Author James Leighton will be signing copies of his book, The Man Who Never Gave Up, at the Cardiff City Stadium Club Shop before the Crystal Palace game on Tuesday, September 28th.
The book has been published by DB Publishing (RRP £16.99).
James will be at the store from 4.30pm until at least 5.30pm.
The Fred Keenor Statue Fund committee will also be represented and are expected to have both pin badges and statues available for sale on the night.
The Ricky Tomlinson fundraiser brought in even more than was originally thought for the Fred Keenor Statue Fund. The club has told us today that it raised a whopping £9,383 which brings the fund’s total in money collected and pledged to £34,733. Thanks for everyone’s support.
FANTASTIC! That’s the word which best sums up the £8,800 raised for the Fred Keenor Statue Fund at the Ricky Tomlinson evening.
Fans, who turned up for what turned out to be a money-spinning night at the Cardiff City Stadium, really dug deep into their pockets to give a huge boost to the appeal.
The centrepiece of the fundraising was the auction hosted by Julian Jenkins but the fund also was boosted by a raffle, a heads and tails game and a donation from every ticket sold. Well over 450 fans turned up at the Cardiff City Stadium.
The biggest single amount raised was £650 for a signed 2008 FA Cup Final shirt with four very special training ground experiences snapped up at £600 a time.
The 2007 framed Cardiff City shirt donated to the appeal committee by Dilwar Ali raised £510, the Wales v Scotland 2004 game given by Beryl Fitzjohn of Cogan brought in £210 and a 2010 Wales v Luxembourg shirt from the Football Association of Wales sold for £170.
Other items sold included Jonathan Owen’s Soccer AM hat-trick ball signed by the Soccer AM cast, a signed Michael Chopra shirt and boots and hospitality at the Crystal Palace game given by the winner of the heads and tails competition. The 1st edition Fred Keenor miniature statue brought in £240.
David Craig, Project Manager and Trust board member, said: “What a great evening – and thanks to everyone that contributed. Your efforts are really appreciated.
“I’d like to pay special tribute to Julian Jenkins who did a great job as auctioneer in persuading people to part with their money, as well as all the staff at Cardiff City who made the evening such a memorable one.
“We are now above £34,000 and we hope The Stand’s I’ll Be There will be another money-spinner so would urge fans to buy a record or download the song or both! With your help we can reach our target to create a tribute to Fred Keenor.” A total of £85,000 needs to be raised before tax.
The fundraising committee and the Trust board has agreed to publish regular bulletins setting out the appeal’s fundraising income and expenditure.
Below is the first breakdown, along with a few points of explanation.
The total amount raised is £25,350 which includes the £6,281 held by the committee, £4,069 by the club and the £15,000 pledged by Cardiff council.
This was prepared before the auction so the total is now £34,150.
FK Statue Fund Account at 13/09/2010
Pledges/donations/income from sales £s
County and City of Cardiff 15 000(pledged)
Cardiff City Supporters Trust 1 000
Bucket collections 3 708
Individual donations 954
Message boards match 1088
Badge sales 900
Figurine sales 619
Total 8269
Payments
Roger Andrews Studios 800(Figurines)
Black Dragon Badges 390
Roger Andrews Studios 798(Figurines)
Total 1 988
Current balance: – £ 6281
Funds held by Cardiff City FC to
enable payments to be made
to Roger Andrews(Sculptor) £s
Income from Deportivo Game 4485
Income from Figurine sales 2240
Total 6725
Payments made towards
£ 8,225 cost of 3’ statue 2056(25%)
maquette
Payments made for figurines(40) 640
Total 2696
Current balance: – £4029
Both the committee and the football club are holding some of the funds. The aim is for the club to place the order for the statue for tax reasons.
In addition, we have had to purchase badges and statues to sell and when all are sold the result will be a sizeable profit for the appeal.
If you have any further questions please contact David Craig on d.craig43@ntlworld.com
The Fred Keenor Statue Appeal Committee is heading up the A470 out of Cardiff to Merthyr Tydfil in a fundraising drive next month.
We’re holding a pub quiz fronted by Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust chair Tim Hartley, Cardiff’s answer to Jeremy Paxman, at the Brunswick Hotel in Church Street, Merthyr, on Thursday, October 7th (7.30pm for 8pm prompt start).
