Cardiff City seek to avoid administration

Thu 28th Jan 2010 | Football Club Administration

In a statement released this morning, the board of Cardiff City FC has outlined its plans for the future of the club in light to recent press coverage.  

“Over the last few weeks there has been much speculation with regard to the future of this Club, monies owing to the Inland Revenue and regarding incoming transfers. Until now it has not been possible to make a definitive statement about our current position but we felt that it was now appropriate to update our shareholders and supporters”.

In a move to ease the fears of both fans and shareholders of Cardiff City in the wake of the news that Crystal Palace had entered administration, the statement highlights the efforts being made by the board to secure new investment in the club.   

“Since we acquired the Club in January 2007, the progress that has been made has been phenomenal. We’ve built a new stadium and new training headquarters, whilst completely restructuring of our debt and asset position resulting in positive net assets and a significant reduction in overall debt”.

However, doubt remains with some suggestion that the position of the Chairman, Peter Ridsdale being questioned by some supporters. For the avoidance of doubt, Peter has the full backing of both the Board and majority of shareholders and will continue to lead the Club to finish the job we started.

What is apparent is that Cardiff City faces a cash flow problem, like some many other clubs in the Football League and has desperately sought new investment “We have undoubtedly raised expectation levels which of itself brings its own pressures and problems. The move to the new stadium ultimately incurred costs that we had not anticipated and whilst the long term health of the Club is stronger than it has ever been we have suffered some short term cash flow problems. In an attempt to negate these issues we sought new investment and during the autumn of 2009 commitments were given regarding investment which if they had been delivered would have solved our cash issues. To date these commitments have not been fulfilled so we have had to resort to other avenues of fund raising. We are currently in the process of raising funds from the sale of assets, which with other cash, will help to secure our future”.

“With regard to the season ticket offer pre Christmas, this offer to reimburse the ticket price if promoted this season remains a strong one. Nevertheless we had anticipated that if we launched these tickets early and had received new investment pre Christmas or in January this year as promised, we would have been able to invest in new players in the January transfer window. In the absence of the new investment this will not be possible. We have to ensure that other overheads and financial issues are properly addressed. Whilst we apologise for this, we do not apologise for ensuring that the viability and financial health of the Club is the ultimate priority”.

“We have had a number of groups of potential investors in discussions with the Club. These parties were looking at both partial investment as well as a potential takeover. Whilst we are still in discussions with some of these parties, others have not demonstrated the financial means to proceed. We will continue to seek investment and believe that this will be forthcoming in the not too distant future. In the meantime we will continue to do the right things to give the Club the financial means to continue the progress that has already been achieved”.

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