Paid up! Now it’s time to stop the damage to Cardiff Blues’ reputation

FOR all their bluster at being threatened with legal action over some £200,000 in overdue rent for the use of the Arms Park, Cardiff Blues have done the decent thing and paid up.

They did so just days before the deadline imposed by their landlords, Cardiff Athletic Club which includes the city’s Welsh Premiership part-time rugby club. A sorry state of affairs and a source of on-going anxiety for Blues’ supporters. They deserve better.

How much better can be gauged by the reaction from the one organisation doing its admirable best to stop the bickering. The CF10 Arms Park Rugby Trust is ‘an independent voice for all supporters’ set up to ‘protect the past and embrace the future’.

The latest issue has prompted them to publish, ‘with great sadness’, an open letter to the management boards of Cardiff Blues Ltd and Cardiff Athletic.

It says: “The poor relationship which exists between the two inextricably linked organisations is doing immeasurable reputational damage to Cardiff rugby and is a major factor in our fall from grace in the rugby world. We call on both parties to come together and agree a way forward.”

A line from one of Pete Seeger’s best loved songs springs to mind: When will they ever learn….?’