By Tony Attwood
My last article in the Billionaire series (full links to all the articles in the series, at the end of this piece) was called “How football is being taken over, and the huge danger these changes bring”.
I mentioned earlier in the series in passing that new owners often disregard the tribal origins of football – origins that I hold dear. (I was brought up in Tottenham, but support Arsenal because it was made clear to me from the start that Arsenal was my tribe. My parents were Arsenal, their parents were Arsenal. At school on Devonshire Hill Lane I knew that if I got picked on, I could rely on some fellow tribe members to help me out. That was how it went).
Billionaires and corporate giants however are newcomers, and don’t share this history. Even when the people taking the club over are not about to do a Portsmouth or a Rangers and bring the club to its knees, they can still do what they like – including changing the colour of the club.
And this highlights the problem. They come in all nice and smiley with their millions and millions of pounds, and say, of course we respect you. Of course we understand you are 100+ years old and have history. Don’t worry.
And then they change the colour of the shirt. It is a point that everyone who has angry questions for Ivan Gazidis at the AST meeting tonight might care to ponder. Just how far would you go to get more and more money into the club? What would you sell out? Do you know if another buyer of shares would keep the colours red and white, or would he change the colours to something more corporately in keeping? Would you mind?
How much change would you put up with, in order to win the league?
Nowhere is this question more apposite today than at Cardiff City.
For Cardiff, who as you will remember from our cup matches with them in recent seasons, are blue and white, and have just confirmed that following instruction from their new Malaysian owners they will play in red and white, this coming season and have a new club crest. The directors have agreed – but of course they had no choice.
The change comes with sweeteners: a new training ground, debts paid off (remember this was a club run by Peter Ridsdale for a while, although of course I suggest no wrong-doing), a huge transfer fund, and a further expansion to the stadium which itself is only a year or two old.
If you want to get a feel for the way this is hitting Cardiff City, just look at my headline on this article. It is like that.
Of course in such a move there are always cock-ups and embarrassments. A couple of weeks back Dato Chan Tien Ghee (chairman) said the club would not be changing its colours. Full stop. No argument. That’s it. Definitive. The end.
Now it is the chief executive, who has said, “Sometimes in difficult economic times and challenging market conditions, in order to attract investment to survive and progress, brave, bold and compelling decisions and sacrifices need to be taken and made. By securing this investment we can safeguard the immediate and long-term future of this club. “We are only too aware that the change of colour is a radical and some would say revolutionary move which will be met with unease and apprehension by a number of supporters, along with being seen as controversial by many. To those I would like to say that this was not a decision that has been taken lightly or without a great deal of thought and debate.
“There is no getting away from the fact that history and traditions are the lifeblood of any club and as such should be jealously guarded and preserved. Both the board and our investors fully understand and respect this and will do their utmost to uphold, protect and promote the values and virtues which the club stands for.
“However, the changes are believed to be vital to enable the club to progress to the next stage in its development and very much in the club’s best long term interests.”
So there you are. A perfect example of what can happen. You take their money, and they call the tune. It can be a Champions League success like Chelsea, or a sad fall from grace like Liverpool under their last owners. It can be winning the Premier League while ignoring FFP (like Man City) or it can be relegation and relegation, like Portsmouth. It can be over $100 million, buying new players and a new 62,000 seater stadium plus winning the league two years running like Zenit St Petersburg or it can mean waiting for the letter that says you have been thrown out of the league (like Rangers).
You take the money, and then you have no choice.
———————————
The Billionaire Files:
- How football is being taken over, and the dangers that are emerging
- As the billionaires take over football clubs, Fifa urges “direct action”
- Usmanov and Kronke – what a deal would mean for each of them
- The billionaire clubs – their owners and their success
now with Chel$ki splashing cash like Man $hitty can anybody tel me where are we going in EPL ? Hazard – Marin and now Hulk !!!! Come on this is totally damn insane i just can’t wait to see the day they both declare bankruptcy when their owner get bored .
no benefeit with uot trophy
First turtle!
Arsenal will always be known as playing in tree at home no matter what.
Great article again!
There are now two leagues. Man City and Chelsea are in the big spender league. Then there are the rest of us. last year we came second in the ‘rest of us’ league behind Man U.
Changing colours would be too much for me.
