" Nearly 13 years now since City were last Relegated/But "
Sun Apr 14, 2013 3:47 pm
" THE GOOD TIMES ARE HERE,BUT IT HASN'T ALWAYS BEEN THE CASE "
City fans had suffered for decades before the year 2000, there was little or no investment in the club, the football had been dire, the crowds were low and there was very little to cheer about. Shattered Dreams was written to put down on paper what the fans were feeling and this book is a good documentation of what life as a Cardiff fan was like before we started spending money on players and our journey back up the league's and through to the FA Cup Final in 2008, it hasn't always been like these past 10 years or so, this is the first chapter in the book.
What a great read this will be for any City fan to realise how far our club has come and read what really happens behind the scenes of our great football club.
Hardback Also includes plenty of photos.
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" SHATTERED DREAMS "
' Chapter 1. '
No Future
As you will read in this book, I have probably written again and again about too many chairmen who have promised the City fans a future, a new five year plan, no more players to be sold, a new stadium and once again stick with us because this club is now moving forward. Excuse my language but they were all talking “utter bollocks” and I, like many other loyal Cardiff City fans, were taken in by all this, time and time again. We, as fans, as usual always stuck by them, listened, were patient, paid our money and followed our team from one end of the country to the other because we all had one thing in common; we love Cardiff City and love is blind or so they say.
The three seasons before Sam Hammam arrived, the fans had started to finally stand up and be counted. They believed and I believed that the club wasn’t in very good hands. There was no money and our club was now, for the second time in four years, in its lowest ever position in the football league. On Saturday May 2nd 1998, Cardiff City ended up fourth from the bottom of the football league and to make matters worse only one proper director out of seven could be bothered to turn up and that was Mr Steve Borley, the only Director who cared but didn’t have enough power to change the way things were. But, while Steve Borley was on the board, the rest of them thought the fans would just keep quiet. They thought wrong as hundreds of Cardiff fans invaded the pitch after the last game of the season against Darlington. At the end of the game, the fans raced towards the players’ tunnel, some trying to burst through the stewards, others demanding the head of the chairman, Samesh Kumar, and, in the main part of the grandstand, hundreds chanted “Kumar out”. This went on for over half an hour. The fans frustration was totally understandable. They had paid good money to watch rubbish for much of the campaign. Their loyalty to the club remaining fierce, their eyes almost disbelieving at events which had unfolded over the last nine months and all our so called chairman could say in his programme notes, was that our position was due to bad luck. What planet was he on?
The problem was that this current board had totally failed but they seemed quite happy to remain at the club. At the same time, the media kept talking about David Sullivan, the Birmingham City multi-millionaire director who was born in Penarth and had always said that one day he would like to end up taking control of his boyhood team, Cardiff City. This was making us the fans even more frustrated. On the 8th May 1998, the board agreed to meet a group of City fans. Seventeen fans including myself went down to Ninian Park and into the boardroom. Once again, Samesh Kumar couldn’t make it so Paul Guy, the Vice chairman, met us but as he had only been on the board for a year, Guy was unable to answer most questions. He managed to calm down the situation by telling us that the fans were going to be given an opportunity to become financially involved and that the shares at £1 each would be made available and all the money would be given to the manager, Frank Burrows, for team strengthening. We asked how many shares and Guy said half a million. We also established that there was no need for a hasty move to a new ground at the bay because the club still had a 44 year lease on Ninian Park at a nominal rental. The board promised to compensate existing shareholders and, for the dire season the fans had just endured, there would be concessionary prices for the next season and that they would consider reintroducing a sliding scale for entrance charges depending on our league positions. This had been operated very successfully by one of our previous chairman, Rick Wright. Yes, once again we went away believing things might get better but knowing deep down in our hearts that many of our questions were still unanswered.
I went home and told my parents about the chance to buy shares. My father and I had a successful company and, at the time, were looking to invest in a new business. My heart was ruling my head and I started to talk my father into investing. We talked and talked and both came up with an offer that we thought was totally fair. We agreed that we would offer exactly the same as Celtic Leisure whose directors were Paul Guy - the Cardiff City Vice Chairman, David Temme - a Director of Cardiff City and Bob Phillips. They had all paid fifty pence each for their existing shares. We found out that 580,000 un-issued shares were available so my father and I faxed the current Cardiff City Financial Controller, Sean Murphy. I was doing it more for the love of my club but my father was doing it for business reasons only.
A week went by and our company’s offer was turned down. Around about the same time, Director Steve Borley stated that the City board had no intentions of selling the Bluebirds to multi-millionaire David Sullivan or anyone else interested in a takeover. So the current board were going to do it alone.
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Cardiff City supporters now had a summer of wondering whether we would even have a football club next season. The Cardiff fans I know, live, sleep, work and breathe Cardiff City. All their money, holidays, free time whatever you want to call it goes into following our club but, unless you are a devoted football fan, you probably won’t understand what it means to us when our club loses week after week and when people in charge of your club constantly give you false hope and then sell your best home-grown players such as the likes of Toshack, the Bennett Brothers, Blake, Delaney, Howarth and another fifty I could mention through the years. It hurts you so much. Some fans show it in different ways; some demonstrate; some drown their sorrows in the pub and others just go home and moan to the wife, kick the dog or the mother in law until the next game.
Over the years, my family and our company have helped Cardiff City through sponsorship for players and some of the managers. We usually aimed at the local Welsh players who I always felt were the future of the club because they generally cared more for the club and, as fans and kids, had stood on those terraces. So therefore, they had been through some of the up and down experiences like us. Scott Young, Lee Phillips, Christian Roberts, Lee Jarmen, Andy Legg and Dai Thomas were just a few of the names we sponsored. We even sponsored matches, the match ball and Scott Young’s car for a season. Cardiff was finding it hard through the 1990’s to get businesses to back them. Sometimes they struggled so badly that some players never even had sponsorship at all and the team shirt also struggled to get sponsors. In the summer of 1998, Joan Hill who was the chief executive at the time rang me and asked if we would be interested in sponsoring the shirts for the season 1998-99, I asked how much and she said £25,000. I said I would speak to my family and then get back to her. Joan had said they were struggling to get a sponsor and the season was virtually upon us so she needed one urgently. I can tell you how times have changed. The sponsors in 2008 now pay approximately £250,000, ten times the amount then. I went and told my parents and they thought about it for 48 hours after which I rang Joan and told her the good news that we would. She asked me to fax it to her so she could show the board. A few days went by and I never heard from her again so I rang her and she said they had had another offer. I said OK but you know we were going to pay the money up front and not in instalments like some of the past sponsors. Joan’s reply to that was it had been taken out of her hands. I thought about this conversation and thought that we had been used and taken for fools. I did some digging and was told from a reliable source that Sports Café had been given the sponsorship and for only £15,000 and in three instalments. I was gob smacked.