Entry is just £2.50 per person with a maximum of six per team. A raffle is also planned. All are welcome.
Tim is a veteran of hosting pub quizzes and raising money for good causes, particularly Gol, the Welsh football supporters’ charity, which provides aid to the under-privileged.
David Craig, project manager for the Fred Keenor Appeal Fund, said: “We felt it was important to take our fundraising out of Cardiff because there are so many Bluebirds supporters in Merthyr and the rest of the Valleys.
“We are very grateful to Brunswick’s landlord Geraint Handley for making the Brunswick available for a quiz. We hope it will be a great evening – with everyone having a fun time and at the same time raising money for the appeal fund.
“We ask fans to get to the Brunswick well before 8pm to ensure they get a place in the quiz which promises to be extremely popular.”
Donations to the appeal fund can be made through the Co-operative Bank:
Account name: – Fred Keenor Statue Fund or FKSF
Account no 65392368
Sort Code 08-92-99
Cheques can also be sent c/o CCST to PO Box 4254, Cardiff, CF14 8FD. Please add the words “Fred Keenor Appeal” on the top of the envelope.
Information on the appeal is also available from David Craig at d.craig43@ntlworld.com
Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust met City chairman TG (Dato’ Chan Tien Ghee) on Sunday, September 12th, before he headed back to Malaysia following the Hull City game.
Present at the St David’s Hotel meeting was TG, Cardiff City Chief Executive Gethin Jenkins, Tim Hartley, Trust chair and board members Tracey Marsh and Phillip Nifield.
In a friendly, positive question and answer session, TG talked about his hopes for the Bluebirds, revealed that he did not take a penny as chairman and said that Malaysian investment in the club had now reached £11m.
From left: Phil Nifield, Tracey Marsh, TG and Tim Hartley
Here is what TG had to say:
TRUST: How did you become involved in Cardiff City?
TG
My son Nicholas wrote to football clubs in the UK for trials. He got a reply from West Ham United so he did a stint at Upton Park, then he got a reply from Stoke City and a few other clubs. Cardiff City was one.
I wanted to come and visit him when he was doing his stint and I visited him at West Ham where I met Gianfranco Zola and he played a closed match in the West Ham colours at Leyton Orient.
Then Cardiff invited Nicholas down for a trial. I came to Cardiff. This was my second time in the city because when I applied for university, Cardiff was one of my choices. I came to Cardiff Law School to look at it. I always remember that it was a beautiful country but I went to Warwick to read law.
TRUST: You had no thoughts of investing when you came to Cardiff to see your son?
TG
Absolutely none. I remember watching my first game against Preston North End at Ninian Park. My first club contact was Alan Whitely (director) through another Welsh friend of mine. I watched the match and thought, wow! The second match I watched was at the new stadium.
We took a watching brief and I thought there was some basis for investment so I invited Peter Ridsdale and Alan Whitely out to Malaysia for talks. I realised this club needed help so Tan Sri Vincent Tan and I gave a loan of £2m – it is a lot of money to put into a club which we really didn’t understand at the time. For some reason, I felt some connection. I thought ‘let’s help this club’.
Then I saw that the club was heading towards the possibility of the play-offs and I met up with some of the players and Dave Jones. We needed to support this club to see if we could get through. The other alternative would be that the club would have gone down.
We decided to do it and decided to support this club and see how we go at Wembley. All of us were heartbroken but we kept to our word.
We subscribed to the shares five days after Wembley. In fact, a lot of people had thought, ‘Gosh, are we going to pull out’?
TRUST: How does the Bellamy deal work?
GJ
Dave Jones came with a plan. We had two options. If you strip back on the playing side then all your other revenues will also slip away. You won’t get the season tickets, sponsorship etc. The alternative plan is to go for it while trying to get the business back on a sensible footing.
Cash flow is an issue going forward. TG and Vincent Tan have come to the fore. Since the time of John Toshack, Cardiff has always sold its best players and sometimes at the most inopportune times. If we kept the starting 11 from last season and added to it we thought we could genuinely have a team that could compete.
This is a very competitive league. There is a better chance this year given the financial problems faced by two of the teams coming down from the Premiership – Portsmouth and Hull.
We have got fewer players than last year but we have better players and the budget is the same, except for Craig Bellamy, and we are pretty sure the deal will pay for itself.