“If you want to get a feel for the way this is hitting Cardiff City, just look at my headline on this article. It is like that.” Well said Tony. I’d read the Cardiff story but somehow forgot all about it when I read the title and between me clicking on the link and the page opening I had time enough to say “what the fu**”
Well, this is fun. Noble, wasswa, john, did you actually read the article – and perhaps take a look at a bit of the earlier series of articles? Or did you just leap in and comment after seeing the headline?
I’d like to give you an Oik of the week award http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/untold-oiks but I am not sure we have one for people who haven’t read the article at all. Still, Dogface, if you are out there today, perhaps you might oblige as you see fit.
looks like Tony is done with those crap transfer rumors and decided to come up with one himself…….
has a point though.
@ Tony – another great article.
Like I said yesterday, the lack of respect for tradition and identity is alarming. When I heard the idea being floated around about the change of colours for Cardiff, I thought it was an indecent proposal. How much would you sell yourselves for? £100m is a lot of money in one respect, but in another it really isn’t and never would be, even if the club was in a lower league. If something like that happened at Arsenal, I would never buy a replica shirt again and in fact would make a point of always wearing my old colours to games. What is clear though, is the new owner is not a Cardiff fan or has much respect for the local fanbase who are crazily being treated like second class citizens. I would be livid.
Goona Gal – I think you have a point, and there certainly is an opportunity for fans groups to protest by getting everyone to wear the old blue and white shirts and continue with blue and white scarves. If the shop is left with a mountain of unsold stock it could make a point to the owners.
@ Tony, I think the new owners would have to reconsider their decision if Cardiff fans made a stand.
Also I have to say it’s a shame that this great article appears to of gone over the heads of most of the commenters already. Nevermind.
it sounds like the owners have fallen victim to an MBA dummy from Harvard. more likely red is considered a lucky color in malaysia. tony i see you have caused the launch of a couple of slow boats to china judging from some of the comments.
I am not sure if anyone watched and can remember the TV programme ‘Dispatches’ did into football a while back? The one where Thai businessman, Joe Sim had Sir red nose on speed dial and Sim stated that he often asked ‘ol red nose for tips on what teams he thought might win matches as Sir red nose had a high accuracy rate. Hmmm…..anyway I also recall in that programme that when the fake foreign investors were considering buying a football club (Cardiff was mentioned as a potential target) they asked Sim during the ‘sting’ would the fans accept them as owners and the answer given was, ‘don’t worry we will put out PR stating our intent to spend millions on the stadium and buy top players, that is usually enough to placate them’. When the truth is they were planning to just bring in a number of loan players and get a recognised manager on board.
The point is, the £100m is a statement of intent to invest in the club – might not even happen when all is said and done.
I dont know why cardiff dont go the whole hog and change their name to wrexham. i think its bloody disgraceful. its one thing have a different away kit but your home colours are your home colours
Would you rather the club was successful and won trophies? Or they maintained their freaking colours as they slowly slipped down the league? Whether you like it or not, this is the reality: in order to compete for the big trophies, you MUST spend the money. And really, you come out with an outrageous headline like that and then chide people for being incredulous? Reeks of condescension.
I think what’s happened to Cardiff is a disgrace. The clubs nickname is ‘the bluebirds’ for f**k sake!
Sheffield Tuesday
Dah… so many Oiks – I have Billy the Dog working away in the Untold sweat-shop churning them out; he keeps moaning and saying it’s ‘a sisyphean task’ – any chance we could get him a few shots of penicillin to sort him out and perk him up again?
We have one billionaire part owner who probably doesn’t even know what colour we play in such is rarity of his visits (kronke) and one who has named his investment company ‘red & white’ (usmanov).
People dont become billionaires by spending 800/900m on an already profitable business then taking away one of its most recognisable assets. Whats your next suggestion? They’d get rid of the cannon? Change the club name?
If you really think any billionaire would come in and change the company colour of a £800m business then you really do not live in the real world.
Dogface..Maybe perking Billy up was what got him into sisyphean trouble in the first place?
GGG and Gooner Gal…lovely comments. Thanks.
@Tom, I think it depends on how individuals became billionaires. You are correct that “smart” business individuals would be careful to preserve the brand of a thriving enterprise to ensure its ongoing success.
However, if you are born or married into money, and purchase a football club as a toy/hobby (vs as a business/enterprise), it is not beyond the stretch of imagination that you decide to do away with tradition and “start a new era”.
Or, if you have money and a huge ego, you may decide that you want to purchase a football club and turn it into the “next powerhouse”, which may very well entail doing away with the past in order to “move in a new direction”.
