Three Trust board members met recently with the club chairman, Mehmet Dalman, and his team. Mehmet was very open about the challenges facing the club and was realistic about the power of a board which was answerable to a single large shareholder who effectively owns the club.
He told us that they are looking for new directors including someone who has football experience and for a director who has an understanding of markets in Asia other than Malaysia. It seems the far east is a real target area for the club.
We told the chairman that the anger over the rebrand is still very much alive and he listened to the arguments that we should wear blue as often as possible when we play away from home. I am not sure if it was as a result of our meeting but it was good to see the team run out in blue at Stoke.
We were particularly pleased that the Trust has been invited to meet the club’s owner and the board to offer them updates at their quarterly meetings. We will also meet separately with the management team on a regular basis. It’s important that the directors of Cardiff City understand what we stand for and that they get to hear about the work we are doing. The Trust can be an asset to the club as well as provide it with a structured means of communicating with fans.