Now I knew Paul Guy and Bob Phillips had something to do with the Sports Café and were also directors of the club at the same time so I thought, “There you go, that explains itself”. Later on towards the end of the season, I was told that the final instalment was never paid. Whether that was true or not I will probably never know. The Sports Café never did well and it soon closed down. Once again, I felt the current board were determined to never let me come on board but I can always say that I tried to help when the club was going through its most difficult years.
Well, the next season came around fast and the Sunday Express newspaper had even tipped City to plunge into non-league soccer. The good news was that Frank Burrows the manager, supposedly told chairman Samesh Kumar to stay out of team matters. Burrows had heard rumours that under the last manager’s reign Kumar had too much say in the team’s selection. Burrows and Bill Ayres, City’s assistant manager, stated “There would be no excuses this season”. The fans began to feel that at last we had a manager that didn’t bullshit and would take no nonsense so maybe we could get out of the dungeons (Fourth Division) that season. We then signed Caerphilly-born Dai Thomas from Watford for £50,000. The previous season we couldn’t afford to buy Barry Town goalkeeper Mark Ovendale, for a nominal fee so maybe things were starting to look a little brighter. We went to Shrewsbury Town on Friday night, the 21st of August 1998 and came away with a magnificent win. 3-0 and Dai Thomas scored on his debut. Even the newspapers were praising the fans on how much they were backing the club. Dai celebrated that win by taking his top off and running over to the ecstatic City fans. This just showed how much hunger the Cardiff City Fans had to see City do well. If a win on a Friday night at Shrewsbury Town sent them ecstatic then what would happen if we were playing and beating premiership clubs every week?
By October 10th 1998, we were top of the league and Frank Burrows then asked the club for money to go into the transfer market and strengthen his squad. It never happened and players like Matt Brazier were sent back to Fulham which then caused shareholders and directors to start arguing in public with some saying that money was available and others saying that it wasn’t. Samesh Kumar then turned down an offer from David Sullivan to take control of the club and we, the fans, could not understand this as the current board could not afford to take the club forward or buy quality players. Then the newspapers were saying that the other directors were having secret talks with David Sullivan behind Samesh Kumar’s back. It had already been reported that Sullivan had had a one and a half million pound takeover bid for the club turned down; it was an offer that thousands of us fans believed that the club could have accepted and should not have turned down.
We, the fans, were getting so frustrated. To say we were pissed off would be an understatement but we just kept cheering our team on. We even went to Carlisle on a Saturday only to find the match being called off half an hour before kick-off due to the heavy rain and then returned there on a Wednesday night in December but the journey was well worth it when Cardiff won 1-0 and we went to the top spot again. The Echo the following day said on a cold wet night at Brunton Park, Cardiff City went top of the table for the second time this season to the booming sound of 100 Welsh voices singing “Frankie Burrows Barmy Army”. We sang it time and time again, like a scratched record. At the end of the scrappy game, the players strode across the pitch to thank their loyal fans. This was a night for celebration.
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The fans started to see a bit of success and suddenly we were taking nearly five thousand fans to Brentford on a Monday. Surely someone like David Sullivan should finally be allowed to take control of the club. But, once again, it all went quiet on the proposed takeover deal. At this moment in time, the current board weren’t getting any flack and were being left alone. As we were top of the “dungeon league” and just that little bit of success was keeping the City faithful happy. Then suddenly out of the blue in March 1999, Mark Delaney another Welsh born talented player was sold to Aston Villa for £500,000. How could they do this to us? The crowds at home games were up from 4,000 to 11,000. We then heard that the board had turned down David Sullivan’s money. The next home game saw 30 loyal but angry supporters storm the boardroom and demanded answers. When it calmed down a little, it was agreed that, if we delegated six fans as spokespersons, the board and Samesh Kumar would meet us around the table. The date was set for Wednesday March 18th 1999. Here we go again I thought, as myself, Kevin Murphy known as Big Sam from the Valleys Independent Supporters Club, Alistair a supporter from Barry, Simon Williams an Ex-Director and season ticket holder for more than 30 years, John Simmons known as Simmo and Will Dixon another ex-boardroom member and passionate Cardiff City Fan, met up on the night at the Ninian Park Pub and decided who and what questions would be asked. We went to the boardroom at Ninian Park where we were met by Paul Guy, Steve Borley, Kim Walker, Mike Price and Phillip Jardine. As I looked around the room, I thought to myself “Yet again, no sign of Samesh Kumar and they probably won’t be able to answer everything we were about to ask”. But no. Low and behold, in walked Samesh Kumar who apologised for being late as he had been in a meeting with Frank Burrows. We wanted to be assured about the future and that the Directors would pledge that there would be money available for Burrows to strengthen his squad should he need to and before the transfer deadline and that there would be more cash next season to give fresh impetus to the new campaign.
Paul Guy said “We will back Frank Burrows in every way we can and he makes all the decisions on the football front - we have never said no to any player he’s requested, the board has said no, not once” Then they outlined the background to the signing of Andy Legg. Steve Borley then pointed out that Burrows had been at a board meeting and then asked if he could introduce someone and in walked Andy Legg. “That shows,” said Borley “that we are willing to back Frank Burrows”.
They then said to us that there were nine directors at the club and that they all agreed they wanted to take the club forward and had big plans for the Bluebirds in the future and that over the next few years, things, including major ground improvements, a new training ground with three pitches, offices and changing facilities and of course the centenary season celebrations, were all in the pipeline. Now let me remind you all who are reading this book that this was said on March 18th 1999. They then said to us, “Look, we are joint top of the Division. Let’s all work together for the rest of the season so we can get promoted”. We all agreed on that but I don’t think many of us supporters believed anything else. In the end and in a nutshell, Yes, we did get promotion. However, a few weeks later Samesh Kumar resigned as chairman but remained as a director with the biggest share holdings of 37%. So yet again the fans would have to wait and see if yet another chairman could keep his promises.
