When I started watching football in the early 1950s, Cardiff City seemed to be an established top flight side. In fact, when I checked back, they spent just 15 years in the top flight, finally leaving in 1962, although they are the only team outside England to have won the FA Cup.
When I started watching football in the early 1950s, Cardiff City seemed to be an established top flight side. In fact, when I checked back, they spent just 15 years in the top flight, finally leaving in 1962, although they are the only team outside England to have won the FA Cup.
The Bluebirds or Red Dragons finally won promotion to the Premier League yesterday evening and will take the Championship title if they beat Burnley on Saturday. This means that for the first time there will be two Welsh teams in the Barclays Premier League which will host the fiercely contested derby between Cardiff and Swansea.
It’s been a long and difficult road back for Cardiff. One might reasonably expect the Welsh capital, at the centre of a significant urban area, to be in the top flight. However, one always has to factor in the appeal of rugby (although that does not have to be an ‘either or’ choice, particularly when it comes to the national side).
There is no doubt that Cardiff have suffered from more than their share of mismanagement and some bad luck as well, although there is a sense in which you make your own luck. Failing at the last hurdle can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Cardiff have experienced three defeats in play-off finals and in 2009 went from an automatic promotion spot to seventh in six weeks.
It is just 17 years since the Bluebirds finished third from bottom in League 2. Since then they have faced winding up petitions which have taken them to the brink. The administrator has never been far away. Even Peter Ridsdale managed to get in on the act.
They still owe Sam Hammam, or more specifically his Langston investment vehicle, some £24m. Another £40m is due to Vincent Tan, the Malaysian who owns almost 40 per cent of the club and has given it greater financial stability since 2010, even if the re-branding as the ‘Red Dragons’ to appeal to the Asian market was controversial. The plan to re-name the club the ‘Cardiff Dragons’ could always resurface. Tan thinks the club may have to spend £20m to £25m ‘smartly’ to prepare for the Premier League.
Along the way (in 2009) the club left Ninian Park which was an atmospheric, not to say intimidating venue. The difficulty with the Cardiff Stadium is that it is not big enough to accommodate everyone who wants to go there. All 20,000 season tickets for next year have already sold out.
Notwithstanding the increased television pot, gate money is important in the Premier League. Extending the stadium has to be a priority. Its current capacity is 27,000, but there have been reports that any extension might be delayed until the 2014/15 season. Staying in the Premier League is, of course, the first challenge that Cardiff will face.