment has gone and now I found myself not really caring whether we win or lose when it used to matter so much to me.

Football has been a big part of my life, whether playing in my younger days and watching Cardiff City, coaching youth teams, then latterly watching my boys play. Of course there are more important things in life and 2 months ago I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. I had surgery 4 weeks ago and commence chemotherapy next week.

What really brought it home to me was while I was recovering from surgery at home last week Cardiff were live on Sky TV against Millwall and my boys weren't even really interested in the score, let alone watching the game with me. I now worry that if I don't recover from the cancer and with your renewed determination to persevere with the red kit I will never be able to share the wonderful experience of watching my beloved Cardiff city with my sons again.

I see your latest comments say that the Cardiff city fans have done their worst to you but we welcomed you with open arms when you arrived and were delighted that you took an interest in our club, it is only the re-brand that has soured that relationship and it can be easily reversed. You continuously praise FK Sarajevo fans in the press but you didn't change their kit colour and badge so they have been able to retain their identity. You would have received the same level of support (and probably a huge amount more) from the fans of Cardiff city FC and the wider South Wales public if you hadn't changed our blue kit and marginalized the bluebird, you would certainly have received a much more significant amount of praise from the fans after promotion if it had been done wearing blue. It can be easily reversed and people would respect you for that, it would re-unite the fan base and then we could all pull together and get behind Russell Slade and the team in our attempt to get back to the Premier League.

I like to use an analogy to compare - you have been very successful with the Macdonalds franchise but that wouldn't have worked so well if you personally decided you didn't like Big Macs so refused to sell them in any of the stores. I know you wouldn't never have done such a thing and it's the same with Cardiff City FC, we are blue club with a bluebird badge, that's who we are what we the fan base / customer base recognize and associate with. It's not too late, you can still make us a very successful club in the Premier League in our true colours and badge with the support of our full fan base and general South Wales public.

I'm not naïve, I've worked in business for over 25 years and know that your staff will open and read this letter and it is unlikely to end up in front of you and that I won't even have a courtesy of reply but if by some small chance this letter does end up in front of you then I again very respectfully ask you, as one father to another, that if I survive my illness, please allow me to watch my football team again with my sons, brother and friends in a full and passionate stadium by reverting us to our traditional blue kit and bluebird badge


Thank you for your time in reading this letter and my impassioned appeal and hopefully I may just hear positively back from you.

A really well written letter that deserves some publicity.

And,more importantly, get well soon!

First and foremost I sincerely hope Don Corleone overcomes his battle with bowel cancer.

This letter is very well written and I hope it gets seen.

First and foremost I sincerely hope Don Corleone overcomes his battle with bowel cancer.

This letter is very well written and I hope it gets seen.

Cheers Carl for making it a sticky.

Also best wishes to Don in his recovery, stay strong fella.

First and foremost I sincerely hope Don Corleone overcomes his battle with bowel cancer.

This letter is very well written and I hope it gets seen.

Haven't you seen the Godfather films Carl ? the writer's real name is withheld

First and foremost I sincerely hope Don Corleone overcomes his battle with bowel cancer.

This letter is very well written and I hope it gets seen.

Haven't you seen the Godfather films Carl ? the writer's real name is withheld

Hence why I used his username Thomas when referring to him and his terrible illness.

First and foremost I sincerely hope Don Corleone overcomes his battle with bowel cancer.

This letter is very well written and I hope it gets seen.

Cheers Carl for making it a sticky.

Also best wishes to Don in his recovery, stay strong fella.

It was already stickied by Annis Dai when I logged in

Let's see if there's a heart beating behind that waistband

Not surprised that your letter was not answered, Tan has shown time and again that he couldn't care less about the supporters. Malayan culture must be completely different to ours, and it looks as if customer service is not very high on their list of priorities. I think if he ran any other type of business in this country, he would fail big time with his attitude towards his paying customers.
Good luck and I hope you are able to make a complete recovery as soon as possible.

Great letter from a Father

Your boys will be proud

Great letter from a Father

Your boys will be proud

Brilliant letter let us hope tan has a heart hope the echo print it get well soon mate stay strong

Makes you feel sick that nobody at the club had the decency to reply to this letter,what a bunch of horrible bastards they are.Hope all goes well in your battle against cancer,keep up the fight.Tan will be gone one day and we "WILL" return to blue that will be one great day BLUEBIRDS!

Sadly enough, my guess is they just read the first line then threw it away as "another one of those rebrand protesters".

Makes you feel sick that nobody at the club had the decency to reply to this letter,what a bunch of horrible bastards they are.Hope all goes well in your battle against cancer,keep up the fight.Tan will be gone one day and we "WILL" return to blue that will be one great day BLUEBIRDS!

