I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this and if it has been covered on here (if so I apologise and please delete). I noticed this petition on the Premier league threads and didn't notice any Cardiff names on the thread, and thought it would be right up your street. God knows we've had our fair share of mad owner's decisions up our way and now you're in the same boat. I think anything that helps raise awareness of this issue is worthwhile so thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and give the petition a push. https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/59884 Without Fans there is no Football Responsible department: Department for Culture, Media and Sport Football is our national game but the interests of fans are being disregarded by club owners and ruling bodies - government action is needed. UK football clubs are not financial franchises: they are rooted in their local communities and are an important part of local identity and heritage. But a new type of club owner is disregarding all that, pricing many people out of the game with inflated ticket and other costs, alienating people by seeking to change clubsâ names, colours and so on. Football's governing bodies are failing to address the situation. We therefore ask that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee revisits its work on football governance and illustrates growing problems by undertaking a short Inquiry into one particular club, Coventry City, whose owner has relocated the club from the City of Coventry to Northampton, 35 miles away. This will highlight concerns shared by football fans across the country, and the need for action.
ITHTK I understand where you are coming from but from my perspective, without Vincent Tan, we would not have a Premier League club and possibly no club at all. VT might appear mad as a box of frogs but as facts come to light over time it appears all was not well under Malky's managerial reign, in particular some of the incoming transfer deals for which Malky and Moody were responsible.
" undertaking a short Inquiry into one particular club, Coventry City, whose owner has relocated the club from the City of Coventry to Northampton, 35 miles away. This will highlight concerns shared by football fans across the country, and the need for action " Nothing new there, should have complained when MK Dons were started, too late now.
Did Cov have a choice? The exhorbitant rent charges at the Ricoh would have seen the club fold completely, not just go into administration, if they had remained there. Do the current owners not have plans for a new stadium at Coventry?
Yes but not at the Ricoh. I think their getting towards the end of getting planning permission but it will 2-3 years before it is built on the outskirts. Because of the way the council systems works they can still build in Coventry without needing to apply to that particular council i.e there not within that council catchment area. Stupid as there's now a 30,000 seater stadium sitting empty for most of weeks of the year. The council have shot themselves in the foot big time.
As much as I agree there needs to be more protection from owners; I thought the government weren't allowed to get involved with football on this level. Didn't an African national team get banned by FIFA because their government were interfering in some way?
I know, it's crazy. As grounds go the Ricoh is one of the best modern stadiums with excellent road access, parking and facilities (getting 3 points there on most of our visits helped as well ). It is absolutely stupid that the ground owners could not come to an arrangement with Coventry City that would benefit both sides.
The problem is that foreign owners like Abramovich and Mansour have the money available to make the difference in today's game. It's the real world we're dealing with here, not some parochial pastime for a local businessman to fund. Steve Lansdown at the Wurzels is a particular case in point - down to League 1 and look like heading for League 2. The days of Jack Walker back then, and even Steve Gibson currently (where are Blackburn and Middlebrough these days) have gone. Those and others like them would be the idealists choice to succeed, but the game at Premier League level has evolved beyond reason financially due to the potential rewards on offer - but not just that alone. The Premier League is seen as a flagship, and success in it is viewed as the pinnacle of football aspiration in other continents let alone over here. Many foreign investors with money to burn will see it as a prestige trip as well. Banning the apparent "money no object" approach isn't going to solve the problem on it's own and will only create a second or third class standard of football in this country. Effective FA legislation set out to prevent change from historic princples of things like club names, colours and badges without some sort of concensus might work, but the problem would be enforcing/preventing it. When you own a business, you can do what you like with it within the law of the land - any attempt to limit that right would be wide open to a restriction of trade claim, particularly if the applicant could put a good case forward that what they were proposing was a sound business strategy. In most respect, it's a real shame that our football has gone that way. The only positive (and it's a big one) is that we currently enjoy probably the highest standard of football in the world at Premier League level.
Thanks for all your responses. They make interesting reading. I can fully appreciate where you are coming from in respect of Mr Tan providing you with a stronger financial footing. Mike Ashley has done the same for us, and for all the stick he gets we could well have been another Leeds or Portsmouth without him after some ridiculous marquee signings by the previous regime. I appreciate what you say about Malky too. Looking from the outside it seemed like he was harshly treated as you were sitting in a non-relegation position in your first premier league season. But outside we see less than half the story. We all thought it was very harsh to sack Chris Hughton (still do) but MA's ruthlessness saw us finish 5th the following year and qualify for Europe. My original comments were more about the heart and soul of the club. In your case the change of colour (which I would find horrifying) and in our case the stadium name change which we found hard to accept. You are right to liken it to MK Dons which I see as a similar issue in terms of crossing the line in respect of the heart and soul of the club. Would Mr Tan still have bought your club if he couldn't change your colours? He already had hadn't he? The game is changing, but I do still feel there is a place for some level of protection of the community and culture side of the game. It is possible to have laws in place that protect the game without contravening FIFA rules. The FA already has rules which would now prevent the MK Dons situation from happening again. If the same scenario happened now they would be classed as a new club and forced to start from the bottom of the pyramid. Things can be done to protect fans even within this modern game.
I think one of the points being made is that the FA have the rules but this is a govt petition and the govt can't have rules...or at least xannot interfere in football or fifa will have a fit
