Fans may be aware that Cardiff City FC yesterday issued a statement in the wake of our letter sent to Vincent Tan. The link to the club statement is https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/news/board-response-open-letter
In view of the comments made by the club we have drafted the below statement.
Keith Morgan, chair of Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust, responding to the statement from Cardiff City said “We are very disappointed at the response from the club. We will not flinch from asking sometimes difficult but pertinent questions about the club we love and support.
“To suggest we are a group of self-serving individuals is not only insulting but patently wrong. Many of our board members have been fans of the club for more 50 years and we will continue to support our club long after the current directors have departed.
“Of course, we back supporter representation on the club’s board with a representative democratically elected. That is something recommended by the UK Government’s Fans’-led Review which will be implemented over the next few years. It was made perfectly clear in the review that clubs should no longer pay lip service to its supporters.
“The Trust is proud to have organised the fundraising for the iconic Fred Keenor Statue, surely an example of our love for the club, along with raising thousands of pounds for charity and in recent times organised two foodbank collections, with support from club staff, to help those in food poverty.
“We are always open for dialogue – something we have been crying out for – and we hope the powers that be will engage as we’ve been trying to do so for many months.
This has to be about the future of the club and its relationship with the people that matter most, the fans of this great club.
“The Trust was asked by the club – which we were happy to do –to handle the money donated from the Ukraine collections at the Cardiff City Stadium. The Trust has been liaising with local representatives of Ukrainian charities to target the funds collected at specific initiatives. It begs the question why the club then doesn’t consider us to be a ‘proper’ fans’ group?
“We can also confirm that we have continued to be recognised as a group by Football Supporters’ Association ever since we ceased to be a formal Mutual Society and that we are in the final stages of registration with the Financial Conduct Authority as a formal Community Society. The comment of not meeting the “minimum standards” of FSA membership is therefore just simply untrue.”