Cardiff

History of Cardiff City F.C.

After a meeting at the residence of artist lithographer Bartley Wilson in Cardiff, the club was established in 1899 under the name of Riverside A.F.C. to keep players of that Riverside Cricket Club together and fit during winter months. In their inaugural season, they played games against local teams on the Sophia Gardens ground. In 1900, they became part of in the Cardiff & District League for their first season of competitive play. In the year that they were granted city status by King Edward VII granted Cardiff city status in 1905, the team submitted a petition for the South Wales and Monmouthshire Football Association to change their name to Cardiff City. The request was rejected since they were not considered to be performing at a sufficient standard. To increase their status, the club decided to be a part of to the South Wales League in 1907. In 1908, they were given permission to alter the title of their team in 1907 to Cardiff City.

While growing in stature Cardiff was forced refuse to join the newly-formed Second Division of the Southern Football League due to the lack of amenities at the Sophia Gardens ground. In the following two seasons, Cardiff hosted friendly matches against the best professional British teams, including Middlesbrough, Bristol City, and Crystal Palace. The matches were played on stadiums in Cardiff and the surrounding towns, to measure the level of enthusiasm for the team. The club later secured the land needed to construct its own arena, Ninian Park, which was completed in the year 1910. The club was officially established in the following year. They signed their first player next year, following the purchase from Jack Evans from fellow Welsh club Cwmparc.

With the new stadium being constructed, Cardiff joined the Southern Football League Second Division[9]. They named their manager in the first year, Davy McDougall, who was appointed player-manager. Cardiff finished in fourth position during their first year in the league. The board chose to replace McDougall with Fred Stewart, who had previously worked as a manager at Stockport County. He began by adopting an approach that was more professional, hiring players who have Football League experience, including brothers John and George Burton and Billy Hardy. Stewart was the captain of the team that earned them the top of the league during his second season, taking home the Second Division title. They continued to play at the First Division for the next decade, and were within the top four places on two occasions.

When the team was formed in 1920, they made an application that was successful to be a part of to the Football League and were placed in the Second Division for the 1920-21 season.The club's manager, Stewart introduced numerous players who had Football League experience, breaking the club's transfer record two occasions, signing Jimmy Gill and later Jimmy Blair from The Wednesday. The team played their first game with the Football League on 28 August 1920, when they defeated Stockport County 5-2. The team finished the season in second position and were promoted into the First Division. They were second to Birmingham City on goal average and made it to the semi-finals in the FA Cup. In their third year in the top tier, they was runners-up to Huddersfield Town because of a goal difference of 0.024. Cardiff played their final game goalless after club record scorer Len Davies missed a penalty.

The following season marked when the very first time Cardiff played in Wembley Stadium, having reached their first FA Cup final. Cardiff lost 1-0 to Sheffield United following a goal by England player Fred Tunstall. The 1926-27 season, in which they finished 14th the worst Cardiff performance in the top league of English Football since winning promotion six seasons prior. They did however reach the third FA Cup final in the time span of just two years. The day of St George's Day, 23 April 1927 in Wembley Stadium in London, Cardiff became the sole non-English team to win the FA Cup by defeating Arsenal by 1-0 in the final. Hughie Ferguson scored the only goal of the match at the end of the game in the hour 74th. He was handed the ball by Ernie Curtis and hurried a timid shot at goal. Dan Lewis, the Arsenal goalkeeper, let the shot to escape his grasp before he smashed down the ball in the goal by bending his elbow. Capt. Fred Keenor received the FA Cup trophy at the conclusion of the game at the hands of the King George V only seven years after Cardiff City had entered the Football League. After the Cardiff City team returned Cardiff the following day, an estimated 150,000 people gathered to greet the team.

