If you are a Cardiff City fan, you will bleed blue and white

Red shirts and red dragons for my Cardiff City - no thanks

by Gareth RogersMay 9 2012
South Wales Echo

‘I can’t see any justification in ripping up history’...says writer Gareth Rogers, a lifelong fan who says the City should remain true to their blue identity

RED shirts, red seats and red dragons – no thanks.

" If you are a Cardiff City fan, you will bleed blue and white and will always be a Bluebird. "


I’m a proud Welshman but seem comfortable with my fix of red shirts and red dragons from following my country.

Furthermore, as somebody completely dismissive of superstition, I can’t see any justification for ripping up more than 100 years of history purely because the Malaysian owners believe red to be a more dynamic and prosperous colour than blue.

For anyone buying the argument that changing the kit and badge red will lead to more marketing opportunities in Asia, let’s get it straight and say backing Malky Mackay with transfer cash for a serious Premier League push is all that’s needed on that front.

But, further to my lack of belief that this change will provide any substantial financial gain lies a much deeper concern of where all this ends.

How can new owners walk into a proud football club and bid to effectively sell its soul by changing something so central to its identity and history?

And, beyond that, surely any fan worth their salt must be thinking ‘where does this all end?’

If the current owners can be welcomed to tamper with the club’s colours and it’s beautiful badge, what is stopping them playing about with the name, nickname or even location?

Even if you are not a traditionalist and would not be averse to a colour and badge change if it would launch Cardiff City closer to the Premier League, you can’t fail to be at least embarrassed by the way this radical plan was leaked before a single fan was officially asked to express an opinion.

This surely demonstrates how important it is for bodies like the Supporter’s Trust and Supporter’s Club to get closer to the club’s decision makers, as has happened down the M4 in Swansea.

South Wales-based fans are, and will always be, the biggest customers of the Cardiff City brand – whichever division it is plying it’s trade in and whichever colour it wears on its badge.

So these people need to be respected enough to be presented with the full facts and fruits of any research carried out that substantiate the business case for such a shocking plan, long before its intended launch.

On a personal note, I am very proud of my collection of blue and white Cardiff City memorabilia, which will stay with me forever.

The very idea that one group of owners can waltz in and change the colours on a whim feels to me like walking into my house and ripping all of that apart.

Admittedly the club has changed its colours once before, in 1910 when the original chocolate and amber strip worn by Riverside FC was swapped for the royal blue and white we see today. But that change was made less than a decade after the club was born. We have since been the Bluebirds for more than 100 years and in doing so have beaten the likes of Real Madrid, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United along the way. So blue can’t be that unlucky.

And even if it is, it certainly hasn’t done Manchester City or Chelsea any harm this year, I’m sure if they walk away with the FA Cup and Champions League their equally wealthy owner will not be worrying about any kind of rebranding. The success of the team is what has raised their profile this season.

But, beyond all that, I conclude football is not only about winning trophies and making money. It is about belonging to something and feeling a part of an amazing unity on the terraces seldom reproduced in any other walk of life.

For me, the way these plans have been drawn up without extensive supporter consultation says much about the way that modern football is run and the morals and values that it carries.

And did anyone spare a thought for the poor fans who have invested a fortune in Bluebirds tattoos?

As the fans would sing: ‘please don’t take my Cardiff away.’




Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/footballna ... z1uM3vlnI1

very well written article
theyll never take our cardiff away
well be here long after theyve got bored and buggered off with their superstitions and cash

Annis you should write a book about this exposing them for who they are. I got a pen you can lend.

im appalled by it ,just cant see me watching us in red,ive been a fan 35 years since 1977 and im blue always will be ...but if or when it happens WE as fans have to wear blue every game,a top,t-shirt,coat i dont care if you wear your wifes blue knickers on your head WEAR BLUE !!....chant blue and every other song we have ,if tan wants to change it f**k him he cant change us !!.....BLUE ARMY !!...............never thought my 1000th post would be on the death of our club.

My only issue is emotion getting the better of us. We fight this to the Nth degree but do not lose sight of the facts or we will be bulldozed.

We must stop dramatising things like 'loss of history' or 'just because red is his lucky colour'. They will always have answers for things like this, they will say the history remains, they will say it's about marketing in Wales and Asia.

You fight the facts not what your emotins TELL YOU the facts are. We do not want to motivate fans into slander or even worse racial slurs. Look at the Rangers situation Miller has pulled out of the purchase and has actually named fans who, he believes, drummed him out.

I'm not averse to pressing for Tan to leave the club but let's have it done for the right reasons and not because we showed ourselves to be extremely insular and parochial.

