CF10 Rugby Trust

For those of a certain age, watching the BBC Floodlit Rugby League Trophy on Tuesday evenings in the late 70s was a furtive pleasure that few staunch Union fans would admit to in public. The second half of competition matches was shown live with many watching in grainy black and white before the days when colour TVs became the norm. Salford only won the Trophy once, in 1974, but their penchant for recruiting Welsh Union greats meant that it was often the team that armchair viewers in Wales followed, albeit in clandestine fashion.

Salford was established in 1873, three years before our own club. Before the formation of the breakaway Northern Union in 1895, Cardiff’s fixture list featured several of the teams who were to become the powerhouses of the rebel league, including Castleford, Dewsbury, Wigan, Oldham and Swinton. Home fixtures against these sides were hugely popular and drew significant crowds. For the record, Cardiff played Salford in March 1888, winning 4-3.

In the days of the amateur Rugby Union, several Cardiff heroes were lured north to ply their trade in the other game. Gus Risman, Colin Dixon, Maurice Richards and Adrian Hadley all appeared for the side with distinction, along with other giants of the Welsh game such as David Watkins of Newport. The Welsh connection was strong indeed.

For a club with such a famous history, it was tragic to read this week that the Salford Red Devils had been wound up by a court order after a challenging year in which its financial fortunes finally ran dry. Following Cardiff’s demise under the ‘leadership’ of Helford Capital, investors (Neal Griffith and Phil Kempe) who chose not to invest, we can all sympathise with the current plight of Salford fans. In October, Connor Robertson of the Salford 1873 supporter group was quoted in the Manchester Evening News, outlined what the club meant to him and to the community:

“For a lot of people who attend, this club is their life. We know a lot of people who come from broken families and it’s their one time in the week where they might go meet up with their mum or dad, and spend that quality time together…It’s also the glue for a lot of people who’ve moved away from the area, that reason for coming back to the city every week and meeting up with friends and family, it’s so much more than just a rugby club and 80 minutes of rugby.”

These thoughts will be echoed by followers of our four professional teams in Wales who are continuing to try and ride the storm of proposed Union reforms in the knowledge that one of them will, in the words of the architect of our current misfortunes, Roger Lewis, could soon ‘cease to exist’. For the record, CF10’s position is that we don’t believe that the fact that there will be a professional team in the capital means that Cardiff will be that team. We have also stated our opposition to any ‘solution’ at Cardiff that expedites the demise of one of our fellow clubs.

Though we were thankfully spared the fate of going into liquidation by the intervention of the WRU, both Cardiff and Salford are now in a position where they are up for sale. The 1873 group have done a brilliant job in keeping their members up to date with the three parties bidding to create a revived Salford. They have been able to speak to members of the various bids and communicate their thoughts back to their members.

As has been extensively covered in the media, we understand there have been at least four solid bids for our club, the deadline for submissions having passed last weekend. Unlike 1873, CF10 is unable to share its thoughts on any potential new owners with its members because, rumour and speculation aside, we have no idea who these actually are (though we assume that this includes the consortium led by Martyn Ryan, and Y11).

As the process of selling Cardiff reaches a crucial stage, with the WRU assessing the bids they have received, we understand that there is some need for confidentiality. But at some stage, as in Salford, the bids need to be assessed by the people who care most about Cardiff Rugby Club.

We are not professional sports administrators and, unlike the club’s employees, our livelihoods are not at risk. And, as supporters, we can never guarantee that our passion won’t entirely cloud our judgement. But many of us were here long before the current crop of rugby administrators, and we will be here long afterward. As in Salford, the club is a big part of our lives, and so these negotiations hold huge importance for us. We are not going to be swayed by short-term fixes. We want more than anything for there to be long-term solutions for Welsh pro club rugby.

After we wrote jointly to Dave Reddin with Cardiff Athletic Club in October to query how key stakeholder would be consulted during the sale process, he promptly responded saying that ‘…we are still in the process of creating sale documents and determining the approach we will take to engage with interested parties. Once we have completed the work and it has been approved by the Cardiff Rugby board, we will be happy to gain your perspective’. During this last week, Richard Collier-Keywood assured us that the Union would be ‘in touch as matters progress’.

While we appreciate and welcome both Dave and Richard responding so quickly to our contacts, we are unclear what if any involvement the emotional owners of the club, its supporters, will have a say in determining who their preferred new legal owners might be. Our not unreasonable fear is that this might not happen until after a deal has been all but agreed (or indeed at all).

As we’ve written previously, getting it wrong at this stage will leave any new owner with a mountain to climb in terms of retaining the goodwill of those who currently dish out their hard-earned cash to watch the Blue and Blacks (in all guises) play at the Arms Park. The next few weeks provide a very limited window of opportunity to get it right.

We’ll leave the last word to the Salford 1873 group:

“Accuracy, integrity and transparency must come first. False claims won’t cut it. After everything this club has endured, honesty is the minimum standard. Fans deserve nothing less.”

Well said – and good luck to – our northern brethren.