Cardiff City FC have officially made a U-turn on their decision to switch home kits back in 2012 after it was confirmed that they would be reverting back to their traditional blue home kit from this weekend onwards.
This move was announce after the Bluebirds’ owner Vincent Tan held a meeting with senior officials of the club as well as representatives of the supporters in a bid to reach common ground regarding the direction of the club.
In a statement that was released on the club’s official website, Vincent said: “The Christmas and New Year period has given me time to reflect on the events of the last year. Spending time with my family had a profound effect upon me. My mother, Madam Low Siew Beng, a devout Buddhist, who attended Cardiff City Football Club to watch them play, spoke to me on the importance of togetherness, unity and happiness. Cardiff City Football Club is important to me and I wish to see it united and happy.
“With the guidance, blessing and influence of my mother, I asked my chairman, Mehmet Dalman, and chief executive officer, Ken Choo, for their advice and to consult with a good cross-section of the fan base. These views were also added to by a large number of emails that were sent to the club over the last 24 hours from our wider supporter base. To paraphrase John F Kennedy, ‘Let us never compromise out of fear. But let us never fear to compromise.’”
Their controversial decision to switch the home kit colour to red was spearheaded by owner Vincent Tan, who cited marketing reasons as the major factor behind his decision to rebrand the club.
The decision faced massive opposition from fans on the ground, who visibly took pride in their history and local tradition. Some of these fans even started their own movements on the ground to protest against Vincent Tan’s rebranding methods, which inevitably led to only 4,194 fans attending their FA Cup tie against Colchester United recently, a record-low attendance in the history of the club.
That was probably the last call for Vincent, opting to ring the changes considering that the club are also struggling for form in the Championship. Manager Russell Slade though, believes that the club will be buoyed by this decision.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to build a new platform and put the bricks in place to rebuild and start again,” he told BBC.
“If you’re going to be successful in any business, any football club, you need everyone pulling together as a unit.
“My job is to focus purely on football and preparing the team for games., but if your football club is even slightly dysfunctional these things can have a detrimental effect.
“I believe this will be a giant step forward to go with the traditional blue.
“The owner and I have talked about the shirt and he was aware of the issue. He was not closing his eyes to it.”
“If we can play in blue on Saturday I would expect it to be the best atmosphere I would have experienced here and probably, for some of the players, it would be the best they have experienced for a long time.
“We are always looking for momentum and this could be the spark to get us in the play-off places but it is down to the players as well as the fans.”
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