This week on geography for beginners, the question that has been troubling
explorers, cartographers and Brian Barwick for centuries: is Cardiff in
Wales? Now you may think you know the answer. You may think its situation in
the Welsh county of Glamorgan is a giveaway, not to mention the 11 per cent
of its populace who speak Welsh and the fact it is home to the Welsh
National Opera, the Welsh Assembly and the University of Wales Institute.
You may feel that this evidence, though in essence circumstantial, forms an
overwhelming case for the Welshness of Cardiff. And you would be right. Sort
of. For while Cardiff is in Wales, it is also only too willing to get in
touch with its English side on special occasions. Not least when there is a
right few quid in it.
If Cardiff City win the FA Cup in May, the club expect to be entered for
European competition, as every FA Cup winner has been since Wolverhampton
Wanderers in 1960. This seems reasonable. Cardiff have been treated as an
honorary English club, much like Swansea City, Wrexham and Newport County,
since their election to the second division in 1920.
Indeed, no one really considered that Cup glory would not be properly rewarded
until Peter Ridsdale, the chairman, was asked about it, having reached
next month's semi-final against Barnsley. It transpired that Cardiff
enter the FA Cup each year on the understanding that they cannot represent
England in Europe, if victorious. Ridsdale then said that if his club did go
all the way, he felt sure that a groundswell of opinion would cause the case
to be reviewed. He is no doubt right on that.
It does seem unfair that Cardiff should match the achievement of every FA Cup
winner in 48 years yet be denied their due in Europe. Ridsdale was careful
not to labour the point, though. He did not use emotive language, harangue
Barwick, the FA chief executive, or threaten to drag the whole business into
court. Partly, this would be because Cardiff still have Barnsley to play in
the semi-finals and there is no better way of getting the opposition riled
than to talk as if your victory is a formality, but also because Ridsdale
will be aware how often his club, in previous years, have sought to distance
themselves from England and the English, usually to their advantage. If
Cardiff push too hard for union now, a raft of privileges could be taken
away.
In the 2002-03 season the club reached the second
division promotion play-offs final, against Queens Park Rangers at the
Millennium Stadium. It is the standard that these showpiece occasions are
preceded by the National Anthem. “A traditional part of the pre-match
build-up to finals,” was how John Nagle, the Football League spokesman,
described it until his bosses scrapped it when Cardiff fans claimed to be
affronted by the prospect of God Save the Queen being sung at an English
league event.
The request was that it should be complemented by the Welsh National Anthem,
Land of My Fathers, and when the Football League refused on the ground that
God Save the Queen is the United Kingdom’s National Anthem and not only
England’s — and therefore is applicable to all — it was warned that Land of
My Fathers would be sung either way, over the anthem if necessary. Which, as
the final was taking place in Cardiff, was no idle threat. Rhodri Morgan,
the First Minister of the Welsh Assembly, got involved and, seeking a quiet
life, the League abandoned the idea of anthems in favour of club songs.
Cardiff chose Men of Harlech, a rousing military march with hugely patriotic
connotations. QPR went for Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag, a lively
instrumental celebrating peg trousers, daft haircuts and the hybrid
post-punk jazz scene, the playing of which has had little effect on
nationalistic sentiments anywhere since 1981. So Cardiff sang: “March ye men
of Harlech bold, Unfurl your banners in the field, Be brave as were your
sires of old, And never let them yield.” And QPR went: “Toot, tootle-ty
toot. Tootle-ty toot toot.”
To the surprise of few, Cardiff won promotion.
So this desire to represent England in Europe in 2008 would come as a shock to
those at the Football League coalface in 2003, just as it may mystify those
visiting Ninian Park on January 6, 2002, when Leeds United played an FA Cup
tie.
Sam Hammam was the Cardiff chairman at the time and had designs on making
another fortune out of football by turning his club into a lightning rod for
lucrative Welsh nationalism. If he could win promotion having united a
nation behind Cardiff City, he would potentially own one of the biggest
clubs in the top flight.