All i can say really is i have always known and will ALWAYS associate Cardiff City as the BLUEBIRDS

annis.this is madness.what right do they have to do this?in your shoes i,d put up with a red away kit worn at all possible venues if it don,t clash.can see a point in that for asian markets but changing for home??the orientals would love the real history behind ccfc.that should be pushed over there.the city of cardiff,the mining heritage of the valleys etc.if the ground was renamed as it,s a new gaff and not the ninian then i could put up with that too.personally i,d name it new ninian park and sell it to the asians as part of the history of cc.name changes ???do me a favour.these fellows are going to have a headache with you lot.i support you cos it could be birmingham city next.r.i.p football.long live soccer eh?if you set up a fighting fund let me know.good luck mate to you and the boys

funny,when most of asia was collonised by the brits they didn,t like our rebranding packages

we must oppose this!!, ive already ordered my protest banner!

People need to get a grip in my opinion , with out the backers they'll be no Club or do these fans want us do a pompy or Rangers ?. I'm a bit unhappy with the emblem going I must admit , but the colour I have no problem with at all not only is RED a rather nice colour is also the colour of Wales for many and I really couldn't give a shit what colour the kit is , if this means hundreds of millions of pounds in invested in the Club .

What fan would turn down millions and millions invested in our Club ? For the 1st time in my lifetime we have a Chairman willing to invest his own money into the Club and spend in for the good of the Club and fans are moaning about it ? You couldn't make it up .

If you're a Cardiff City, you'll be happy to have millions and millions invested into our Club imo

People need to get a grip in my opinion , with out the backers they'll be no Club or do these fans want us do a pompy or Rangers ?. I'm a bit unhappy with the emblem going I must admit , but the colour I have no problem with at all not only is RED a rather nice colour is also the colour of Wales for many and I really couldn't give a shit what colour the kit is , if this means hundreds of millions of pounds in invested in the Club .

What fan would turn down millions and millions invested in our Club ? For the 1st time in my lifetime we have a Chairman willing to invest his own money into the Club and spend in for the good of the Club and fans are moaning about it ? You couldn't make it up .

If you're a Cardiff City, you'll be happy to have millions and millions invested into our Club imo

So you don't mind them selling our clubs soul in exchange for investment....i'm sure if they just give malky the funds he would spend wisely and get us up to the prem next year without ripping the heart out of our club....this is just one big marketing ploy for the asian market, it's purely money!! and it's a monstrosity, in my opinion!! they may turn my club red but my blood will always run blue!!

So you don't mind them selling our clubs soul in exchange for investment....i'm sure if they just give malky the funds he would spend wisely and get us up to the prem next year without ripping the heart out of our club....this is just one big marketing ploy for the asian market, it's purely money!! and it's a monstrosity, in my opinion!! they may turn my club red but my blood will always run blue!!

Why is changing a Tems Colour selling one's soul ? . You go through Football league history and many Teams have changed their colours from that of their true beginnings; because most of us here are typing in English, we could all be made out to selling our Welsh soul to the English ? . The Club name is the same, the Team will be much the same, sadly the manager will be the same, the stadium much the same all that's really changing is the Colour and a massive investment into the Club for the 1st time in my life , we seem to have a Chairman that wants to spend his money money on our Club.

You need to get a grip , Football is a business now, its all about Money the same is true of almost every Sport these days sadly. And in these days of double dip recessions, credit crunch we should be rather happy that a Club that bottled it for 3 years running , that is in massive debts is set to get a 100 Million quid investment

.

[u][b]And did anyone spare a thought for the poor fans who have invested a fortune in Bluebirds tattoos

Aside from all the seriousness I did find that comment hilarious.

Good article. Basically sums up how I feel today.
Cheers JTC for the support, seems like it will be needed as we'll need to fight this.
Smilebit, give it a rest. How you can believe anything this proven liar of a chairman is beyond me. £100 million of his own money Utter crap.

I think somebody should volunteer to kneel outside the ccs, poor petrol over there heads and set fire to themselves in protest of change, the rest of us can hold banners with the words !NO TO RED! Any volunteers then? I mean who ever decides to martyr himself for the course can be assured he will get a statue in his memory... Might take us 80years to finally get around to raising the funds for it mind, but who ever volunteers can be safe in the knowledge that us fans will pull together and get a statue erected for him-her outside the ccs just like fred keener

Thanks for your comments JTC,your a good poster on here
Unfortunately they truly dont give a damn about any kind of history,the valleys and especially us the fans
Malaysia has no understanding of passion in sport thats why their national games are table tennis and badminton

People need to get a grip in my opinion , with out the backers they'll be no Club or do these fans want us do a pompy or Rangers ?. I'm a bit unhappy with the emblem going I must admit , but the colour I have no problem with at all not only is RED a rather nice colour is also the colour of Wales for many and I really couldn't give a shit what colour the kit is , if this means hundreds of millions of pounds in invested in the Club .

