' THE LATEST ON STEVE BORLEY & CARDIFF CITY TRUST "

The Trust and Steve Borley​

Posted by admin in Trust News

Thurs 7th May 2015

The Trust board had a useful and constructive meeting with Steve Borley, a director of Cardiff City.

Steve, who attended the board meeting in a personal capacity, had accepted an invitation following comments made on Twitter last month after the Trust published a statement asking the club to set out its vision going forward.

The informal meeting looked at ways of improving communications between the club, the Trust and supporters generally. The dialog​ue​​ was positive and it was agreed that better engagement would benefit everyone. Steve agreed to make himself available via email or phone to Trust members to pose questions or relay matters of concer​n.​

Among the issues raised by Steve was how the Trust could help the work of the Cardiff Community Foundation and Academy and other initiatives. It was agreed there was a need for regular dialogue between senior club executives and the Trust and the importance of keeping fans informed of developments within the club and Steve promised to assist in the process.

Steve reaffirmed the commitment of Tan Sri Vincent Tan to Cardiff City Football Club. He was optimistic that with a few changes of personnel the Bluebirds could have a good season in 2015-16.

The issue was also raised of supporter representation on the club board but Steve felt it would be difficult to achieve because of the current structure model of the club with a single owner. But, he accepted, that good communications between fans and the club through the Trust and Supporter’s Club was crucial and vi​t​al for the club going forward. He also stated he wished for better collaboration and will look to make sure all parties are involved in end of season events and f​ans’​ forums.

Trust board members stressed that they wanted to see a successful Cardiff City and wanted to work with the club. But chair Tim Hartley said that​ the Trust​ would continue to raise issues of concern among fans and act as a “critical friend” when necessary. Steve accepted that and the club will continue to invite the Trust and Supporters Club to provide their views at an appropriate forum.

All sounds great, except the bit where it would be difficult to have trust representation at board level as there is a single owner model. In other words, they may listen but actually don't make the "difficult" decision to move heaven and earth to get trust members on the board. If the single owner model doesn't allow this, then the model needs to change at some point.

To be fair to Steve, he is trying hard under difficult circumstances to keep lines of communication open. He is one who will listen and has offered to field questions to take forward to the board. I hope he doesn't end up being a scapegoat if things don't work out with suggestions or requests.

The trust needs more involvement to give fans a sense of "ownership" in the way the club is run. This meeting was obviously a good starting point.

One small step in the right direction

One small step in the right direction

...........

One giant leap for Tan-kind???

To be fair to Steve, he is trying hard under difficult circumstances to keep lines of communication open. He is one who will listen and has offered to field questions to take forward to the board. I hope he doesn't end up being a scapegoat if things don't work out with suggestions or requests.

Spot on there! And you can see where this is going already....

Sure they had a meeting like this last year about better communication?