Tony’s idea is not as far fetched as it seems because – to quote 4 words you used – “in the real world”, purchase of sports teams may very well be an emotional, rather than a rational, purchase.
Damn , these ribbons and these certificate made me skip other comments to read just the okis :P. An addition to the oki award.
And about the headline , i was like wtf ??? at first 😛
Nice Read 🙂
Actually i do not see why u have to change this.What u should do is to buy promising players to win the major trophies.
How nice it would be if some could take the time to read and understand the article before firing totally inappropriate comments?
Anyway, Tony, If I was a Cardif fan (which thankfully I am not) I would just keep wearing my old kits to games in defiance, and expect other fans to do likewise.
The owners will get the message soon enough.
do people actually read the article before commenting I hate to think what grades they would make of they were writing exams and had to comment or analyse. Total deviation from the points raised. Are they Spuds fans or we just have such dumb people amongst us. LISTEN those people, The article did not say Arsenal would do it. Maybe Tony should write it like a story for year 2 pupils that way some OIKS will understand. Those are the fans who would love to see the club sell its soul and go bankrupt for the Worthless Cup or is COC now, because no matter how irrelevant it is they won a trophy at all costs. Muppets. I thought it was a good article and didn’t really have to comment but some of the comments beggars belief.
@Goona Gal:
Excellent points again today. I’m glad you brought up that dispatches program. Interesting about Cardiff City being named as a potential takeover target. I think that program might be worth another look.
@jafac:
I’m so tired of hearing about trophies. What about playing football? Isn’t the whole point of trophies to serve as an indicator of skill and achievement in the playing of the sport of football?
It makes me want to tear my hair out to keep hearing about sacrificing the game, sacrificing clubs, and sacrificing history and tradition all for the purpose of winning trophies. In my opinion, people who espouse this view have the idea completely backwards.
The quality of the game, the well being of the clubs, and the integrity of the sport should all be prioritized above winning trophies. If they aren’t, what do you have to take pride in after you’ve won that trophy?
What do you have left, aside from a piece of metal in a cabinet that’s gathering dust?
I enjoyed this article Tony, as well as your entire club ownership series.
A great, thought-provoking, article. it raises important questions for fans.
For Cardiff the question seems to be: play in red, or be in the red (or, even, not to be). This harsh reality seems (from a quick read of the CCFC forums) to be swaying at least some minds towards reluctant acceptance.
If the prospect of kit and badge change (as radical as facing CCFC) were with us (as outlined in the headline) then what would our reaction be?
We have had kit changes before, of course, recurrent to red in 1919 all red shirts to red-and-white in 1933. I am only vaguely aware of the reasons for the changes and completely ignorant of the impact on fans. (Maybe Tony knows).
When I read the headline my gut reaction was shock.
I know such a thing could happen.
I know that I would hate it.
If it were the price we had to pay for extra success then it would be unacceptable.
If it were for the same reasons as CCFC – survival – then maybe, jusy maybe okay, but it would still leave a bad taste.
I never liked it when we changed from the Gold&Blue away strip. If gold were linked with a change to blue, however, I would be sad and mad.
I Disagree completely, gettin a billionaire owner doesn’t mean that radical changes will be made. That is a ridiculous conclusion to derive from such a situation (man shity and chel$i haven’t changed much, execpt from being more successful than they were before.That is change that I would not mind too much. Let’s face it the Arsenal board are profit minded as such they have hired an accountant/wenger to run the club. Let me say this profit is not for the fans, balance sheets are not for the fans profit margins are not for the fans trophies an the ensuing celebrations are for the fans. I don’t see any barca or madrid fans losing sleep because they are miles in the red.Frankly we are in a deperate situation and I don’t think we should not be too pick about where we get funds to sign new players and take step in the right direction. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t support any decision that would in anyway compromise Arsenal’s rich history bu this current level of mediocore standards, expectations and ambition cannot be tolerated much longer. If only we were more passionate about football, like brazil/ south america on a whole, we would not find ourselves in such a predicament.
If our billionaire investors, by fair means or foul, abandon the Arsenal colours of red and white, the Club itself will have contributed to the disaster.
Season after season, new kits have been introduced, home and away, to the irritation and expense of fans world-wide.
“A nice little earner” the accountants will say.
This casual disregard for the traditional Arsenal basic colours may yet come to haunt true Gooners.
Tom,
(If you really think any billionaire would come in and change the company colour of a £800m business then you really do not live in the real world.)