What fan would turn down millions and millions invested in our Club ? For the 1st time in my lifetime we have a Chairman willing to invest his own money into the Club and spend in for the good of the Club and fans are moaning about it ? You couldn't make it up .

If you're a Cardiff City, you'll be happy to have millions and millions invested into our Club imo

So you don't mind them selling our clubs soul in exchange for investment....i'm sure if they just give malky the funds he would spend wisely and get us up to the prem next year without ripping the heart out of our club....this is just one big marketing ploy for the asian market, it's purely money!! and it's a monstrosity, in my opinion!! they may turn my club red but my blood will always run blue!!

Spot on Sherlock We live in the 21st Century where the bills have to be paid and competiters will cut our throats to beat us to success.

Marketing Cardiff City in Asia is a masterstroke IMO and using the Dragon to crack the Malaysian and Chinese markets is boardering on brilliant.

Yes like everyone else I would prefer a Blue & White kit with the current badge, but if it means no more HMRC wind up orders plus outstanding success on the field I can live with the colour change and an emblem which is also closley associated with my country of birth i.e. The Dragon being on our shirts.

TBH all this bluster will soon disappear when the big signings start coming in and we blow away the Championship next season. I can remember Newcastle fans being up in arms over the renaming of St. James' Park, only for it to all die away once they started winning games in the Premier League.

For God sake stop throwing you toys out of the pram and get behind the club, because this is the start of an amazing period in our history, which will blow away anything else we have ever done since 1899.

People need to get a grip in my opinion , with out the backers they'll be no Club or do these fans want us do a pompy or Rangers ?. I'm a bit unhappy with the emblem going I must admit , but the colour I have no problem with at all not only is RED a rather nice colour is also the colour of Wales for many and I really couldn't give a shit what colour the kit is , if this means hundreds of millions of pounds in invested in the Club .

What fan would turn down millions and millions invested in our Club ? For the 1st time in my lifetime we have a Chairman willing to invest his own money into the Club and spend in for the good of the Club and fans are moaning about it ? You couldn't make it up .

If you're a Cardiff City, you'll be happy to have millions and millions invested into our Club imo

So you don't mind them selling our clubs soul in exchange for investment....i'm sure if they just give malky the funds he would spend wisely and get us up to the prem next year without ripping the heart out of our club....this is just one big marketing ploy for the asian market, it's purely money!! and it's a monstrosity, in my opinion!! they may turn my club red but my blood will always run blue!!

Spot on Sherlock We live in the 21st Century where the bills have to be paid and competiters will cut our throats to beat us to success.

Marketing Cardiff City in Asia is a masterstroke IMO and using the Dragon to crack the Malaysian and Chinese markets is boardering on brilliant.

Yes like everyone else I would prefer a Blue & White kit with the current badge, but if it means no more HMRC wind up orders plus outstanding success on the field I can live with the colour change and an emblem which is also closley associated with my country of birth i.e. The Dragon being on our shirts.

TBH all this bluster will soon disappear when the big signings start coming in and we blow away the Championship next season. I can remember Newcastle fans being up in arms over the renaming of St. James' Park, only for it to all die away once they started winning games in the Premier League.

For God sake stop throwing you toys out of the pram and get behind the club, because this is the start of an amazing period in our history, which will blow away anything else we have ever done since 1899.

the word gullible springs to mind, along with whore

new_ colours.jpg

Fuckin YUCH!!!!

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I don't understand the commercial side to changing our colours. I'm sure if they invested their money in the squad and got us to the Prem then they would have a far more profitable business prospect selling blue shirts for a Premiership side than red shirts for a Championship side!!
Football is defintely seeing massive growth in Asia but it is not the Asians who will be buying tickets and turning up to support the team. It would be great to see Cardiff City supported around the world but not at the expense of those who are there every week driving the team on.

Besides, Man Utd & Liverpool have the Asia market wrapped up. If the Malaysians really think they can compete with that now then they need their heads checking!!

If VT wants a team playing in red, why doesn`t he f**k off over the severn bridge and buy bristol.

