THE THIN END OF A VERY THICK WEDGE

                                       THE THIN END OF A VERY THICK WEDGE

I note with dismay but not a little surprise that the Malaysian owners of Cardiff City Football Club are to tamper with its history once more.  Having already changed the nickname of Cardiff City Football Club from The Bluebirds to The Dragons and their playing strip from the traditional blue to red, they now have the audacity to propose a change in the very name of the club.  

For the whole of my lifetime it has been Cardiff City Football Club but apparently, should they gain promotion to the Premier League, their owner has suggested the name Cardiff Dragons, which sounds as if they should be in a rugby league or rugby union division instead of football.   It smacks of everything I dislike in the modern game where tradition counts for nothing, but then with so many foreign owners of football clubs, is it really the tradition they are interested in, or the money to be engendered from the selling of a 'brand'.  It is the word 'brand' that the owner used to describe Cardiff City Football Club.

I really do hope they do not succeed in gaining promotion and was extremely glad that Middlesbrough won yesterday by two goals to one.   I've read of supporter dissent but  this is where they really have to stand up and be counted, because if the club is allowed to change its name it opens up the floodgates for other clubs to do likewise, with perhaps the sponsoring name of the club coming after the town in which the football team evolved.   Will we see some dreadful concoctions such as  Manchester Toshiba or Chelsea Sony, although strangely enough Waitrose Reading doesn't sound quite so bad...