Cardiff City Owners

By Alex Clarke

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Since 2000, we have had a number of controversial owners, all of whom have split the fan base on certain issues.

Sam Hammam took over in 2000 and inherited a £3million debt on a club in Division 3. During his tenure, we rose through the leagues and at the time of his departure, the club were 6 points clear at the top of the Championship.

During this time, Hammam accrued a £24million debt & started to push through plans for an all new stadium, which, in later years, would eventually come to be the CCS we know and love.

Peter Ridsdale took over the club & continued to keep it afloat, whilst finalising Hammam’s work on the new stadium & eventually delivered it. During his time at the club, Ridsdale rose to the heights of FA Cup final appearances and big name signings, to the lows of misleading the fans and several winding up orders over unpaid tax.

Ridsdale spent lots of time looking for outside investment & it came just at the right time. Vincent Tan stepped in and saved the club from a £4million tax bill, days before a high court hearing, which could well have destroyed the club. The Ridsdale era had left the club in £28million of debt.

Prior to investing, I understand Tan had completed due diligence twice & knew of the sorry state of the Cardiff City accounts, as any business man would.

Tan spent one season bankrolling the club, before offering to invest in the club £100million, to clear Langston debt & to secure the long term future of CCFC. He would build a state of the art training ground, clear debt owed to Hammam, transfer his personal debt to equity & invest heavily in the playing squad for a real chance of promotion to the Premier League. The only drawback would be that Tan would enforce his rebrand on the club.

At first, there was outrage. Fans were up in arms. Tan backtracked and said he didn’t wish to cause any offence & that the rebrand would be reversed. Personally, however, I doubt that this was ever going to happen, as the club had to submit colours and kits by April of that year, so the rules of the league state they would have to remain in red anyway.

I think it is fair to say that a big majority of these fans were reluctantly willing to accept the rebrand, after the threat of Tan walking away. Only a handful of supporters actively opposed the rebrand.

As he promised, Tan cleared debt owed to Hammam/Langston in July 2013. Him and Hammam came to an agreement which meant CCFC didn’t have to pay the full amount owed. This was extremely good deal & credit to Tan for brokering it.

Tan then spoke in the press at how he aimed to make the club debt free, as he said in the original rebrand “agreement”. Tan said in the interview that the debt to him at this time was £120million.

Fast forward 11 months and the club have just been relegated from the Premier League after a season of turmoil off the field, where the media have ridiculed the club from every corner. The debt at Cardiff City now stands at approx. £150million & Tan has now changed his thoughts on debt to equity, saying he will only change £50million, despite saying less than 12 months earlier, he aimed to make it totally debt free.

Come August 2014, we will be: –

– Playing in the same league as before the investment.
– A club totally bereft of any traditional identity.
– Totally split as a fan base.
– In more debt than ever before.. Over £100million more in debt prior to Tan’s involvement.
– Will have less fans and ST holders supporting the club.

How are we better off?

Who is responsible?

Discuss this article http://www.cardiffcityforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=142406