I think that’s what Tony is getting at,if you lived in the real world you would realise that Billionaires can and will do exactly as they please with the clubs they own, if you look around you will see that the scenario Tony is describing is happening now, Hearts in Scotland, Newcastle, Chelsea, Man U, all, over the past few years have had issues with the owner, and this being the real world the owner has just ignored them.
I have been an avid reader of this site for quite a while, it’s one of the better ones 🙂
I have come to the conclusion that the Premier League is in serious danger of disappearing up its own ar*e !
As a result, after more years than I care to remember, I am not renewing my two season tickets this year. I nearly bailed out last year but I thought I’d give it one more season. My decision this year is easy and I have no intention of returning for the foreseeable future.
Football has now truly lost its soul and purpose. The prospect of handing over my hard earned cash to a invisible American owner who uses his mouthpiece Mr Gazardis to feed us loyal Arsenal fans an unlimited barrage of BS has finally lost its appeal !
The last few years at watching Premier League football and Arsenal in particular have driven me mad – the loss of key players EVERY summer, the characterless bowl we play in, the very average players that can demand £50k+ per week, the cheating, the appalling referees and clueless tactics, the refusal to embrace modern technology, the Manager that has truly become a parody of himself insisting that we have had a good season after finishing NINETEEN points behind the winners. I don’t think so mate.
Seeing Man City win the PL was bad enough but seeing Chelski win the CL was the final straw for me. An average side finishing 6th in their division being crowned Europe’s top side. What utter nonsense. Is this what the game is all about ?
I saw an interview with Mr Redknapp on the TV today. He was ranting about the fact that he hasn’t been given a new improved contract to manage Spurs. That’s right, the guy that managed a team that choked harder than Wengers Arsenal choke wants MORE money – I must try that one at work, screw up and demand a pay rise, wish me luck.
Modern football is a very ugly sport. No sportsmanship, no honesty and no self-respect. I watched Andy Murray play David Ferrer earlier. Roland Garros QF match, key point, Ferrer gets a bad line call given in his favour. What does he do ? Take the point ? No, he calls the Umpire over to show him the mistake and to replay the point, which he then loses. Djokovic also did this at a crucial point against Tsonga on Tuesday.
Compare that behaviour to the current breed of overpaid primadonnas. John Terry insisting that ‘goal’ against Spurs was over the line, Gareth Bale and Ashley Young chucking themselves to the floor when somebody looks at them – it’s embarrassing to watch.
Modern football is now driven by money – the ‘average’ fan is a convenient income stream for owners who play the loyalty card whenever it suits them.
My first match at Highbury was in 1972 when I was 4 years old. My last match was against Norwich in May when I was 44 years old. It isn’t the game it used to be, what a shame.
Keep up the good work. Like you, I am convinced the game is ‘fixed’ in some way. As has been said before, “follow the money”, it always leads to the truth.
I will always be an Arsenal fan, but I have completely lost interest in the sport that they participate in. I think I’ll stick to tennis !
Oh, please…
“Arsenal chief hits back at those criticising the Gunners transfer policy (He means the fans)…
Yawn.
“Gazidis is likely to be tested with more such questions from the 300 members of the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust during their annual end-of-season get-together.”
I’ll bet he is.
Up Gunner’s issue of midfielders is’nt only the Arsenal problems simply becouse van persie need helper in order to assist him in scoring goals
For the issue of new designer Arsenal home shirt or jersey is more better and it maybe, if the change of jersey is proving that is quite well
hi Anne,
to took the words out of my mouth with “I’m so tired of hearing about … a piece of metal in a cabinet that’s gathering dust”.
lots of love from Singapore to u 🙂
@Anne tbh im really finding it hard to stay on twitter due to the constant whinging and moaning..if its not one thing its the other..always and always moaning and the people behind that? As always that twat Tim Payton and his AST cronies…IG gave them very great answers today but as always they find something to moan about..its like if the club cant do anything right ffs
Please i ask the media do not call Payton or the bloody AST “voice of fans” because i would rather be ignorant about the board matters rather than be represented by a self centered group with personal agendas and motives
i love the oiks..it was such a great idea Tony and oh sorry for the above rant. Its just the negative dimwits piss me off a lot
Now surely how many of those commenting did read the article? And how many have understood what Tony was saying?
