If he takes the name away from them, you watch what happens in the next few years in this country, we will become like the American football clubs where they just take their name and move clubs. We can laugh, but as football fans we hope that our kids and grand kids get to see what we have been treated too, not franchise crap.
I cant see them moving clubs to a different city/town. Football is the biggest sport in the UK in America its 3rd maybe 4th. There would be riots if they moved any professional club. I do hope nothing bad comes of Cardiff as its sad to see what is happening to them now and most of the fans are happy to see there club changed just to see premiership football. I'd rather be bottom of the league than top given the scenarios.
As much as I dislike Cardiff, I do feel sorry for the fans that have turned away from the club as a result of the rebrand. Your everyday fan that has walked through the turnstiles of Ninian Park and the Cardiff City Stadium for the last twenty years would have had exactly no say in the complete transformation of the team – there are many that weren’t willing to sacrifice the clubs’ heritage, even if doing so did bring more money and success. This fan may have made his point quite ineloquently, but the fact is, even though the club is at its most successful for years, at the top of the league with the Premiership practically secured, he can’t identify with them, which makes it hollow. For him, there’s no getting the same old, admittedly less successful team back, but if that were the only criteria fans followed then we’d all be Manchester United fans and there’d be no lower leagues at all. Unlike other ‘businesses’, there isn’t really a consumer choice. Football teams have been an intrinsic part of their local communities for over a hundred years, which makes the new owners’ comments about how he’s fine with upsetting 20-25% (optimistic?) of their existing ‘customers’ in order to please the majority (i.e. new Malaysian fan-base) particularly distasteful. I think there’s a strong argument to move towards the German model of each club requiring at least 51% membership ownership as they’ll have the clubs’ best interests at heart and almost award landmark status to them. I’m surprised I haven’t heard of a splinter club in the manner of AFC Wimbledon and FC United of Manchester being formed yet, though I’m sure it will at some point (though would they be allowed to enter the English football pyramid?) and I’d be supportive of such a motion. I know that, say a rich Texan bought Bristol City and renamed them Bristol Bulls and had them play in white to emulate Real Madrid, then I’d feel like I’d lost the club I grew up with. Though they are rivals, this is something with which I sympathize with them deeply.
