Cardiff

I know there are plenty of other issues to discuss at the moment but I wanted to quickly say something about the situation at Cardiff. It has been announced that Cardiff will be changing their shirt colour from blue to red, at the behest of their multimillionaire Malaysian backers. The expectation will now be that the club gain promotion to the Prem, with success to follow for the 'project'. This has led to much hand-wringing and suggestions that it is the latest example of a club being willing to sell their soul for money.

Now, apart from the fact that City have shown that the amount being suggested (I've seen around £100m) would be nowhere near enough to get you to the top of the division, I'm not so sure that this is quite such a clear example of modern clubs' greed as it might appear. In the 60s, Don Revie changed the colour of the Leeds strip to a Real Madrid-aping all white in an attempt to inspire his players to hit new heights. Admittedly, this was not because a rich man from distant shores ordered it, but ultimately the aim was the same: success. I wonder how we would have felt about sky blue if Allison had decided to introduce red and white stripes as the home shirt instead of away.

As a City fan I understand the connotations of changing from blue to red (I'm sure I'm not alone in refusing to have red clothes in my wardrobe), and of course the Cardiff fans are going to have to endure some less than friendly chants and comments in the press about the change. Perhaps the emotions aren't quite the same - red is the Welsh colours after all, and perhaps white would be more abhorrent to Cardiff fans, being the colour of Swansea and England - but this is still a massive change and one many fans would feel an instinctive aversion to.

Will it be worth it though? What sort of prize justifies a change of this magnitude? If one of the terms of the takeover by ADU had involved changing our shirts to white, would City fans have accepted it? I'm tempted to say no - I love the colour of our shirts (although is that because of the associations with the club? These traditions have to start somewhere!), and when we play on a sunny day, with the shirts against the blue sky, it's beautiful. Also, imagine the comments from the United fans and elsewhere - it would be unbearable.

I don't think the two situations are comparable though. Without wishing to be patronising to Cardiff, we were already an established Premier League team (albeit mid-table. Alright, lower mid table), whereas Cardiff haven't played in the top division for decades. Generally, I think that the worst possible game to lose is the playoff final - whilst the losers in the FA Cup, Champions League, World Cup etc. miss the chance to get their names on a trophy, the tangible effects for the future are less severe, whereas missing out on promotion means another season of worse players, worse opposition, dwindling gates, etc., etc.

Similarly, if Cardiff can get themselves into the Prem (and I'm sure Swansea's success makes this even more of a desire) then I think many fans would be delighted, and they'd get used to the shirt colour. After all, why do we watch football? It's entertainment - yes, there is an important sense of belonging and wanting to support your local side or your family team, and of course the pride and satisfaction is increased when your club does well. But if those fans are able to go to the classic grounds of English football, as well as the homes of the new powerhouses, and watch the best players in the country, won't they be happy?

I'm sure there will be a pang of regret for the shirt colour, but then what is a football club? It can't be the players, the manager or even the board - they change very regularly. The colours of the shirt and the badge are important, but not essential - they change quite often, and although traditionalists prefer the old ones (the round City badge!), the club is still the same. So it must be the fans, which is why MK Dons will never be Wimbledon, whereas a red Cardiff will still be Cardiff.