Ridsdale's lies are finally exposed but leave Cardiff in ruin

After weeks, even months, of promising a debt free club, exciting takeovers, major investments with millions pumped into the club, new players, a tax bill being a minor matter, all season tickets money for next year given to Dave Jones and full refunds to fans if City get promoted, the bare-faced lies of Peter Ridsdale left him high and dry to the point where he had to retract it all today.

Publicity Pete who never needed any excuse to get in front of a camera or microphone has gone into hiding for a month and true-to-recent-form, didn't even have the balls to talk to anyone. Instead, he resorted to releasing an out of the blue press statement confirming the club is in crisis. Many of us have realised this for many weeks so it causes extreme anger but others have beemn optimists and thought everythign was alright, they will now be sickened and confused.

Collectively, no fan is going to exucse Ridsdale for what were porky pies of the highest order.

The man has gambled with the club at the expense of a stable future with no Plan B if no takeover, no promotion and no players sales. His luck ran out and his lies have caught him out.


Takeovers?
None in the offing although some are still talking while others didn't even have the money.

Major Investments?
Nah, none of that either.

New Players?
We're not getting any

Season Tickets being used to get new players?
It's gone to pay bills and clear debts - this is next season's money already gone by the way!

Full refunds if City get to the Premier this season?
Now most unlikely


The club are now looking to sell assets but they have precious few other than players, some land and the stadium itself. Everything else is either not owned or hocked already.

There is no mention yet of whether the tax bill will be cleared and that D-Day is now 13 days away.

And, of course, what happens in the summer and next season when we've no money at all as it's spent already?


Incredibly, Peter Ridsdale intends to stay and claims to have the backing of shareholders and the Board. Well he will when he's appointed most of the hierarchy but only a handful by number can possibly support him. His respect and credibility has gone, he can never be trusted again and Cardiff City supporters will not accept his continued stay at the club.

Time's up Peter now do the right thing.




For the record, here's the press statement.

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.

Since we acquired the Club in January 2007, the progress that has been made has been phenomenal. A new stadium, a new training headquarters, a complete restructuring of our debt and asset position resulting in positive net assets and a significant reduction in overall debt.

On the playing front we have enjoyed not only consolidation within the Championship but we achieved our highest league position finish since 1971 at the end of last season and a first FA Cup Final since 1927, in 2008.

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.

There has been some suggestion that the position of the Chairman, Peter Ridsdale is 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.