Revolution

I am probably one of the last converts to the ‘Ridsdale Out’ brigade. One of my personal traits which I believe to be a strength and weakness is trusting people. I trusted Peter Ridsdale to enhance his damaged reputation by succeeding at Cardiff City. Obviously I don’t have access to explicit facts and can only form opinions based on hearsay via messageboards and newspaper reports. It’s often difficult to decipher the truth. However there is so much smoke, it’s not just likely a fire is burning but the club is almost certainly in meltdown. Now I am firmly in the ‘Ridsdale Out’ brigade.

However, in my job we have a problem solving technique called eight disciplines which I am not going to go into now. The first discipline is defining the problem, when you have defined the problem you have a much better chance of solving it. For example, smoke is coming out of an upstairs window in a house. Is the smoke coming out of the window the problem, yes, ok easy to fix close the window. Solved smoke no longer coming out of the window. Result house burns down. The definition of the problem was house on fire, put fire out, result house saved. Therefore what is the problem at Cardiff City, is it Peter Ridsdale, is it the board, what is it. From what I can see the board have embarked on a business plan, headed by Ridsdale, which cannot succeed without outside investment. A calculated gamble by the decision makers, which will make them all a lot of money. They see the best man to attract this investment as Ridsdale, he has obviously failed and/or failing and I believe now he knows his days are numbered and is cashing his chips in. In my surmising I have come to the conclusion the problem is not solely Ridsdale but a team of chancers and gamblers who are using our club as bait. Yes some will have put money in but they are risking the very existence of our club. Therefore I see the board as being the problem and Ridsdale out would not solve the problem, I think it is board out. I can see a situation where Ridsdale will be made a very wealthy scapegoat to appease the fans but the house will still be burning down.

I now take a quantum leap in what I believe the solution could be. I want our club to always to be there for us. I want us to be competing at our natural level but trading in safety. I want the club to be owned and run by those who invest the most. When I use the word invest, I mean cash, time and emotion. Going back to Ridsdale for a moment, he has invested nothing in this club. He talks about all the hard work he does, well I am sorry I also work very hard and I don’t get paid a quarter what he earns, he gets paid very very well. How many on here would happily work fourteen, fifteen hours a day for half a million pounds a year for Cardiff City. How many people on here would watch Cardiff City for free and stay in Five Star hotels every week for free, how many on here would travel to Malaysia, America, Jersey all expenses paid on wild goose chases. In short everyone. His investment is zero. Our investment in immeasurable. Therefore what I would like to see is the club to be owned by the true investors, us the fans. I know the trust are building and building to get a minority stake at the club and a say on the board. This to me is not enough we need to own the club. Before this can happen there will be some unbearable pain, however this is the same pain we have experienced before, relegation to the bottom tier of the English league. I think we would have to suffer administration, even liquidation. There is enough of us to resurrect Cardiff City, there is enough of us to personally invest (14,000 season ticket holders), there is enough of us to rebuild a club. We should start to prepare and maybe the trust is the starting place.

I have been looking at the Barcelona and Real Madrid models; this is how to run a football club. In my resurrected club, we would have a president voted by its members. This president would sell his manifesto of how the club would be run. Unfortunately back to Ridsdale, if when he became chairman he gave us his business plan who would have voted for him. We need the club run by people who’s only agenda is the success of the club. I am sure there are capable people with a love for Cardiff City who would happily run the club for a quarter of million pounds each year. If they fail they would be simply voted out the next year. We need to mobilize, prepare and be ready to take over. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara had 200 men to overthrow a country with 40,000 armed troops, it can be done. 187 Welsh Fusiliers fought off 5000 Zulus, it can be done. I am not advocating storming the club taking Ridsdale capture, torturing and killing him in one day, I am not advocating bayoneting ever steward that tells you to sit down. Although I am sure there are a few in our membership who would volunteer. I am trying to point out a small emotionally charged group can do anything. We are actually a large emotionally charged group with a love beyond most board members comprehension.

Awesome post dude, agree with every word. Hard to add anything else really.

Bang on fella and welcome to the get PR out group, whilst most people know I was very firmly in Sam's camp, I was more than prepared to give PR the benefit of the doubt when he first came here.

I was also prepared to help out in anyway that I could, but it was quite apparent that what we had built up with the Rams was seen as a threat to him, and we were soon made to feel the cold shoulder, and that was a good move by him, because if we had still been organised, we would have brought things to a head sooner than they are at present.

We have become weak as a group of fans, and they have taken advantage of that, can you imagine this happening 10 years ago without riots and storming the boardroom, they would have needed armed guards down there to keep the peace.

Excellent post

Week In Week Out last Tuesday highlighted that Keith Harris is there to oversee and attract new investment , well so far what / who as he got involved ? I would like to see him justifying his huge salary when what performance level can he show anybody ............and exactly where is / has our money gone ?

And before I get any sarky comments ..............Orville has flown the nest !