So on the 11th May 1999 we had another new chairman, namely Steve Borley. This time it felt a bit different as we all knew Steve was as passionate as us about the club. He had been a Bluebird since he was a kid. Yes, we would all be behind him but the big question at the back of my mind which I made public to him and the newspapers when asked what I thought of him was “Yes I’m glad to see Steve Borley as chairman because he loves the club and Kumar never really had an affinity with Cardiff City but the reality was that Borley didn’t have the money that we need. Frank Burrows may not have spent much this season but he was going to need a lot more in the Second Division. It’s a catch-22 situation. We wanted local people involved but we also need someone with more money”.
Deep down many of the supporters felt Borley was a smoke screen because the rest of the board knew we the fans had a lot of time and respect for him so it meant that if things went wrong or tits up then we would probably not make our voices heard so much. I did say to Steve Borley that I felt as long as the rest of the usual suspects were on board then I couldn’t see us doing well and things not being any different. Fair play to the man, he was willing to give it a go and had put some of his own money into the club.
Steve Borley was being described as a fans chairman in the local newspapers. Borley was quoted on the 7th August 1999 as saying, “All I’m trying to do is move the club forward and bring in more investors to make the club stronger. If I do nothing more than rekindle interest in Cardiff City, I’ll be pleased and, if someone else comes along and is able to improve on what I have been trying to achieve, then fine, I’ll be the first to say good luck, carry on and see what happens and I’ll continue to be a loyal supporter in every way that I can”.
The season started quite well and we played some good football with Andy Legg, Jason Bowen, Scott Young, Jeff Eckhardt and Kevin Nugent, etc... all playing well. But as the season went on, the team started to struggle and could not score goals.
The crowds went from 10,000 to 5,000 and the board once again had or wouldn’t spend any money on the team. This time, there were no demonstrations or angry scenes. The fans were all very patient and behind Steve Borley who and I will say again, was I believe used as a smoke screen by the rest of the board - that’s why he was made chairman. I started to think about all of the promises that they had made and they were even daft enough to say that by Christmas 1999 they would guarantee that we would be in at least 8th position in the Second Division. Even then I said you could not guarantee such a thing but they repeated their ludicrous guarantee. Were we as daft to believe them? The simple answer was no. We carried on wanting and hoping it would come true.
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The club continued to slide down the table and Steve Borley was now the one who had to answer all the questions raised by the fans and even he had given promises that were now hard to keep. Borley was not the majority shareholder. Some fans started to see that it was Samesh Kumar pulling all the strings behind the scenes. Steve Borley they said was no more then a puppet. He even started to take stick from me but to his credit, he took it on the chin and kept on fighting in his own way to try and keep the club going. All I and other loyal fans were trying to do was to show Steve Borley that we thought that some on the board were using him; maybe myself and others went about it the wrong way. I’ve had quite a few one-to- one chats with Steve over the years and the one thing I will always say about him is that he had Cardiff City at heart. Maybe he was just a little bit naive. He was always good for a bit of banter and always gave as good as he received. I really believe that if Steve had not been on the board during those tough years then half the support we had left would have finally just given up watching City and the other half would have all have probably been banned for what the authorities would have called over the top demonstrations.
Steve Borley tried his best, dug deep into his pockets and made money available for Frank Burrows. One of Burrows signings was a player called Schwinkendorf. To this day, there are a lot of questions not answered concerning this signing. There were big rumours that the signing of Schwinkendorf aroused a rift between Steve Borley and Frank Burrows. Many things have been said including that Frank took a backhander but nothing was ever proved and so it remains a rumour. I believe that after this signing the relationship between Borley and Burrows went steadily downhill. Schwinkendorf on the other hand did prove to be one of Cardiff City’s worst ever signings. So make of that what you will?
Steve Borley did try later on to get David Sullivan on board after he had previously said he did not want him at the club. Now things were getting desperate. Steve turned to David Sullivan’s brother Clive. This seemed more realistic as David Sullivan could not have taken control of Cardiff City unless he had relinquished most of his shares in Birmingham City. Christmas 1999, Steve Borley even went as far as parading Clive Sullivan around the pitch as the new saviour. Within weeks, the whole episode turned around and suddenly the whole thing was off with no real explanation to the fans. We believe that the others members of the board had blocked it and so yet again another false dawn for the Cardiff City fans.
The results were getting worse and in Frank Burrows last 46 league matches, there were only 9 wins with just 4 coming at Ninian Park in the last 12 months. Yes you guessed it, Burrows was on his way out of Ninian Park and it was said it was by mutual consent. The majority of the fans felt he was sacked and yes, by the results, most poor managers should have been but it was only eight months ago that Steve Borley had gone public and said “My first job as chairman is to extend Frank Burrows contract as he is the most important man at this club”. My questions were, was Frank Burrows to blame or did he not get the support from the board? Maybe he left of his own accord and maybe he felt that the board weren’t backing him. My opinion is the latter and maybe because I was a big Frank Burrows fan that I totally had no confidence in the current board.
I bumped into Borley on quite a few occasions and we were able to have some long decent chats about the current state of the club and hopefully the future of the club. I mentioned that my family’s company would be interested in investing, Steve said, “Put it in writing and I will give it to the board to consider”. The offer was made on the 9th March 2000 and these were the conditions ...
1:- The shares to be bought at 50p each 2:- The money had to all go on players 3:- Eventually a say on the board 4:- Myself not to be liable for anything that may have occurred before my company’s money was invested.
I had a response sent on the 14th March 2000 telling me that virtually everything in my offer was unacceptable and that they were having another meeting on the same day as I had received this letter. The whole thing did not make any sense. They also wanted a response by the 14th March. What? Clear? I wasn’t and sent another letter stating I would be sticking to my offer and what happened to our meeting but that was the end of the matter. I wonder if I will ever know if Steve Borley was blocking me all the time. He was also on the board in 1998 when the same thing had happened to me. Did the board have something to hide as no one else seemed to be able to join and people with a lot more money than me were being turned away? What did shock me though was they were not even willing to even meet me to discuss the matter and it was just turned down flat. I believe we should have met as you can always negotiate things. Realistically, I believe I had been a thorn in the board’s side all along and too much of an outspoken critic and that was because I cared and was passionate and maybe because my face didn’t fit. Then again, did Clive Sullivan’s face fit? I also think that the final decision was not down to Steve Borley. So on went the miserable season and yet again City was staring relegation in the face.