The team was also crowned also the Welsh Cup in 1927, winning against Rhyl by 2-0. They then went on to win the FA Charity Shield after beating amateur team the Corinthians by a score of 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. The club was in a state decline following their cup win. They were dropped out of into the First Division in the 1928-29 season, even though they conceded fewer goals than any other team that played in this division. They were relegated again two years later, moving in the Third Division South for the first time since joining to the Football League. The first time they played as a division team, Cardiff recorded their biggest-ever victory when they defeated Thames with a score of 9-2. The 1932-33 season ended in 19th position, which resulted in the manager Fred Stewart tendering his resignation from the position after 22 years as the manager. The club's founder Bartley Wilson was appointed to succeed Stewart. The results remained unsatisfactory, and in march 1934, the club's Ben Watts Jones was given the chance to lead the team he was a part of when he was a child. He failed to turn the fortunes of the team in their favour; they ended with a stutter at the lowest of the table and were required to apply for re-election into the league. Watts-Jones was in charge for a further three years before Bill Jennings replaced him. Cardiff continued to be part of the Third Division South until the Football League was suspended following the beginning in World War II.

In their debut season since the return of the Football League, under new manager Billy McCandless, Cardiff finished the 1946-47 campaign as the champions from the Third Division South and returned to the Second Division. McCandless quit the club shortly after, and was replaced by Cyril Spiers who led the team to promotion in 1953-52. Cardiff made it back to the upper division in English football , for only the second time in over 23 years, and remained there for five years. They were then relegated in 1957, following a period of struggle in the bottom in the league for three years. They were relegated in their First Division for two seasons between 1960 and 1962, before they were relegated again in 1962.

In the 1960s Cardiff played at the time in European tournaments for the very first time due to having won the Welsh Cup, which granted qualification to the newly established European Cup Winners Cup. The first match they ever played in European competition was played in the tournament of the 1964-65 season , against Danish team Esbjerg fB. They defeated Esbjerg fB 1-0 over two legs with the only goal scored by Peter King. They advanced to the quarterfinals, but were defeated to Real Zaragoza. Despite their successes in Europe however, the team was struggling to make it in league play under the direction under the direction of Jimmy Scoular, finishing in 20th place on the Second Division. The team made it to the semi-finals in the Cup Winners Cup after victories against Shamrock Rovers, NAC Breda as well as Torpedo Moscow set up a tie with German team Hamburg with a squad that included many German internationals. It is the most far a Welsh team has reached in European competition. After a draw of 1-1 in the opening leg, nearly 43,000 spectators gathered in Ninian Park to watch Hamburg beat Hamburg by 3-2. The 1970-71 season was when Cardiff reached the quarterfinals in the Cup Winners Cup where they were up against Spanish team Real Madrid. The opening game was played at Ninian Park, where 47,000 people were able to witness one of the biggest wins in Cardiff's history. Brian Clark headed in to give Cardiff an 1-0 victory. They were then eliminated after losing the second game with a score of 2-0. The team was at the Second Division for 19 of the 20 seasons that ran between 1962 and 1982. They had been moved into the Third Division for the 1975-76 season.

Cardiff were always playing in lower divisions within the Football League between 1985 and 1993. The club had appointed various managers to turn their team's performance upwards, but they had only little results. They were dropped into the Fourth Division once in the 1985-86 period and, despite being relegated into the Third Division on two occasions and finishing in the lowest league position they have ever had in 1996, finishing 22nd out of 24 teams within Division Three. The year 1995 was the first time Cardiff as well as other Welsh teams competing within English leagues were disqualified from participating in the Welsh Cup by the Football Association of Wales after pressure from UEFA which wanted teams to not participate at two cup tournaments for national teams. Their final game during the tournament was the loss of 2-1 in the final against Wrexham in the final of 1995.

The club was founded in August of 2000. Lebanese commercialist Sam Hammam bought the club's assets and was appointed Steve Borley as chairman. Soon after his appointment the chairmanship, he made a controversial pledge to convince the whole Welsh nation to back Cardiff by changing the club's name to "The Cardiff Celts" and changing the colors of the club to red, green and white. After long discussions with the senior players and supporters and players, he concluded that the best strategy was to not alter names of his club. The club's crest was updated and the new design included it with the Cardiff City bluebird in front of the flag of Saint David and featured the club's name superimposed on high-points of the emblem. Hammam provided funding for the signing of numerous new players to Cardiff City, and the new manager Lennie Lawrence led Cardiff to promotion after they took their Second Division play-off in 2003 against Queens Park Rangers. The substitute Andy Campbell came off the bench to score the winning goal of the extra-time period and make sure Cardiff was promoted into Division One after an absence of 18 years.