Tan doesnt even get told anything like this never mind passed on to him.
The staff are so Tan Tan Tan and red red red that they have totally forgot the True City fans/hardcore

First and foremost I sincerely hope Don Corleone overcomes his battle with bowel cancer.

This letter is very well written and I hope it gets seen.

Cheers Carl for making it a sticky.

Also best wishes to Don in his recovery, stay strong fella.

It was already stickied by Annis Dai when I logged in

Credit to Annis then, top man.

Makes you feel sick that nobody at the club had the decency to reply to this letter,what a bunch of horrible bastards they are.Hope all goes well in your battle against cancer,keep up the fight.Tan will be gone one day and we "WILL" return to blue that will be one great day BLUEBIRDS!

Totally agree.

First and foremost I sincerely hope Don Corleone overcomes his battle with bowel cancer.

This letter is very well written and I hope it gets seen.

Cheers Carl for making it a sticky.

Also best wishes to Don in his recovery, stay strong fella.

It was already stickied by Annis Dai when I logged in

Credit to Annis then, top man.

Dai, I was chuffed you posted the letter on here

Not surprised that your letter was not answered, Tan has shown time and again that he couldn't care less about the supporters. Malayan culture must be completely different to ours, and it looks as if customer service is not very high on their list of priorities. I think if he ran any other type of business in this country, he would fail big time with his attitude towards his paying customers.
Good luck and I hope you are able to make a complete recovery as soon as possible.

Good Luck to this man and I hope he beats this horrible disease first and foremost but can I say this in defence of Tan, When was the last time he stepped foot in the stadium ?? Certainly not this season so before any more use this as another excuse to hammer him perhaps the letter is in his pidgeon hole or where ever they put his mail awaiting to him to open it as would anybody dare open personal mail with his name on it.
Something to think about eh

Fingers crossed for Don, You can beat this.

It's a shame if the letter does get intercepted by Tans staff, let's hope he reads it as it is very well written and also very true.

Such a heartfelt letter, and more important than football is that Get well soon! You have every Bluebird behind you to get better no matter if they are Red, Blue, Pro or anti tan, i hope everyone will join in and wish that the illness is beaten!

Such a heartfelt letter, and more important than football is that Get well soon! You have every Bluebird behind you to get better no matter if they are Red, Blue, Pro or anti tan, i hope everyone will join in and wish that the illness is beaten!

I 2nd that

Hope you get well soon , and we will both see our beloved bluebirds playing in blue once more

Makes you feel sick that nobody at the club had the decency to reply to this letter,what a bunch of horrible bastards they are.Hope all goes well in your battle against cancer,keep up the fight.Tan will be gone one day and we "WILL" return to blue that will be one great day BLUEBIRDS!

Tan doesnt even get told anything like this never mind passed on to him.
The staff are so Tan Tan Tan and red red red that they have totally forgot the True City fans/hardcore

who pays the staff their wages?

when you've got a family to provide for, tradition goes out of the window.

as for the chap in the OP, i hope he gets his wish. i think he will as tan will not be here in 3 years time IMO

A wonderfully touching letter.
I wish the op all the best with his illness.

Hi all,

I was the one who wrote this letter and posted it on Mike's messageboard. Been reading messages on here for years but don't post much so have never got round to registering. Just wanted to say thanks to Nobby for posting it on here and to Annis for making it a sticky and for all your messages of support, they're much appreciated. Along with all the messages on the other board it goes to show, despite all the divides amongst the support that the rebrand has caused, that fans can get together and give support to other Bluebirds. For me, the fight against the cancer and for the return to blue go on

Cheers again

John

Hi all,

I was the one who wrote this letter and posted it on Mike's messageboard. Been reading messages on here for years but don't post much so have never got round to registering. Just wanted to say thanks to Nobby for posting it on here and to Annis for making it a sticky and for all your messages of support, they're much appreciated. Along with all the messages on the other board it goes to show, despite all the divides amongst the support that the rebrand has caused, that fans can get together and give support to other Bluebirds. For me, the fight against the cancer and for the return to blue go on

Cheers again

John

John, Thank you and well done for being so brave, our hearts are with you

Hi all,

I was the one who wrote this letter and posted it on Mike's messageboard. Been reading messages on here for years but don't post much so have never got round to registering. Just wanted to say thanks to Nobby for posting it on here and to Annis for making it a sticky and for all your messages of support, they're much appreciated. Along with all the messages on the other board it goes to show, despite all the divides amongst the support that the rebrand has caused, that fans can get together and give support to other Bluebirds. For me, the fight against the cancer and for the return to blue go on

Cheers again

John

John, I really hope and pray you beat your illness.