They did eventually buy a player called Kurt Nogan who I had previously said I was interested in helping to buy. Any player that the manager felt would help us to stay up, I would have tried to help sign. The signing of Nogan showed that pressure from the fans and myself maybe forced them into the transfer market; we will never know. By now, I believe the rot had set in far too deep into Ninian Park and things on and off the pitch were going downhill so fast that even David Sullivan could not have saved the season.
So on Tuesday night May 2nd 2000, nearly 600 diehard City fans including me travelled the long journey to Kent. We knew that if we lost tonight, we were relegated. We all went there believing that maybe we could pull off something. Yes, I probably went over the top as I took a banner saying “Borley out” - not because I disliked him but because I believed, and still to this day believe, that there were other members of the board that put Borley on top of the throne knowing we would back off while our beloved club was being drained, ruined or whatever .The point was we had seen our beloved club sink deeper into trouble and to me and many others we had to blame someone and Steve Borley had taken the reins, so in the end the person at the top takes the blame and we wanted him to see we thought he was being used. The match began. Minutes after kick-off Cardiff took the lead with a fine strike from Jason Bowen. The Cardiff supporters leapt around in ecstasy as the goal offered a glimmer of a lifeline to the Bluebird’s troubled season. It was soon 1-1. Then Andy Legg was sent off and from that minute it was all downhill. By their third goal, we were all talking about Halifax here we come and then Gillingham’s forth goal just compounded the Cardiff fans misery. But despite taunts from the Gillingham fans, Cardiff fans kept their humour (I don’t know how we did though) and we chanted back, “You might as well go home as we are going to win 5-4”. With only minutes of the game remaining, we shocked the Gillingham fans with a chant, “We’re going down in a minute” and yes, within minutes, the final nail was in our coffin. We were down and totally buried.
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We all headed back to the nearest pub to the ground and gathered there were some reporters. They were asking what we thought and how we felt? Also in some of the local papers the headlines were, “City are back on the road to nowhere”.
On Saturday May 16th after watching City’s last home league game with Bristol Rovers, I went to the player of the year event at the Sports Café down at Cardiff Bay. There was a very poor turnout from the City fans but who could blame them?
Later on that evening, I sat and chatted with Steve Borley for about two hours. We got on well and agreed on many things. I could see he was passionate about our club but I still had this belief that he wasn’t in control down there as many of our shared views never materialised. What a Centenary Season that was; one we will never forget but for all the wrong reasons. Well, the 2000-2001 season would be around within a couple of months. Just maybe, a saviour could be found and if so, we had to hope the board would let him or her take total control. But one thing was sure, we couldn’t continue as we were. The club felt dead.
It was the beginning of June 2000 and due to our club having another poor season and the fans having lost trust in the owners of the club, the fans had started to stand up for themselves. You already had Cardiff City Supporters Club whose numbers were well over 1,000 strong lead by Tony Jeffries and Vince Alm and other members. You had the Valley Independent Supporters lead by Kevin Murphy (Big Sam) and now we had Bluebirds 2000 who were growing stronger day by day.
Bluebirds 2000 were formed towards the end of February 2000 by Julian Jenkins and Steve Day. Julian Jenkins himself was an ex-professional footballer who started with Cardiff City and then went on to our local rivals Swansea. He finished his career at Bradford City with an injury but he had always remained a big City fan. Steve Day who was a wealthy businessman who sold pine furniture, had over the years helped out the club with sponsorship and advertising. Their plan was to try and raise money along with other City fans and then try and buy some shares. They believed they had to try and buy enough shares to dilute Samesh Kumar’s shares from 33% to 28%. This would then reduce his power and hopefully enable someone new to come onboard that over the last couple of seasons had been blocked. Bluebirds 2000 had also contributed to the signing of Kurt Nogan.
From March 2000 to June 2000, Bluebirds 2000 had raised over £120,000 and were able to buy shares. Steve Borley had helped them along. What I couldn’t understand was why Samesh Kumar wasn’t trying to stop it. Maybe he had finally given up. The rumour was that the board were now totally divided and Steve Borley had had enough. Steve even gave his blessing to the formation of Bluebirds 2000. Borley and Steve Day were friends and this probably also helped spur on Bluebirds 2000.
Then I was totally confused and shocked when David Temme announced the new ticket prices for the 2000- 2001 season. I had a good chat with Borley at the ‘Player of the Year’ supporters’ night. As I understood it, the board were supposedly going to work alongside the supporters on future things so the announcement of the new prices caused uproar and all the supporters clubs joined forces on this one. Cardiff City supporters told the media that the board were out of touch with the common fan. That’s not how Borley had portrayed himself to me. He seemed to only want to work with the fans. Maybe he was totally outvoted on this, only the board could answer that.
Tony Jeffries of the Cardiff City Supporter’s Club spoke out and said that, “For pity’s sake, we’ve just been relegated. It’s a bit thin when you have to pay £12 for a junior considering all the take of a family club.” The 1,000 plus members of CCSC held their Annual Meeting on June 12th and Tony Jeffries urged all members to attend so that they could help give guidance to the committee on how to tackle this atrocious hike in prices. Bluebirds 2000 and the Independent Valley Supporters were also behind Tony Jeffries and Vince Alm of the CCSC. I also stated to the local media, that “City have failed to show faith with their loyal fans. Steve Borley promised at the ‘Player of the Year’ evening that he would look after the present season ticket holders but he had unsurprisingly given us nothing back. I was hurt by that, he had given us nothing” So fans agreed we had done enough talking and now it was time to put our words into action. We had heard that there was a new person interested in taking over the club and for a while now his name had been mentioned but not really as a serious contender. The fans were hearing again on the grapevine that certain directors were trying once again to block anything to do with this person. So as the weeks went by, all of the heads of the Supporters Clubs rallied behind Steve Day and Julian Jenkins of Bluebirds 2000 and agreed to march from the Landsdown Pub to Ninian Park. Roger who was the landlord of the Landsdown Pub was a Cardiff City fan. His pub was covered in Cardiff City memorabilia and I always enjoyed a good chat with Roger. Usually it was only about the dark side of our club because it was all we knew.
Roger agreed on his pub being the meeting point. Steve Day and Julian Jenkins managed to get Sky TV and the Welsh Media to turn up. The fans were totally united that this board had to go. We all turned up and, whilst I was standing next to Steve Day, his mobile rang. It was Sam Hammam ringing from New York. He asked Steve to call the demonstration off for Sam himself was saying that if the club was willing to negotiate then let’s try it that way. So the fans had started to fight back and were finally making this board of directors see sense.
