There’s the school of thought that there are fewer ‘characters’ in the game these days, but one name who is often associated in these terms is Cardiff City’s owner, Sam Hammam. After a hugely successful time as owner of Wimbledon (remember them?), he sold the club to Norwegian investors and we all know the rest. Sam is now at Ninian Park, where he has dreams of Premiership football and a superstadium to match.
However, things are far from hunky-dory in the valleys. You see, Cardiff have spent heavily in recent seasons, yet failed to achieve. They managed promotion to the Championship, courtesy of a late goal in the playoff final, but since then, it’s been a real struggle for the Bluebirds in English football’s second tier.
This season, those problems have come to a head. Financial problems have left Cardiff with a wage bill of around £750,000 and estimated debts of £30million. Just three weeks ago, the club announced they couldn’t afford to pay their players – and it was announced that the club would be forced to sell to help improve matters. Skipper Graham Kavanagh was offloaded to Wigan before he knew what was going on, and more sales were mooted.
However, something strange happened. Peter Ridsdale (remember him?) has arrived at Ninian Park as some sort of financial Red Adair character and all of a sudden, rather than accepting bids for players, Cardiff started turning them down. Despite their huge debts and reported outstanding payments for player purchases, Cardiff were actually turning away money.
Then, with the transfer window about to close, something even stranger happened. They brought IN a new player, Barnsley’s Michael Boulding, on loan. Then they brought in another, Watford’s Neal Ardley, this time on a permanent transfer (if only a short-term contract). Then, less than a week later, they announce that they are struggling to pay the wages and have asked the Professional Footballers Association for financial assistance in paying the wage bill.
But hang on! Didn’t they just turn down serious bids for their players?
Errr… yes.
But didn’t they just bring two players in and increase the wage bill?
Errrr… that’s right, yes.
So, considering all that went before, you’d think that Gordon Taylor and his cronies at the PFA might have been picking up the distinct whiff of rodent at this news. Not at all, sir, here, have the money, and the very best of luck to you, too.
Unsurprisingly, this has sent the remainder of the Championship’s bottom 6 into something of a fury. Gills chairman Paul Scally has been vocal in his condemnation of the move – and while he has got things spectacularly wrong at times in the past when making public outbursts, I for one am 100% behind him on this issue.
There is no problem with the loan, if you take it as an isolated case. As the PFA are more than happy to tell the press, they have handed out similar loans, for similar purposes, on a number of occasions. BUT the issue here is the way Cardiff have gone about the whole affair. They’ve effectively gambled their money away, recognized the fact that they were in trouble, then gambled some more, before asking someone else to foot the bill. To me, it looks like they’ve deliberately done this in order to keep their players AND get the financial assistance they needed. Hell, they even brought two new players in too!
Talk about having your cake AND eating it! And it seems the football authorities are happy to let this happen.
Other, needier clubs such as Wrexham certainly could have done with the PFA money, but they didn’t receive any – and there are a handful of other similar cases in the lower leagues too.
In my opinion, Cardiff City have operated in an underhand manner, bordering on cheating. OK, you need to do whatever you need to do to survive, perhaps, but Cardiff have a huge fanbase. Look at the likes of Gillingham and we certainly haven’t. If we go down as third from bottom, with Cardiff just above us staying up, it would certainly seem unjust, as Cardiff will have been allowed to keep their players in circumstances where any other side in the league would have had to sell if in the same position. Should another club get relegated at Cardiff’s expense and go out of business, the Football League, the PFA and Cardiff City would have blood on their hands. 
In a time where money in the lower leagues is at a premium, it’s high time the footballing authorities started taking control of the game – and ran their competitions on a level playing field. Actions like those taken by Leicester City three seasons ago have been prevented by new rules penalising clubs who go into administration. I’d say the League should look long and hard at Cardiff City’s conduct in the last fortnight – and act accordingly. Some Cardiff fans have said it’s dog eat dog at this level, but it’s the Football League’s job to make sure that this kind of action is dealt with.
I just hope that Cardiff pay for their actions, either by punishment by the Football League, or simply by the rest of the league relegating Cardiff anyway. I like Lennie Lawrence and think that the Welsh fans, in the main, are a good bunch, but the way the people running the club have gone about their business leaves a sour taste. The sooner they go, the better.