The club faced growing financial problems in the following years. Plans to build the construction of a new stadium failed get approval from Cardiff Council because of concerns regarding financial security in the year. Hammam was then able to agree to be taken over by an alliance led by the its new chairperson Peter Ridsdale and the lead developer of the venue, Paul Guy. In the 2007-08 season, Cardiff reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the first time in 81 years following defeating Middlesbrough with a 2-0 win on the 9th March 2008. After advancing to the semi-final match against Barnsley by a 1-0 victory on the pitch at Wembley Stadium on 6 April thanks to a goal scored by Joe Ledley. However, they lost by 1-0 against Portsmouth at the end of their semi-final.

In May of 2010 Datuk Ghee Chan Tien was appointed chairman of the club in response to a takeover offer by an Malaysian consortium. Vincent Tan also invested and joined the board. Tan then became Cardiff's largest shareholder following the purchase of several other directors . He also acquired approximately 82 percent of the shares of the club. In 2011, the club was appointed by Malky Mackay as their manager. Mackay led the team into the League Cup final for the first time in the club's history in his debut season. The next campaign, Cardiff won the 2012-13 Championship title and was promoted to the top division in English soccer for the very first time in 52 years. On August 18, 2013 Cardiff took on their very first home Premier League match against West Ham United which they lost by 2-0. Cardiff lost just three times during the first part of the season. Then the 27th of December, 2013, Mackay was sacked by Vincent Tan and replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Despite the change of management, Cardiff were relegated to the Championship following a single season, following a 3-0 home defeat against Newcastle United. Solskjaer was dismissed on September 18, 2014, following an unsatisfactory start to the Championship season. He was then replaced with Leyton Orient manager Russell Slade.

In October of 2016, Neil Warnock was appointed the first-team manager at Cardiff. Warnock became the manager in the midst of Cardiff at the bottom of the table following two wins in 11 games. He led the team to a 12th-place final after a strong performance. The 2018 season witnessed Cardiff set a new record of their club when they won their first three league matches of the season for the first occasion in the club's nearly 107-year professional history. The club was promoted into the Premier League after finishing second in the league table. However, they were sent again to the Championship following a single season.

Warnock quit as manager in November of 2019 after a disappointing start to the season . He then was succeeded by Neil Harris. Harris led Cardiff to 5th place but was beaten in the Championship semi-final of the playoffs. After six consecutive defeats Harris was dismissed on January 21 in 2021. The new replacement Mick McCarthy, was appointed the next day. McCarthy began his career with a bang with 7 wins and scoring 3 of his first 10 games. He also helped Cardiff to an eighth place final, and a brand new contract for two years during the process. City also got off to a great start in 2021/22, but the form faltered after they lost 8 games in a row, before McCarthy was let go of his duties as the team was just two points ahead of being relegated. The manager for the under 23s Steve Morison was appointed as manager in caretaker capacity before signing an 18-month contract following his successful guide of the Bluebirds to the safety of.

Cardiff has a huge region of coverage from which it can draw supporters. There are only two teams of professional football (Swansea City as well as Newport County) sharing the South Wales region, the closest one being about 40 miles (64 km) from the city, the team receives a lot of support from cities like Cardiff and the nearby South Wales Valleys. As it is a Welsh club in the English football league system, nationality is thought to be a significant element in the fan's support and many of the matches played by the club are believed to have Welsh international rivalries that are fought with England. In the 1980s, when the club was struggling with the lowest divisions in English football, attendances fell to a low of around 3000 per game. A rise in the club's fortunes led to an improvement in the number of fans. The average attendance for home games increased by 12,522 to 3,594 during 1997 between 1997 and 2002. The promotion to the second division in 2003 saw further rises in attendance. The opening of Cardiff City Stadium Cardiff City Stadium led to average attendances of 20,000 and a peak of between 28,000-31,000 over two seasons in the Premier League. Despite this it has been seen as having fewer supporters than other teams with similar standings. The reason for this is many factors like the controversial switch to red shirts in 2012 and 2015, with some supporters being thought of as fairweather supporters and a lack the atmosphere.