I don’t think there was a Cardiff City fan alive who now believed there was a future for Cardiff City under the current board.
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City fans had suffered for decades before the year 2000, there was little or no investment in the club, the football had been dire, the crowds were low and there was very little to cheer about. Shattered Dreams was written to put down on paper what the fans were feeling and this book is a good documentation of what life as a Cardiff fan was like before we started spending money on players and our journey back up the league's and through to the FA Cup Final in 2008, it hasn't always been like these past 10 years or so, this is the first chapter in the book.
What a great read this will be for any City fan to realise how far our club has come and read what really happens behind the scenes of our great football club.
Hardback Also includes plenty of photos.
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" SHATTERED DREAMS "
' Chapter 1. '
No Future
As you will read in this book, I have probably written again and again about too many chairmen who have promised the City fans a future, a new five year plan, no more players to be sold, a new stadium and once again stick with us because this club is now moving forward. Excuse my language but they were all talking “utter bollocks” and I, like many other loyal Cardiff City fans, were taken in by all this, time and time again. We, as fans, as usual always stuck by them, listened, were patient, paid our money and followed our team from one end of the country to the other because we all had one thing in common; we love Cardiff City and love is blind or so they say.
The three seasons before Sam Hammam arrived, the fans had started to finally stand up and be counted. They believed and I believed that the club wasn’t in very good hands. There was no money and our club was now, for the second time in four years, in its lowest ever position in the football league. On Saturday May 2nd 1998, Cardiff City ended up fourth from the bottom of the football league and to make matters worse only one proper director out of seven could be bothered to turn up and that was Mr Steve Borley, the only Director who cared but didn’t have enough power to change the way things were. But, while Steve Borley was on the board, the rest of them thought the fans would just keep quiet. They thought wrong as hundreds of Cardiff fans invaded the pitch after the last game of the season against Darlington. At the end of the game, the fans raced towards the players’ tunnel, some trying to burst through the stewards, others demanding the head of the chairman, Samesh Kumar, and, in the main part of the grandstand, hundreds chanted “Kumar out”. This went on for over half an hour. The fans frustration was totally understandable. They had paid good money to watch rubbish for much of the campaign. Their loyalty to the club remaining fierce, their eyes almost disbelieving at events which had unfolded over the last nine months and all our so called chairman could say in his programme notes, was that our position was due to bad luck. What planet was he on?
The problem was that this current board had totally failed but they seemed quite happy to remain at the club. At the same time, the media kept talking about David Sullivan, the Birmingham City multi-millionaire director who was born in Penarth and had always said that one day he would like to end up taking control of his boyhood team, Cardiff City. This was making us the fans even more frustrated. On the 8th May 1998, the board agreed to meet a group of City fans. Seventeen fans including myself went down to Ninian Park and into the boardroom. Once again, Samesh Kumar couldn’t make it so Paul Guy, the Vice chairman, met us but as he had only been on the board for a year, Guy was unable to answer most questions. He managed to calm down the situation by telling us that the fans were going to be given an opportunity to become financially involved and that the shares at £1 each would be made available and all the money would be given to the manager, Frank Burrows, for team strengthening. We asked how many shares and Guy said half a million. We also established that there was no need for a hasty move to a new ground at the bay because the club still had a 44 year lease on Ninian Park at a nominal rental. The board promised to compensate existing shareholders and, for the dire season the fans had just endured, there would be concessionary prices for the next season and that they would consider reintroducing a sliding scale for entrance charges depending on our league positions. This had been operated very successfully by one of our previous chairman, Rick Wright. Yes, once again we went away believing things might get better but knowing deep down in our hearts that many of our questions were still unanswered.
I went home and told my parents about the chance to buy shares. My father and I had a successful company and, at the time, were looking to invest in a new business. My heart was ruling my head and I started to talk my father into investing. We talked and talked and both came up with an offer that we thought was totally fair. We agreed that we would offer exactly the same as Celtic Leisure whose directors were Paul Guy - the Cardiff City Vice Chairman, David Temme - a Director of Cardiff City and Bob Phillips. They had all paid fifty pence each for their existing shares. We found out that 580,000 un-issued shares were available so my father and I faxed the current Cardiff City Financial Controller, Sean Murphy. I was doing it more for the love of my club but my father was doing it for business reasons only.
A week went by and our company’s offer was turned down. Around about the same time, Director Steve Borley stated that the City board had no intentions of selling the Bluebirds to multi-millionaire David Sullivan or anyone else interested in a takeover. So the current board were going to do it alone.
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Cardiff City supporters now had a summer of wondering whether we would even have a football club next season. The Cardiff fans I know, live, sleep, work and breathe Cardiff City. All their money, holidays, free time whatever you want to call it goes into following our club but, unless you are a devoted football fan, you probably won’t understand what it means to us when our club loses week after week and when people in charge of your club constantly give you false hope and then sell your best home-grown players such as the likes of Toshack, the Bennett Brothers, Blake, Delaney, Howarth and another fifty I could mention through the years. It hurts you so much. Some fans show it in different ways; some demonstrate; some drown their sorrows in the pub and others just go home and moan to the wife, kick the dog or the mother in law until the next game.
Over the years, my family and our company have helped Cardiff City through sponsorship for players and some of the managers. We usually aimed at the local Welsh players who I always felt were the future of the club because they generally cared more for the club and, as fans and kids, had stood on those terraces. So therefore, they had been through some of the up and down experiences like us. Scott Young, Lee Phillips, Christian Roberts, Lee Jarmen, Andy Legg and Dai Thomas were just a few of the names we sponsored. We even sponsored matches, the match ball and Scott Young’s car for a season. Cardiff was finding it hard through the 1990’s to get businesses to back them. Sometimes they struggled so badly that some players never even had sponsorship at all and the team shirt also struggled to get sponsors. In the summer of 1998, Joan Hill who was the chief executive at the time rang me and asked if we would be interested in sponsoring the shirts for the season 1998-99, I asked how much and she said £25,000. I said I would speak to my family and then get back to her. Joan had said they were struggling to get a sponsor and the season was virtually upon us so she needed one urgently. I can tell you how times have changed. The sponsors in 2008 now pay approximately £250,000, ten times the amount then. I went and told my parents and they thought about it for 48 hours after which I rang Joan and told her the good news that we would. She asked me to fax it to her so she could show the board. A few days went by and I never heard from her again so I rang her and she said they had had another offer. I said OK but you know we were going to pay the money up front and not in instalments like some of the past sponsors. Joan’s reply to that was it had been taken out of her hands. I thought about this conversation and thought that we had been used and taken for fools. I did some digging and was told from a reliable source that Sports Café had been given the sponsorship and for only £15,000 and in three instalments. I was gob smacked.
