I love old things. I studied history, after all. I bought my Ninian Park seat when the ground was sold for housing. On E-bay I have bought programmes from matches I watched as a ten year-old in the sixties – the Cup-Winners’ Cup games against Torpedo Moscow and SV Hamburg, for example.
As I have said before, I was a fan and a season-ticket-holder well before I was an elected politician.
On Tuesday night, I was as surprised as anyone to learn that there were plans to change our colours. ‘BLUEbirds’, I tweeted.
But do you know what? By Wednesday morning, I had realized that I would be watching City whatever the colour.
I have been a strong supporter of strengthening fans’ input into the club and backed the Supporters’ Trust from the beginning. I think there have been some great ideas from fans for compromises over the kit this week.
As I said in my inaugural speech in the Assembly, just a few days before the epic play-off final in which we beat QPR to enter what is now the Championship, I see Cardiff City Football Club as one of the few positive institutions which genuinely unites the City and the Valleys. I have friends who travel to games from the top of the Rhondda Fawr and the top of the Rhondda Fach.
I have been in Ninian Park on wet November Tuesday nights with just a thousand or so others as we battle it out to stay up in the dungeon. I don’t want to go back to that.
I did raise a few smiles in the Assembly Chamber when an email came round from another A.M. on Wednesday afternoon, asking us all to sign a motion opposing the changes. I emailed back asking how many games he had watched this season.
But even the Wembley Casuals are welcome.
I don’t know the Malaysian businessmen who own and run the Club and I have never met them.
But I do know that they are welcome here.
I have been appalled to hear about some of the things that have been said on message-boards earlier in the week.
I want a Wales that is ambitious and outward-looking, open to inward investment from all the corners of the world, whether it is Indian investment from Tata Steel or Malaysian investment into Cardiff City. I want Wales to succeed internationally. That’s why, after all, the Welsh Government leads delegations to the new major markets like India and China. I want Welsh businesses, products and sports teams to win in the world.
I believe in strong leadership, on and off the football pitch. And I believe in vision and ambition.
Sometimes strong leadership causes shock-waves. But sometimes shock-waves are needed to provoke forward movement.
Leadership backed by vision and ambition can succeed.
I applaud the ambition that brought Craig Bellamy to the club last season, and the ambition that wants to make Cardiff City a successful global brand, with an appeal to the football markets in the Far East.
I applaud the vision that sees the opportunities for the Welsh dragon in the markets of the Far East.
I want the debt to Langston erased, and a secure future for the club. I want a sustainable and successful Cardiff City Football Club, not a constant lurch from crisis to crisis.
One song we sing on match-day pays tribute to the Rhondda miners whose labour created the wealth that built our capital city.
When the coal comes from the Rhondda,
With my little pick and shovel,
I'll be there!
The coal may not come from the Rhondda any more, but do you know what?
I’ll be there.
Whether we play in red, white or blue.
I’ll be there.
And so, I predict, will 99% of City fans.