Welsh national identity is also a major contributor to the fan culture of the team. "Men of Harlech" is a popular song popularized through the 1964 film Zulu that depicted a war involving the members of a Welsh regiment, as well as "I'll be There" which is a riff of a miners' song that became well-known during 1926's United Kingdom general strike, are often sung prior to and during games. The Ayatollah gesture, which involves raising both arms upwards and down in front of the head while patting it has become synonymous with the team and its supporters in celebration since its inception during the 1990s. It has gained popularity with Cardiff supporters outside of football to show their support for the club, with boxer Nathan Cleverly, Olympic swimmer David Davies and rugby player Gareth Thomas all having performed the act at various times during their career.

The South Wales derby, Cardiff City's biggest rivalry is with neighbors Swansea City, and over 100 games were played across all competitions between them. Swansea's very first match played competitively after their formation on 1912 took place in 1912 against Cardiff as part of the Southern Football League. The rivalry was relatively friendly up until the 1970s and into the 1980s. The economic issues, like the UK miners strike, rivalries among the cities as well as the rise of football hooliganism caused a number of violent confrontations between fans at the games. One match in 1993 was nicknamed "The Battle of the Ninian Park" because of its severe violence, and led to away fans being barred from all games between the two teams during the span of four years. Cardiff star Jason Perry described the period as "the dark and deep days in the Derby". After the ban was lifted, "bubble trips" were made available to away fans who could only go to games by convoys of police-instructed vehicles between and to the venue.

Another rift in politics between the two cities was triggered due to the Welsh devolution referendum of 1997, when Cardiff was selected as the location for the newly established Senedd even though the majority of the city's residents having voted against devolution. Swansea who overwhelmingly was in favor of devolution, received funds for a national pool instead. Alan Curtis, who played on both sides, said, "I think Cardiff has always been viewed [...] as a recipient of whatever money is available. It appears to me that everything is channelled to this direction". The club also has an ongoing rivalry with Bristol City, known as the Severnside derby and in lesser degree, Bristol Rovers. Also, there is a less intense rivalry with Welsh neighbors Newport County due to the proximity of both Welsh cities. They have not played one another in the past, due the fact that Cardiff being in the higher leagues. Overall, they've played just the equivalent of 20 Football League games against each one another. A poll conducted carried out by Football Fans Census in 2003 found Swansea, Bristol City, and Newport named as Cardiff's top three rivalries while Stoke City matching Newport in the third position.

in the 80s, a gang of hooligans group dubbed The Soul Crew emerged from within the fan base of the club. The group gained notoriety for their violent confrontations with rival fans, and brawls among sets of fans at football games as well as other events.

Cardiff City Football Club Stadium

Cardiff's first stadium was Sophia Gardens recreational park, in which they played since the time of their formation from 1899 to 1910. As the popularity of the team, Bartley Wilson contacted Bute Estate which owned huge areas of Cardiff in the early days and was trying to locate land suitable for an arena. They finally settled to build a stadium on a waste field situated on Sloper Road. It was once a trash dump that required a lot of work to create a suitable surface. However, thanks to the assistance from Cardiff Corporation and volunteers, the project was completed. The initial plan of naming the stadium Sloper Park however Ninian Park was named to honor Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart who was an influential factor in the construction of the stadium. The ground played its first game on 1 September 1910 in an friendly match with Aston Villa; Lord Crichton-Stuart officially kicked off the match.

The stadium was constructed with one stand. Another stand, which was replaced by an embankment of earth that could accommodate 18,000 spectators, was built in 1928. It hosted its first international game in the month of March 1911, an Welsh fixture against Scotland. At the close of its life the stadium was substituted for international matches in the form of Cardiff Arms Park as doubts were raised about the security of the old ground. The record attendance at the stadium is 57,893. It was recorded during a league fixture against Arsenal on the 22nd of April, 1953. The diminution of facilities during the 1970s and the 1980s due to concerns about safety that saw the stadium's capacity shrink to 22,000 resulted in the record being held until the day the ground was shut. In its last seasons of operation the club was obliged to obtain a special permit from the authorities to maintain the remaining open areas of the stadium open beyond the three years that was granted to clubs of Championship or above to take them off.