I am probably one of the last converts to the ‘Ridsdale Out’ brigade. One of my personal traits which I believe to be a strength and weakness is trusting people. I trusted Peter Ridsdale to enhance his damaged reputation by succeeding at Cardiff City. Obviously I don’t have access to explicit facts and can only form opinions based on hearsay via messageboards and newspaper reports. It’s often difficult to decipher the truth. However there is so much smoke, it’s not just likely a fire is burning but the club is almost certainly in meltdown. Now I am firmly in the ‘Ridsdale Out’ brigade.

However, in my job we have a problem solving technique called eight disciplines which I am not going to go into now. The first discipline is defining the problem, when you have defined the problem you have a much better chance of solving it. For example, smoke is coming out of an upstairs window in a house. Is the smoke coming out of the window the problem, yes, ok easy to fix close the window. Solved smoke no longer coming out of the window. Result house burns down. The definition of the problem was house on fire, put fire out, result house saved. Therefore what is the problem at Cardiff City, is it Peter Ridsdale, is it the board, what is it. From what I can see the board have embarked on a business plan, headed by Ridsdale, which cannot succeed without outside investment. A calculated gamble by the decision makers, which will make them all a lot of money. They see the best man to attract this investment as Ridsdale, he has obviously failed and/or failing and I believe now he knows his days are numbered and is cashing his chips in. In my surmising I have come to the conclusion the problem is not solely Ridsdale but a team of chancers and gamblers who are using our club as bait. Yes some will have put money in but they are risking the very existence of our club. Therefore I see the board as being the problem and Ridsdale out would not solve the problem, I think it is board out. I can see a situation where Ridsdale will be made a very wealthy scapegoat to appease the fans but the house will still be burning down.

I now take a quantum leap in what I believe the solution could be. I want our club to always to be there for us. I want us to be competing at our natural level but trading in safety. I want the club to be owned and run by those who invest the most. When I use the word invest, I mean cash, time and emotion. Going back to Ridsdale for a moment, he has invested nothing in this club. He talks about all the hard work he does, well I am sorry I also work very hard and I don’t get paid a quarter what he earns, he gets paid very very well. How many on here would happily work fourteen, fifteen hours a day for half a million pounds a year for Cardiff City. How many people on here would watch Cardiff City for free and stay in Five Star hotels every week for free, how many on here would travel to Malaysia, America, Jersey all expenses paid on wild goose chases. In short everyone. His investment is zero. Our investment in immeasurable. Therefore what I would like to see is the club to be owned by the true investors, us the fans. I know the trust are building and building to get a minority stake at the club and a say on the board. This to me is not enough we need to own the club. Before this can happen there will be some unbearable pain, however this is the same pain we have experienced before, relegation to the bottom tier of the English league. I think we would have to suffer administration, even liquidation. There is enough of us to resurrect Cardiff City, there is enough of us to personally invest (14,000 season ticket holders), there is enough of us to rebuild a club. We should start to prepare and maybe the trust is the starting place.

I have been looking at the Barcelona and Real Madrid models; this is how to run a football club. In my resurrected club, we would have a president voted by its members. This president would sell his manifesto of how the club would be run. Unfortunately back to Ridsdale, if when he became chairman he gave us his business plan who would have voted for him. We need the club run by people who’s only agenda is the success of the club. I am sure there are capable people with a love for Cardiff City who would happily run the club for a quarter of million pounds each year. If they fail they would be simply voted out the next year. We need to mobilize, prepare and be ready to take over. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara had 200 men to overthrow a country with 40,000 armed troops, it can be done. 187 Welsh Fusiliers fought off 5000 Zulus, it can be done. I am not advocating storming the club taking Ridsdale capture, torturing and killing him in one day, I am not advocating bayoneting ever steward that tells you to sit down. Although I am sure there are a few in our membership who would volunteer. I am trying to point out a small emotionally charged group can do anything. We are actually a large emotionally charged group with a love beyond most board members comprehension.

great post that mate

Thank you for the find words....... my goal is not just sharing an observation but hopefully stimulate an awareness of what needs to be done..... therefore I support all demonstrations for change, because without change the club looks like it will die. By the time of the EGM we must see a plan that moves us forward and not pacifies us......... We must become a threat to them not a laughing stock.......

That's been the problem, too much talk, no action. I fear whatever we do here on in will be too little, far too late.

Remember every revolution started as a single thought in one man's mind

Another poster Uccello Azzurro did a similar great post about 6 weeks ago citing Benfica as an example of supporter owned football clubs.

Personally I love the idea that we pay a £10 p/m membership fee which goes to buying and then running of the club. The membership scheme would be open to all and in the case of Benfica they had 4 times as many members than actual fans who turned up at the stadium each week.

15,000 season ticket holders paying £10 p/m would raise £1.8m in the first year. By year 2 in theory we would have enough cash to buy between 20-30% of the club.

It is a great idea and I wish it would it could be taken seriously by the Trust and Supporters Club.

Great post & certainly food for thought.