The match against Leeds was his chance to launch this movement and Hammam went
into overdrive, stoking an atmosphere that became poisonous with
nationalistic hatred and spilt over into violence. After Cardiff’s win,
Leeds players were attacked as they left the field, while Andy D’Urso, the
referee, and one of his assistants, as well as Ian Harte, the Leeds
defender, were struck by missiles thrown from the crowd.
The FA launched a joint investigation with the FA of Wales (FAW), but over
time, despite this being an FA Cup match, allowed its involvement to be
watered down until the process became a Welsh affair. When the punishment
was handed out, it amounted to a paltry £20,000 fine for misconduct, with
the club cleared of all charges relating to the throwing of missiles.
Apparently there was a plague of coins, sharp metal objects and miniature
bottles at Ninian Park that day. Perhaps God was out of locusts and frogs.
Although Cardiff did not appeal the decision, that did not prevent Hammam
maintaining his divisive mentality. “The club respects the decision of the
FAW, which it believes was given under extreme pressure from the Football
Association and London media,” a statement read. “The events of January 6
will only serve to bring together the club and the Welsh people as they
strive to take Welsh football forward.” Separatist enough for you?
Other clubs have hooligan problems, too. This is no attempt to rake over old
ground or single out Cardiff, merely to illustrate that in times of crisis
it has suited the club to be treated as if in a foreign country, divorced
from their parent league and authority. There is little doubt that an FA
penalty would have been greater than the £20,000 fine handed out by the FAW.
It is also true that it was convenient for Cardiff to hold their hearing
locally, where they could flatter the FAW by depicting it as the only honest
broker, standing strong against another mugging from the English.
Indeed, so ludicrous is this state of affairs that the FA has taken to
treating Cardiff as foreign, even when their business is so fundamentally
tied to the English game. When Robert Earnshaw raised the alarm about his
transfer between Cardiff and West Bromwich Albion in August 2004, the FA
handed the file on the case to Fifa on the ground that it was an
international transfer.
There is no suggestion of corruption on Cardiff’s part — in July 2007, Mel
Eves, an agent, was fined £12,250 for acting for two parties, Earnshaw and
West Brom, in the deal, which is illegal — but it seems preposterous that a
transfer between these clubs should be regarded as an international
agreement when they met in a Football League fixture about five months
earlier.
The same logic applied to Jermaine Darlington, a jobbing professional who
numbered Cardiff as his eighth club until he was forced into retirement with
a knee injury in 2006. He had recovered sufficiently to attempt a trial with
AFC Wimbledon later in the year and was taken on, the first former Wimbledon
player to make an appearance for the phoenix club.
Although AFC Wimbledon believed that they had processed the paperwork
correctly, Darlington’s registration was held by Cardiff, requiring
international clearance, and AFC Wimbledon were kicked out of two
competitions, fined £12,000 and docked 18 points (reduced to three on
appeal) for fielding an illegal player. Again, no fault on Cardiff’s part,
save for the continued lunacy of their status as a club who contrive to be
English and foreign simultaneously and are therefore incomprehensible to
many.
Still, there is no situation so imperfect it cannot be made worse by the
arrival of Michel Platini, the Uefa president, and here he comes now, waving
his hand dismissively at the FA’s protests and announcing that if Cardiff
win the FA Cup he will see to it that their eligibility for Europe is
reassessed. It used to be that Cardiff could enter Europe through the Welsh
Cup anyway, but Uefa stopped that because it would not allow Cardiff to be
registered in Wales while competing in England. Their most recent European
campaign was in 1993-94. Platini is plainly unaware that the historical
precedent was established by his organisation, not the FA.
Yet this being the time of the hustings for nations wishing to host the 2018
World Cup, English football would rather be shut in a room with Heather
Mills for six hours than contradict an executive powerbroker. After
Platini’s comments, an FA spokesman said it was appropriate to look at the
issue afresh, as if this was the FA’s issue and not Uefa’s; as if it was not
Uefa’s ruling that was at the heart of the problem.
Meanwhile, Cardiff can carry on playing both ends against the middle. Welsh
when they want to be, English when it suits. Not sure what the men of
Harlech would make of it; not even sure Pigbag would be too impressed, come
to that.