The club's construction began in June 2009. Cardiff City finished the construction of a 26,828 seat stadium that was built on the site of the former Cardiff Athletics Stadium at a cost of PS48 million. The stadium was named "Cardiff City Stadium". The three stands retained the names that were used at Ninian Park - the Grange End, the Canton Stand and the Grandstand. The fourth stand was called Ninian Stand. Ninian Stand. The stadium's name rights were scheduled to be sold to a club hoping to earn an estimated PS9 million revenue. However, they are still unsold. Even though a preseason friendly in the league against Chasetown was played on the stadium with a limited capacity to test safety equipment The stadium officially opened for play by playing a friendly match against Scottish club Celtic on the 22nd of July, 2009. The first match that was that was played at the venue was played on August 8th, 2009 on the first game of 2009-10 season when Cardiff beat Scunthorpe United 4-0. Scunthorpe United. At the time of its opening, the Cardiff Blues rugby union club moved away from its Cardiff Arms Park home to share the stadium with Cardiff City. The move was not popular with fans of the club, and it came back to Cardiff Arms Park in 2012.

In the years following the stadium was constructed, plans to improve and expand the stadium were first conceived. The expansion plans were finished in August 2014 and the capacity of seating was increased to 33,316. In March of 2015 it was announced that the Ninian Stand extension was to close during the season 2015-16 due the low sales of tickets, which reduced it to 27,978 capacity. The stand was opened in the following year due an rise in demand.

Record for most games across every competition is held currently by Billy Hardy who appeared in 590 games from 1911 to 1932. This included during the Southern Football League. Phil Dwyer has made the most appearances during the Football League era, having participated in 575 games. Len Davies is the club's most prolific goal scorer with scores of 179 in every competition. Other players like Peter King, Robert Earnshaw, Brian Clark, Carl Dale, Derek Tapscott, Jimmy Gill and John Toshack have scored more than 100 goals for the club.

Jack Evans became the first Cardiff City player to win an international cap on the 13th of April 1912, when he represented Wales with a score of 3-2 loss of Ireland. The player who has earned the most caps during his time as an Cardiff club player was Aron Gunnarsson. He earned the most caps with 62 from Iceland during his time with Cardiff City. The highest transfer fee that the club has ever paid for a player was PS15 million to sign Emiliano Sala, who joined from Nantes in January of 2019. A few days after his signing, Sala died in a plane crash that occurred in the English Channel. Gary Medel became the most expensive player to be sold by the club when he signed with Inter Milan for PS10 million in August 2014.

Cardiff's biggest win was a victory of 16-0 over Knighton Town in the fifth round of the Welsh Cup in 1962. Their most significant league win was a 9-2 win over Thames on the 6th of February in 1932. Their most significant FA Cup victory was an 8-0 win over Enfield on the 28th of November in 1931.

Cardiff City's honours include the following:

First Division (As first tier)

• Runners-up: 1923–24

Second Division / Championship (As second tier)

• Champions: 2012–13
• Runners-up: 1920–21, 1951–52, 1959–60, 2017–18
• Play-Off Runners-up: 2009-10

Third Division South / Third Division (As third tier)

• Champions: 1946–47 (South)
• Runners-up: 1975–76, 1982–83
• Play-Off Winners: 2002-03

Fourth Division / Third Division (As fourth tier)

• Champions: 1992–93
• Runners-up: 1987–88, 2000–01
• Promoted: 1998-99

Southern Football League Second Division

• Champions: 1912–13

FA Cup

• Winners: 1926–27
• Runners-up: 1924–25, 2007–08

FA Charity Shield

• Winners: 1927

Football League Cup

• Runners-up: 2011–12

FA Youth Cup

• Runners-up: 1970-71

Welsh Cup

• Winners: 1911–12, 1919–20, 1921–22, 1922–23, 1926–27, 1927–28, 1929–30, 1955–56, 1958–59, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1972–73, 1973–74, 1975–76, 1987–88, 1991–92, 1992–93
• Runners-up: 1928–29, 1938–39, 1950–51, 1959–60, 1993–94, 1994–95

FAW Premier Cup

• Winners: 2001–02
• Runners-up: 1997–98, 1999–2000