Now I knew Paul Guy and Bob Phillips had something to do with the Sports Café and were also directors of the club at the same time so I thought, “There you go, that explains itself”. Later on towards the end of the season, I was told that the final instalment was never paid. Whether that was true or not I will probably never know. The Sports Café never did well and it soon closed down. Once again, I felt the current board were determined to never let me come on board but I can always say that I tried to help when the club was going through its most difficult years.
Well, the next season came around fast and the Sunday Express newspaper had even tipped City to plunge into non-league soccer. The good news was that Frank Burrows the manager, supposedly told chairman Samesh Kumar to stay out of team matters. Burrows had heard rumours that under the last manager’s reign Kumar had too much say in the team’s selection. Burrows and Bill Ayres, City’s assistant manager, stated “There would be no excuses this season”. The fans began to feel that at last we had a manager that didn’t bullshit and would take no nonsense so maybe we could get out of the dungeons (Fourth Division) that season. We then signed Caerphilly-born Dai Thomas from Watford for £50,000. The previous season we couldn’t afford to buy Barry Town goalkeeper Mark Ovendale, for a nominal fee so maybe things were starting to look a little brighter. We went to Shrewsbury Town on Friday night, the 21st of August 1998 and came away with a magnificent win. 3-0 and Dai Thomas scored on his debut. Even the newspapers were praising the fans on how much they were backing the club. Dai celebrated that win by taking his top off and running over to the ecstatic City fans. This just showed how much hunger the Cardiff City Fans had to see City do well. If a win on a Friday night at Shrewsbury Town sent them ecstatic then what would happen if we were playing and beating premiership clubs every week?
By October 10th 1998, we were top of the league and Frank Burrows then asked the club for money to go into the transfer market and strengthen his squad. It never happened and players like Matt Brazier were sent back to Fulham which then caused shareholders and directors to start arguing in public with some saying that money was available and others saying that it wasn’t. Samesh Kumar then turned down an offer from David Sullivan to take control of the club and we, the fans, could not understand this as the current board could not afford to take the club forward or buy quality players. Then the newspapers were saying that the other directors were having secret talks with David Sullivan behind Samesh Kumar’s back. It had already been reported that Sullivan had had a one and a half million pound takeover bid for the club turned down; it was an offer that thousands of us fans believed that the club could have accepted and should not have turned down.
We, the fans, were getting so frustrated. To say we were pissed off would be an understatement but we just kept cheering our team on. We even went to Carlisle on a Saturday only to find the match being called off half an hour before kick-off due to the heavy rain and then returned there on a Wednesday night in December but the journey was well worth it when Cardiff won 1-0 and we went to the top spot again. The Echo the following day said on a cold wet night at Brunton Park, Cardiff City went top of the table for the second time this season to the booming sound of 100 Welsh voices singing “Frankie Burrows Barmy Army”. We sang it time and time again, like a scratched record. At the end of the scrappy game, the players strode across the pitch to thank their loyal fans. This was a night for celebration.
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The fans started to see a bit of success and suddenly we were taking nearly five thousand fans to Brentford on a Monday. Surely someone like David Sullivan should finally be allowed to take control of the club. But, once again, it all went quiet on the proposed takeover deal. At this moment in time, the current board weren’t getting any flack and were being left alone. As we were top of the “dungeon league” and just that little bit of success was keeping the City faithful happy. Then suddenly out of the blue in March 1999, Mark Delaney another Welsh born talented player was sold to Aston Villa for £500,000. How could they do this to us? The crowds at home games were up from 4,000 to 11,000. We then heard that the board had turned down David Sullivan’s money. The next home game saw 30 loyal but angry supporters storm the boardroom and demanded answers. When it calmed down a little, it was agreed that, if we delegated six fans as spokespersons, the board and Samesh Kumar would meet us around the table. The date was set for Wednesday March 18th 1999. Here we go again I thought, as myself, Kevin Murphy known as Big Sam from the Valleys Independent Supporters Club, Alistair a supporter from Barry, Simon Williams an Ex-Director and season ticket holder for more than 30 years, John Simmons known as Simmo and Will Dixon another ex-boardroom member and passionate Cardiff City Fan, met up on the night at the Ninian Park Pub and decided who and what questions would be asked. We went to the boardroom at Ninian Park where we were met by Paul Guy, Steve Borley, Kim Walker, Mike Price and Phillip Jardine. As I looked around the room, I thought to myself “Yet again, no sign of Samesh Kumar and they probably won’t be able to answer everything we were about to ask”. But no. Low and behold, in walked Samesh Kumar who apologised for being late as he had been in a meeting with Frank Burrows. We wanted to be assured about the future and that the Directors would pledge that there would be money available for Burrows to strengthen his squad should he need to and before the transfer deadline and that there would be more cash next season to give fresh impetus to the new campaign.
Paul Guy said “We will back Frank Burrows in every way we can and he makes all the decisions on the football front - we have never said no to any player he’s requested, the board has said no, not once” Then they outlined the background to the signing of Andy Legg. Steve Borley then pointed out that Burrows had been at a board meeting and then asked if he could introduce someone and in walked Andy Legg. “That shows,” said Borley “that we are willing to back Frank Burrows”.
They then said to us that there were nine directors at the club and that they all agreed they wanted to take the club forward and had big plans for the Bluebirds in the future and that over the next few years, things, including major ground improvements, a new training ground with three pitches, offices and changing facilities and of course the centenary season celebrations, were all in the pipeline. Now let me remind you all who are reading this book that this was said on March 18th 1999. They then said to us, “Look, we are joint top of the Division. Let’s all work together for the rest of the season so we can get promoted”. We all agreed on that but I don’t think many of us supporters believed anything else. In the end and in a nutshell, Yes, we did get promotion. However, a few weeks later Samesh Kumar resigned as chairman but remained as a director with the biggest share holdings of 37%. So yet again the fans would have to wait and see if yet another chairman could keep his promises.
