The Golden Ticket Scheme/Scam?

The only question that didn't receive a 'measured' response was the one regarding the 'Golden Ticket' fiasco and anyone with even an ounce of appreciation of the legalities involved would understand that it was impossible to give an answer whilst legal proceedings are in progress. The Riddler did hint rather obviously he wasn't alone in the decision making and that others within the club have left him adrift.

My thanks to Sven Ghali for the above quote in another thread which touched on something I have been thinking about ever since last night when Carl posted his Q & A with Peter Ridsdale.

My thoughts were this; was the Golden Ticket Scheme really a big scam? Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to defend the whole of the Peter Ridsdale Chairmanship but looking at things objectively there is a chance Ridsdale has been misjudged on this issue.

Firstly from my perspective I was never 'scammed' as I bought my ticket before the commitment to use the cash on players in the January window was ever made. I bought my season ticket on the back of the 5 year price freeze and to be honest it is one of the best deals I have ever had from Cardiff City FC.

I accept that later purchasers of a GT might have been swayed by the commitment to purchase players, but there again Ridsdale might have been acting in 'Good Faith' rather than just scamming the supporters.

As SG points out above Ridsdale has hinted strongly that he wasn't alone in making that commitment (certainly Dave Jones was given credit for the idea) and it is a strong possibility that the Malaysians did give a written commitment to invest £2m before 31/12/2009 but failed to do so and therefore threw the whole recruitment plan out of the window.

If that is what happened then Ridsdale would be correct in saying on that occasion he was a victim of circumstances, rather than attempting to fleece the fans and being fair the late comers still have the 5 year price freeze deal which is not to be sniffed at all and on that bases alone it is hard to justify a 'scam'

The only question that didn't receive a 'measured' response was the one regarding the 'Golden Ticket' fiasco and anyone with even an ounce of appreciation of the legalities involved would understand that it was impossible to give an answer whilst legal proceedings are in progress. The Riddler did hint rather obviously he wasn't alone in the decision making and that others within the club have left him adrift.

My thanks to Sven Ghali for the above quote in another thread which touched on something I have been thinking about ever since last night when Carl posted his Q & A with Peter Ridsdale.

My thoughts were this; was the Golden Ticket Scheme really a big scam? Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to defend the whole of the Peter Ridsdale Chairmanship but looking at things objectively there is a chance Ridsdale has been misjudged on this issue.

Firstly from my perspective I was never 'scammed' as I bought my ticket before the commitment to use the cash on players in the January window was ever made. I bought my season ticket on the back of the 5 year price freeze and to be honest it is one of the best deals I have ever had from Cardiff City FC.

I accept that later purchasers of a GT might have been swayed by the commitment to purchase players, but there again Ridsdale might have been acting in 'Good Faith' rather than just scamming the supporters.

As SG points out above Ridsdale has hinted strongly that he wasn't alone in making that commitment (certainly Dave Jones was given credit for the idea) and it is a strong possibility that the Malaysians did give a written commitment to invest £2m before 31/12/2009 but failed to do so and therefore threw the whole recruitment plan out of the window.

If that is what happened then Ridsdale would be correct in saying on that occasion he was a victim of circumstances, rather than attempting to fleece the fans and being fair the late comers still have the 5 year price freeze deal which is not to be sniffed at all and on that bases alone it is hard to justify a 'scam'

Tony
i would not describe him as a victim of his own circumstances purely because the malaysians were going to invest that money on trust.
He was the man who decided not to tell Tg about the winding up order and he was then responsible for initially scaring the malaysians away because of that blatant deceit.
In his interview with carl he clearly states that the club was £30 million in debt when he came in and then braggs about bringing 30 million pounds into the club through player sales and only spending £7 million on buying players.
So a surplus of 23 million yet the club was still facing winding up orders and struggling to pay the players and the tax bills on a monthly basis and debts to creditors and sam were never reduced.
I stand by what i have said before where there was a board of 5 members 2 of which he employed himself and he created a board within the board where he with the full backing of his two cronies would make all the decisions.
why involve the other 2 board members when you were going to out vote them anyway.
He also insisted in that interview that he knew of no approaches for dave jones when in fact he upped his wages when the particular club approached him.
I await the court case with interest as if he was not alone in the decision making then surely there would have been documented minutes of the board meeting from the time that decision was made.
The reality is that that documentation does not exist otherwise it would have been produced by his defense prior to any court case and the club would have been in the dock collectively and not him as an individual.

Like you Tony I purchased my ST well before the promise to spend the money on new players and again like yourself the only thing promised was the 5 year price freeze. Todate that has been honoured by the club so it is difficult for me to claim I was the victim of any scam.

Having said all of that Peter Ridsdale and Dave Jones both went on a advocate using the monies raised from ST sales to buy players in the January transfer window. When both were making these statements both were well aware that the club was under a transfer embargo by the Football League so signing players would have been dependent on removing that embargo.

So for me the club needed the alledgedly promised investment from the Malaysians, to use that money to settle the outstanding tax bills with HMRC and then remove the other reasons the FL had imposed a transfer embargo 3 months earlier.

Ridsdale as usual was economical with the truth about the clubs real circumstances at that time and rather than now claim he was a victim of circumstances he should just put the record straight and tell everyone the truth.

He was found out and there is only one person to blame and that's himself.

Jones is a much to blame for this as Ridsdale is ........ both knew what was going on !!

Jones is a much to blame for this as Ridsdale is ........ both knew what was going on !!

See now i thought this is where they fell out.

Jones is a much to blame for this as Ridsdale is ........ both knew what was going on !!

Was Jones in a position of power to make the offer? No?

As much as I dislike Jones, it was Ridsdale who claimed it was all Jones' idea. Which smacks of passing the shit onto somebody else.

it's irrelevant when people bought the STs - Ridsdale pushed through an offer, making public statements which he full well could not be met.

Look on the brightside ....... I got 5 years of ST for £399 per season