We would not have sold out our home tickets for Doncaster or Hull if Craig had not come in. We have sold nearly 500 season tickets since Craig came and the replica shirts are selling well.
TG
After the Hull match we had to stop people coming into the shop because there were such queues. I went into the shop, went behind the counter, took off my jacket and started wrapping items for seven minutes before I was told that running the shop was not really my forte!
TRUST: Does Cardiff City register in Malaysia?
TG
Yes, absolutely. Most people there still follow Premiership teams but we want to get there too and I am reserving the tour to Malaysia for the ‘second wave’ of our push for success.
My ultimate aim is to get this team as far as it can get. I would like to get Cardiff to the Premier League and to stay up in the Premier League and then at some stage we’ll begin to think of developing the team and club further to ensure more than just survival in the Premiership, but first our aim is to get up there and to stay there based on a sensible business plan.
We get players we can afford. We were lucky with Craig Bellamy where we were in that window and everything worked out. Ordinarily, when I walked into the shop after the Hull game I remarked that one month ago I could not have imagined shirts in Cardiff colours with Craig Bellamy’s name on them. But I must caution that we are still very much facing an uphill challenge. There are legacy issues and you can’t just extinguish the problems of the last five or six years of history. I find we have to do quite a lot of mending – to get back the confidence of the business community. It’s not just about getting a football team up, it’s about getting your integrity and dignity back. And that’s been a hard part of the job.
TRUST: What about corporate sponsorship and support for the club?
GJ
We have to go out and engage with the city, the council, South Wales, with the public and businesses. When we have shown them we can handle ourselves properly and sensibly then we can ask them to engage with us. We have also got to reach out to bigger companies and, if that’s not in South Wales, we have to expand our horizons. We have moved the business onto a sensible commercial footing, doing the ticketing properly, the shop and the website, and we are giving all these areas of the business attention. We also need to get the venue used more frequently – for example even events like the Ricky Tomlinson night.
TRUST: How long do you expect to be involved in Cardiff City
TG
I hope longer than my stint at the club shop! The guy at the counter was nervous because he knew I was watching him – so I said ‘sack me!’ And he did!
Tan Sri Vincent Tan and I have put in 11 million reasons for sticking around. We see things turning around – that’s for sure. At the end of the day we only have a certain percentage of the company but we do shoulder a lot of responsibility.
We went through the joy of getting to Wembley and the pain after that defeat. We have shared a lot of that and we feel a sense of belonging. Our decisions are based on sound business. We can’t just open a cheque book and sign. Every penny spent and every step moving forward is not taken for lightly. It is like being in the trenches. Every yard forward costs us a lot and we must be aware of what is happening around us.
If fans can see the light and support us in their own way by coming to watch matches or lining up to buy the jerseys and continuing to support the club, which I know they have been doing for a long time, then I can’t see why we can’t get there. But if we are taken for granted, I would be the first to say that it is untenable.
If decisions are made properly, and we move forward positively in terms of its business and serving the community, then I think we will stick around.
Dave Jones is central to our plans. On the other hand so is Gethin Jenkins, so is Doug Lee (finance director). He manages our funds as if they were his own! When Olofinjana scored I think Doug thought, ‘I hope it brings us more revenue’. We need someone like him to make sure that we are not spending silly money on silly things.
I have a manager who is now looking at getting us up there and I don’t want him thinking of anything else but that. Gethin is tackling the problems of the past and I will support him all the way because he is doing the right thing.
TRUST: How much time do you plan to spend in Cardiff?
TG
I would love to spend as much time as possible here but it is not always possible. You know I need to work hard to earning some money. For key matches I’d like to be here. I still haven’t watched Craig Bellamy play.
I bring my wife every time I travel here. She loves Cardiff and Welsh cakes and is getting a supply to take home. As chairman I don’t take a penny from the club. Whenever I come here it is on my personal account. I try to put money back into the club whenever I can. I am not on £100,000, £200,000 or £300,000. I don’t have a wage.
My son Nicholas took a year off to play football and has just finished his A levels. He has offers from UK universities to study. He wants to do environmental sciences but has also applied to Australian universities because he is thinking of perhaps playing football in Melbourne. I don’t know what he will do. I have told him that ‘if you are harbouring a dream of playing for Cardiff you have to make your mark in your own right,’ and he would not expect anything else.
TG said that he would be happy to meet Trust members on his next visit.