@SgGoona:
🙂
@Mahdain:
It’s frustrating, I agree. But then, if you don’t try to convince people that there’s something seriously wrong with Arsenal, how can you justify your demands for Arsenal to spend more money? That’s always the thing with these people, isn’t it? It always comes back down to Arsenal spending money.
What if the AST and their journalist “friends” are just looking to get their hands on some of it?
It’s one thing to mess with the crest (we did it not so long ago ourselves due to licensing and image rights I believe) but to change colors AND your crest is the same as changing clubs in my opinion. I myself would have nothing to do with the club anymore as it’s complete change in identity would leave me with absolutely nothing to identify with. Talk about selling your soul……
Great stuff, Tony.
You cant put a price on class.
Some of these billionaire owned clubs are the footballing equivilent to Michael Carrol, the lottery winner who declared himself “king of chavs” a few years ago. Needless to say, things haven’t turned out well.
As for Arsenal, I want us to stay true to who we are, to our principals and what what we represent, regardless of everything. This isn’t something you don’t often hear talked about that much in modern, and somewhat artificial football.
People scanning a headline,then skipping through the article or even people’s comments is rampant.
To keep thins siple…he fact an owner can simply change a clubs colours is merely an example of what can happen.
If the owner can change colours of a club even as relatively small as Cardiff,though with a long history,what else can he do with the swish of a pen????
The owner can do almost what he likes.
This is the danger,and most,well,plenty,choose to ignore it as they’re looking at the sort term picture which brings trophies in,or so they believe.
Wow! A lot of oiks in one post! Usually that means the post is great 😀
@jafac and those trophy worshippers: I will say this again, just shut your mouth and pick the clubs who are at the top of their leagues at the end of each season to “support”. That way your teams will always have trophies every year. You don’t care about anything but trophies so just do it. Oh, and don’t vote for anything because your votes DON’T COUNT.
As a fan, I am happy for Chelsea to sign in excellent players to boost their chances next season. So what if the Arsenal has got pleanty of money but no titles. If a team has no titles, who will want to come to the Club. It will become like Liverfool..oops I mean Liverpool. I am excited for Chelsea as they go forth to look for more titles.
It wouldn’t suprise me if the one thing Kroenke would do if he could, would be to get with the other billionaire owners and get an agreement to sell their own TV rights like in Spain.
Tony & Walter, great article and as usual very salient but here are a few pet peeves I have against the Oiksters and related mental midgets infesting this blog:
1)The verb to whine and its transitive form whining do not take a ¨g¨ after the first n and are NEVER spelt as ¨whinging¨!
2)To lose something is not spelt ¨loose¨…that is an adjective, as in Oiksters have a screw loose.
3)I realize now that the Oik winners today cannot read…or cannot understand what they read (ultimately the same)so Tony, as they say in Scotland, save your breath to cool your porridge.
4)Lastly, could anyone here explain how changing a Club’s established colours make any marketing sense, unless the original colours were putrid puce or offal brown? The Chairman’s statement that, “However, the changes are believed to be vital to enable the club to progress to the next stage in its development and very much in the club’s best long term interests.” makes absolutely NO sense whatsoever from an historical, developmental or business management sense. Its like taking Coca-cola’s name and changing it to Crapola-cola…!
It’s all about marketing people. Bluebirds in chinese is roughly translated into ‘a man’s genital’. That’s why they want to change to ‘red dragons’ (if i’m right, correct me please).It will be hard to market your team if your team is called ‘pe**s’ right? Can you imagine the stick Vincet Tan’s getting everyday? Hahaha
Etaenal G: “(man shity and chel$i haven’t changed much, execpt from being more successful than they were before”
Wonderful, except it made me spill my cup of tea when I read it.
Your other post was not put on the site as it was abusive.
Alan,your clubs sold its arse and its soul……
If you truly rejoice in buying trophies,then good luck to you.
I hope Arsenal stick to their guns inspite of trophy chasing,big spending grubs of clubs such as yours,I really do.
Morning Tony.
Another miserable day down under…..bloody English weather has hit us lol.
@ GoonerPaul
I agree with the sentiment and recently wrote to UEFA expressing my feelings and how the game has been ruined & taken away from the fans. I also expressed my belief that FFP is the way to go and have asked if they could re-assure me FFP will be strictly introduced before I lose interest in Football altogether. I do think we have done particularly well to have finished third however, infact we are the highest ranking club who are not on ‘financial’ steroids which must be seen as a positive. What the clubs above us have is as real as a Calvin Klein jumper bought from a man in the pub with a holdall.