I think somebody should volunteer to kneel outside the ccs, poor petrol over there heads and set fire to themselves in protest of change, the rest of us can hold banners with the words !NO TO RED! Any volunteers then? I mean who ever decides to martyr himself for the course can be assured he will get a statue in his memory... Might take us 80years to finally get around to raising the funds for it mind, but who ever volunteers can be safe in the knowledge that us fans will pull together and get a statue erected for him-her outside the ccs just like fred keener

Or people should go on hunger strike. Might do a few off here a bit of good.

Annis,
In the words of that Daniel Merriweather song...'you took something perfect and painted it red'.
Maybe there has never been a more appropriate first song played by Ali next season??
The investment and security would be fantastic, but the rest is nothing short of theft. A very, very sad day for the club.

blue and yellow

So you don't mind them selling our clubs soul in exchange for investment....i'm sure if they just give malky the funds he would spend wisely and get us up to the prem next year without ripping the heart out of our club....this is just one big marketing ploy for the asian market, it's purely money!! and it's a monstrosity, in my opinion!! they may turn my club red but my blood will always run blue!!

Why is changing a Tems Colour selling one's soul ? . You go through Football league history and many Teams have changed their colours from that of their true beginnings; because most of us here are typing in English, we could all be made out to selling our Welsh soul to the English ? . The Club name is the same, the Team will be much the same, sadly the manager will be the same, the stadium much the same all that's really changing is the Colour and a massive investment into the Club for the 1st time in my life , we seem to have a Chairman that wants to spend his money money on our Club.

You need to get a grip , Football is a business now, its all about Money the same is true of almost every Sport these days sadly. And in these days of double dip recessions, credit crunch we should be rather happy that a Club that bottled it for 3 years running , that is in massive debts is set to get a 100 Million quid investment

Yeah, thank f**k we got rid of that chocolate and amber effort, we started out with. Seriously though, there's a few clubs out the who'd love an investment like we're being offered. Can we afford to let this oppotunity go?

So you don't mind them selling our clubs soul in exchange for investment....i'm sure if they just give malky the funds he would spend wisely and get us up to the prem next year without ripping the heart out of our club....this is just one big marketing ploy for the asian market, it's purely money!! and it's a monstrosity, in my opinion!! they may turn my club red but my blood will always run blue!!

Why is changing a Tems Colour selling one's soul ? . You go through Football league history and many Teams have changed their colours from that of their true beginnings; because most of us here are typing in English, we could all be made out to selling our Welsh soul to the English ? . The Club name is the same, the Team will be much the same, sadly the manager will be the same, the stadium much the same all that's really changing is the Colour and a massive investment into the Club for the 1st time in my life , we seem to have a Chairman that wants to spend his money money on our Club.

You need to get a grip , Football is a business now, its all about Money the same is true of almost every Sport these days sadly. And in these days of double dip recessions, credit crunch we should be rather happy that a Club that bottled it for 3 years running , that is in massive debts is set to get a 100 Million quid investment

Yeah, thank f**k we got rid of that chocolate and amber effort, we started out with. Seriously though, there's a few clubs out the who'd love an investment like we're being offered. Can we afford to let this oppotunity go?

we had some over sea gentlemen invest in our club.last i heard after he chased the dream and crashed(blame mcjudas not them)we were in massive debt and one of honourable gentlemen is under island arrest on hong kong.he could be innocent?all that glitters is,nt gold

Annis you should write a book about this exposing them for who they are. I got a pen you can lend.

So you don't mind them selling our clubs soul in exchange for investment....i'm sure if they just give malky the funds he would spend wisely and get us up to the prem next year without ripping the heart out of our club....this is just one big marketing ploy for the asian market, it's purely money!! and it's a monstrosity, in my opinion!! they may turn my club red but my blood will always run blue!!

Why is changing a Tems Colour selling one's soul ? . You go through Football league history and many Teams have changed their colours from that of their true beginnings; because most of us here are typing in English, we could all be made out to selling our Welsh soul to the English ? . The Club name is the same, the Team will be much the same, sadly the manager will be the same, the stadium much the same all that's really changing is the Colour and a massive investment into the Club for the 1st time in my life , we seem to have a Chairman that wants to spend his money money on our Club.

You need to get a grip , Football is a business now, its all about Money the same is true of almost every Sport these days sadly. And in these days of double dip recessions, credit crunch we should be rather happy that a Club that bottled it for 3 years running , that is in massive debts is set to get a 100 Million quid investment

Spot on Smilebit.

Oh well, if Gareth Rogers says it then that's the end of that........I can see VT ripping up his plans now!

Pretty sure I bleed this red stuff actually