So on the 11th May 1999 we had another new chairman, namely Steve Borley. This time it felt a bit different as we all knew Steve was as passionate as us about the club. He had been a Bluebird since he was a kid. Yes, we would all be behind him but the big question at the back of my mind which I made public to him and the newspapers when asked what I thought of him was “Yes I’m glad to see Steve Borley as chairman because he loves the club and Kumar never really had an affinity with Cardiff City but the reality was that Borley didn’t have the money that we need. Frank Burrows may not have spent much this season but he was going to need a lot more in the Second Division. It’s a catch-22 situation. We wanted local people involved but we also need someone with more money”.
Deep down many of the supporters felt Borley was a smoke screen because the rest of the board knew we the fans had a lot of time and respect for him so it meant that if things went wrong or tits up then we would probably not make our voices heard so much. I did say to Steve Borley that I felt as long as the rest of the usual suspects were on board then I couldn’t see us doing well and things not being any different. Fair play to the man, he was willing to give it a go and had put some of his own money into the club.
Steve Borley was being described as a fans chairman in the local newspapers. Borley was quoted on the 7th August 1999 as saying, “All I’m trying to do is move the club forward and bring in more investors to make the club stronger. If I do nothing more than rekindle interest in Cardiff City, I’ll be pleased and, if someone else comes along and is able to improve on what I have been trying to achieve, then fine, I’ll be the first to say good luck, carry on and see what happens and I’ll continue to be a loyal supporter in every way that I can”.
The season started quite well and we played some good football with Andy Legg, Jason Bowen, Scott Young, Jeff Eckhardt and Kevin Nugent, etc... all playing well. But as the season went on, the team started to struggle and could not score goals.
The crowds went from 10,000 to 5,000 and the board once again had or wouldn’t spend any money on the team. This time, there were no demonstrations or angry scenes. The fans were all very patient and behind Steve Borley who and I will say again, was I believe used as a smoke screen by the rest of the board - that’s why he was made chairman. I started to think about all of the promises that they had made and they were even daft enough to say that by Christmas 1999 they would guarantee that we would be in at least 8th position in the Second Division. Even then I said you could not guarantee such a thing but they repeated their ludicrous guarantee. Were we as daft to believe them? The simple answer was no. We carried on wanting and hoping it would come true.
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The club continued to slide down the table and Steve Borley was now the one who had to answer all the questions raised by the fans and even he had given promises that were now hard to keep. Borley was not the majority shareholder. Some fans started to see that it was Samesh Kumar pulling all the strings behind the scenes. Steve Borley they said was no more then a puppet. He even started to take stick from me but to his credit, he took it on the chin and kept on fighting in his own way to try and keep the club going. All I and other loyal fans were trying to do was to show Steve Borley that we thought that some on the board were using him; maybe myself and others went about it the wrong way. I’ve had quite a few one-to- one chats with Steve over the years and the one thing I will always say about him is that he had Cardiff City at heart. Maybe he was just a little bit naive. He was always good for a bit of banter and always gave as good as he received. I really believe that if Steve had not been on the board during those tough years then half the support we had left would have finally just given up watching City and the other half would have all have probably been banned for what the authorities would have called over the top demonstrations.
Steve Borley tried his best, dug deep into his pockets and made money available for Frank Burrows. One of Burrows signings was a player called Schwinkendorf. To this day, there are a lot of questions not answered concerning this signing. There were big rumours that the signing of Schwinkendorf aroused a rift between Steve Borley and Frank Burrows. Many things have been said including that Frank took a backhander but nothing was ever proved and so it remains a rumour. I believe that after this signing the relationship between Borley and Burrows went steadily downhill. Schwinkendorf on the other hand did prove to be one of Cardiff City’s worst ever signings. So make of that what you will?
Steve Borley did try later on to get David Sullivan on board after he had previously said he did not want him at the club. Now things were getting desperate. Steve turned to David Sullivan’s brother Clive. This seemed more realistic as David Sullivan could not have taken control of Cardiff City unless he had relinquished most of his shares in Birmingham City. Christmas 1999, Steve Borley even went as far as parading Clive Sullivan around the pitch as the new saviour. Within weeks, the whole episode turned around and suddenly the whole thing was off with no real explanation to the fans. We believe that the others members of the board had blocked it and so yet again another false dawn for the Cardiff City fans.
The results were getting worse and in Frank Burrows last 46 league matches, there were only 9 wins with just 4 coming at Ninian Park in the last 12 months. Yes you guessed it, Burrows was on his way out of Ninian Park and it was said it was by mutual consent. The majority of the fans felt he was sacked and yes, by the results, most poor managers should have been but it was only eight months ago that Steve Borley had gone public and said “My first job as chairman is to extend Frank Burrows contract as he is the most important man at this club”. My questions were, was Frank Burrows to blame or did he not get the support from the board? Maybe he left of his own accord and maybe he felt that the board weren’t backing him. My opinion is the latter and maybe because I was a big Frank Burrows fan that I totally had no confidence in the current board.
I bumped into Borley on quite a few occasions and we were able to have some long decent chats about the current state of the club and hopefully the future of the club. I mentioned that my family’s company would be interested in investing, Steve said, “Put it in writing and I will give it to the board to consider”. The offer was made on the 9th March 2000 and these were the conditions ...
1:- The shares to be bought at 50p each 2:- The money had to all go on players 3:- Eventually a say on the board 4:- Myself not to be liable for anything that may have occurred before my company’s money was invested.
I had a response sent on the 14th March 2000 telling me that virtually everything in my offer was unacceptable and that they were having another meeting on the same day as I had received this letter. The whole thing did not make any sense. They also wanted a response by the 14th March. What? Clear? I wasn’t and sent another letter stating I would be sticking to my offer and what happened to our meeting but that was the end of the matter. I wonder if I will ever know if Steve Borley was blocking me all the time. He was also on the board in 1998 when the same thing had happened to me. Did the board have something to hide as no one else seemed to be able to join and people with a lot more money than me were being turned away? What did shock me though was they were not even willing to even meet me to discuss the matter and it was just turned down flat. I believe we should have met as you can always negotiate things. Realistically, I believe I had been a thorn in the board’s side all along and too much of an outspoken critic and that was because I cared and was passionate and maybe because my face didn’t fit. Then again, did Clive Sullivan’s face fit? I also think that the final decision was not down to Steve Borley. So on went the miserable season and yet again City was staring relegation in the face.
They did eventually buy a player called Kurt Nogan who I had previously said I was interested in helping to buy. Any player that the manager felt would help us to stay up, I would have tried to help sign. The signing of Nogan showed that pressure from the fans and myself maybe forced them into the transfer market; we will never know. By now, I believe the rot had set in far too deep into Ninian Park and things on and off the pitch were going downhill so fast that even David Sullivan could not have saved the season.