Yes I wish we had a trophy to show for our efforts but then I think no it’s not our fault, it would have been ours if the authorities had looked after the game in the first place. Overall, it is the football associations of the world who are to blame for letting this happen.
@Malaysian Gooner – Your point is valid but the club is British…I can only feel the pain of Cardiff supporters!
Maybe the Malaysians would have been better off finding a club who’s nickname doesn’t mean “man’s genital” in their native tongue, rather than destroying the identity of another. Just a thought. I do sympathise with Cardiff City supporters, except for the all the ones I’ve met, who have been utterly dislikeable.
after the Euros we will know the status of our team by the analysis of purchase if there will be any and who will finally signed. blue and white or red or whatsoever doesn’t implies improvement or prospect of redeeming our glorious days. arsenal fans want to see the team win trophy in style again.
With the change of colours why don’t they just change the name to Melchester Rovers as well?
Imagine the number of Roy Race shirts they would sell.
Mummy pie
Boy, your words have come true, Tony. Arsenal will indeed play in blue and white (and red) at home next season! Although it’s just very small stripes of blue 😀
@Rambo: Spot on. What the hell did they buy the club for if they (obviously) hate its nickname?
Somewhat off topic (if I may):
Regarding A Malaysia Gooner’s post
see this link, which seems to confirm his(?) account of the translation of Bluebird into Chinese:
Link.
…however, I do think that the adoption of the dragon instead is much more to do with the appeal to the asian markets.
@all,
can anyone verify Malaysian Gooner’s statement that bluebirds loosely translates as cocks in malay?
come on people, ring anyone you know who is malaysian, this is too good to let slip by lol
Real smart people, ha ha ha ah!
it is funny first, but ultimately extremely tragic and a real insight into the utter disdain with which football fans are viewed by some owners.
What a load of ‘bluebirds’ suckers this lot seem to be, eh?
last one, i promise.
the cardiff city fans habitually chant at their away supporters, bluebirds, bluebirds, bluebirds……., now of course they mean they themselves are the bluebirds….. i am beginning to have some sympathy with the owners here…. wanna buy a nice new football kit for your son? look its blue, and it got a nice wittle birdy on it?….
@Ugandan Gooner:
confirmation is coming – awaiting moderation.
There are a few exceptions to your rule of “Billionaires and corporate giants however are newcomers”. Bayer 04 leverkusen have a history far more terrifying than anything football could throw at us. The modern ideas of Bayer kultur are quite something though, In some ways they are not to dissimilar to Arsenal as they both have a history in supplying weapons.
I’m not the original Malaysian poster above. Apparently the story goes…Vincent tan studied in Cardiff and “became a fan” of the club. So that’s why he bought it. That being said I think it’s ridiculous changing the colors and crest all together. That’s decades of history and identity down the drain. Touching on the translation. It’s a Chinese saying I think and not A Malay one. (the guy is Chinese)
The owner is also a semi crook that made his fortune conning Japanese car manufacturers investing in Malaysia. 30 years ago. He now owns the franchise rights to McDonald’s, Starbucks, Krispy Kream among other things in Malaysia. Apart from countless resorts and buildings.
This is too good for words, if only because it might wake a lot of football fans into the real power of the money men that everyone seems to be clamouring for.
Imagine what those colours and symbols have meant to generations and all this swept aside because it doesn’t sell shirts where the real money is, thousands of miles away, i wonder how many people followed Cardiff City in Malaysia ten years ago?. I wonder if Birmingham City shirts are still selling in Hong Kong?.
If this lot go belly up, then the next lot may come a culture where dragons are taboo, then what, the Cardiff Camels?
But hey, you pays your money you makes your choice.
@ugandan goon. Lol @ cardiff camels. He’s not a very liked person here in his own country
But Qpr ihas got a good following now since its sponsors are Malaysian airlines and Airasia. TEPKnis huge here. Everyone watches it. Doesn’t help that the other leagues are in the middle of the night here also.
Vincent tan’s excuse was red is the Chinese color of prosperity and the dragon isa legendary beast. Hopefully by the power of superstition and money, you’ve got the next cl winners lol in the next 3 years
@Matt Clarke,
Thank you, we have an alternative theory, no one seems to be reporting over here, i wonder if it because they are scared of the Cardiff ultras?
Meant to say the epl has a huge following
Thanks malaysian gooner 2,
Thanks, that has cleared up another matter, we know know the target market.