Win or bust for Cardiff

When Joe Ledley hooked his left foot memorably around that dropping ball, firing the measured winner in front of 35,000 travelling supporters on the hallowed turf of Wembley, it marked a new highlight for Cardiff City’s supporters.

But don’t be fooled by the semi-final heroics. It would be mistaken to think that life as a Bluebird supporter is plain sailing. Indeed, this season manager Dave Jones has been behind the wheel of a dilapidated ship on decidedly choppy waters. The glory trail in this year’s FA Cup, reaching their first final since winning the trophy in 1927, is a soothing remedy to the aches and pains of debt and decades of football in the English lower leagues.

For the biggest club in Wales, and with a position as the only mainstream football club in Cardiff, City are undoubtedly inferior to their rivals over in Glasgow and London. The capital city football clubs over the borders in England and Scotland are European giants, fiscal power-houses and cup-winning regulars. The Bluebirds have distant memories of European football in the 1960s, a financial position teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, and a continued existence outside of the top-flight of English football.

This season, languishing in 20th position in the Championship in mid-November, Jones was told by chairman Peter Ridsdale that his job was in jeopardy unless there was an imminent turn around of fortunes. The former Southampton manager was also receiving death threats from City fans blaming him for the turmoil at Ninian Park. Although Jones steadied the boat, City currently lie just out of reach of the play-off positions, with focus on Cup glory against Portsmouth in mid-May eclipsing the target of Premiership football next season.

If only league table positions were the extent of Cardiff’s problems. Financially speaking, the recent economic downturn around the world is predicted to leave the City reeling. But outside of London, in the business world of football, it is Cardiff City’s finances that are in dire straits. Despite building on a new stadium well in progress, the club is walking on a financial tightrope. Last month the club were taken to court over a loan repayment demand of £24 million from the Swiss investment bank Langston. Fortunately for everyone with a vested interest in the club, a High Court Judge dismissed the bank’s claim and the case will go forward to a full trial, or more likely, an out-of-court settlement.

It is clear that the FA Cup stands as a potential watershed for Cardiff’s recent fortunes. Indeed, there is more than a hint of weltpolitik about City’s FA Cup run. Just as Margaret Thatcher used the Falkland’s crisis to rally support for her Conservative administration, so too can Dave Jones play the part of the Iron Man in overcoming the odds by taking Cardiff to an FA Cup-winning climax. This domestic glory and European qualification would certainly set the ball in motion for the promising future of Cardiff City Football Club.

The financial benefits of the Cup are already evident. A club scheme of guaranteeing an FA Cup final ticket to fans who buy a season ticket for next term is poised to break season ticket sales records. With an extra 2,000 fans buying tickets for 2008-09, adding to the 8,000 existing season ticket holders, the prospect of over 10,000 season ticket holders in Ninian Park’s capacity of 18,000 brings welcome pound signs to the club. Conservative estimates calculate that the extra sales have raked in an extra £400,000 alone.

Cardiff deserves some footballing glory. Hopefully this extra money that the club are benefiting from will ease the financial pressure and help concentrate matters on the pitch. With a new stadium, and hopefully a trophy in the cabinet, May 17th could be the date that marks the light and the end of the tunnel for Bluebird fans.