So on Tuesday night May 2nd 2000, nearly 600 diehard City fans including me travelled the long journey to Kent. We knew that if we lost tonight, we were relegated. We all went there believing that maybe we could pull off something. Yes, I probably went over the top as I took a banner saying “Borley out” - not because I disliked him but because I believed, and still to this day believe, that there were other members of the board that put Borley on top of the throne knowing we would back off while our beloved club was being drained, ruined or whatever .The point was we had seen our beloved club sink deeper into trouble and to me and many others we had to blame someone and Steve Borley had taken the reins, so in the end the person at the top takes the blame and we wanted him to see we thought he was being used. The match began. Minutes after kick-off Cardiff took the lead with a fine strike from Jason Bowen. The Cardiff supporters leapt around in ecstasy as the goal offered a glimmer of a lifeline to the Bluebird’s troubled season. It was soon 1-1. Then Andy Legg was sent off and from that minute it was all downhill. By their third goal, we were all talking about Halifax here we come and then Gillingham’s forth goal just compounded the Cardiff fans misery. But despite taunts from the Gillingham fans, Cardiff fans kept their humour (I don’t know how we did though) and we chanted back, “You might as well go home as we are going to win 5-4”. With only minutes of the game remaining, we shocked the Gillingham fans with a chant, “We’re going down in a minute” and yes, within minutes, the final nail was in our coffin. We were down and totally buried.
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We all headed back to the nearest pub to the ground and gathered there were some reporters. They were asking what we thought and how we felt? Also in some of the local papers the headlines were, “City are back on the road to nowhere”.
On Saturday May 16th after watching City’s last home league game with Bristol Rovers, I went to the player of the year event at the Sports Café down at Cardiff Bay. There was a very poor turnout from the City fans but who could blame them?
Later on that evening, I sat and chatted with Steve Borley for about two hours. We got on well and agreed on many things. I could see he was passionate about our club but I still had this belief that he wasn’t in control down there as many of our shared views never materialised. What a Centenary Season that was; one we will never forget but for all the wrong reasons. Well, the 2000-2001 season would be around within a couple of months. Just maybe, a saviour could be found and if so, we had to hope the board would let him or her take total control. But one thing was sure, we couldn’t continue as we were. The club felt dead.
It was the beginning of June 2000 and due to our club having another poor season and the fans having lost trust in the owners of the club, the fans had started to stand up for themselves. You already had Cardiff City Supporters Club whose numbers were well over 1,000 strong lead by Tony Jeffries and Vince Alm and other members. You had the Valley Independent Supporters lead by Kevin Murphy (Big Sam) and now we had Bluebirds 2000 who were growing stronger day by day.
Bluebirds 2000 were formed towards the end of February 2000 by Julian Jenkins and Steve Day. Julian Jenkins himself was an ex-professional footballer who started with Cardiff City and then went on to our local rivals Swansea. He finished his career at Bradford City with an injury but he had always remained a big City fan. Steve Day who was a wealthy businessman who sold pine furniture, had over the years helped out the club with sponsorship and advertising. Their plan was to try and raise money along with other City fans and then try and buy some shares. They believed they had to try and buy enough shares to dilute Samesh Kumar’s shares from 33% to 28%. This would then reduce his power and hopefully enable someone new to come onboard that over the last couple of seasons had been blocked. Bluebirds 2000 had also contributed to the signing of Kurt Nogan.
From March 2000 to June 2000, Bluebirds 2000 had raised over £120,000 and were able to buy shares. Steve Borley had helped them along. What I couldn’t understand was why Samesh Kumar wasn’t trying to stop it. Maybe he had finally given up. The rumour was that the board were now totally divided and Steve Borley had had enough. Steve even gave his blessing to the formation of Bluebirds 2000. Borley and Steve Day were friends and this probably also helped spur on Bluebirds 2000.
Then I was totally confused and shocked when David Temme announced the new ticket prices for the 2000- 2001 season. I had a good chat with Borley at the ‘Player of the Year’ supporters’ night. As I understood it, the board were supposedly going to work alongside the supporters on future things so the announcement of the new prices caused uproar and all the supporters clubs joined forces on this one. Cardiff City supporters told the media that the board were out of touch with the common fan. That’s not how Borley had portrayed himself to me. He seemed to only want to work with the fans. Maybe he was totally outvoted on this, only the board could answer that.
Tony Jeffries of the Cardiff City Supporter’s Club spoke out and said that, “For pity’s sake, we’ve just been relegated. It’s a bit thin when you have to pay £12 for a junior considering all the take of a family club.” The 1,000 plus members of CCSC held their Annual Meeting on June 12th and Tony Jeffries urged all members to attend so that they could help give guidance to the committee on how to tackle this atrocious hike in prices. Bluebirds 2000 and the Independent Valley Supporters were also behind Tony Jeffries and Vince Alm of the CCSC. I also stated to the local media, that “City have failed to show faith with their loyal fans. Steve Borley promised at the ‘Player of the Year’ evening that he would look after the present season ticket holders but he had unsurprisingly given us nothing back. I was hurt by that, he had given us nothing” So fans agreed we had done enough talking and now it was time to put our words into action. We had heard that there was a new person interested in taking over the club and for a while now his name had been mentioned but not really as a serious contender. The fans were hearing again on the grapevine that certain directors were trying once again to block anything to do with this person. So as the weeks went by, all of the heads of the Supporters Clubs rallied behind Steve Day and Julian Jenkins of Bluebirds 2000 and agreed to march from the Landsdown Pub to Ninian Park. Roger who was the landlord of the Landsdown Pub was a Cardiff City fan. His pub was covered in Cardiff City memorabilia and I always enjoyed a good chat with Roger. Usually it was only about the dark side of our club because it was all we knew.
Roger agreed on his pub being the meeting point. Steve Day and Julian Jenkins managed to get Sky TV and the Welsh Media to turn up. The fans were totally united that this board had to go. We all turned up and, whilst I was standing next to Steve Day, his mobile rang. It was Sam Hammam ringing from New York. He asked Steve to call the demonstration off for Sam himself was saying that if the club was willing to negotiate then let’s try it that way. So the fans had started to fight back and were finally making this board of directors see sense.
I don’t think there was a Cardiff City fan alive who now believed there was a future for Cardiff City under the current board.
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