Cardiff City Supporters' Trust have hit back at the club's brutal response to their open letter to Vincent Tan, calling their statement "disappointing" as the dispute between them deepens.
The club's board came out fighting on Monday afternoon, declaring Cardiff City Supporters' Trust "an unrecognised official entity" and accusing its leadership of a "self-serving agenda against the club they claim to support".
It came after CCST had penned an open letter to the club's owner in which it pleaded for more transparency over the strategy and direction of the club, better communication between themselves and the top brass, a relationship which the Trust say has deteriorated rapidly in recent months, as well as calling for changes at boardroom level.
READ MORE: Cardiff City's brutal statement over Trust's open letter to Vincent Tan
And on Tuesday morning, CCST chair Keith Morgan responded with the following statement: “We are very disappointed at the response from the club. We will not flinch from asking sometimes difficult but pertinent questions about the club we love and support.
“To suggest we are a group of self-serving individuals is not only insulting but patently wrong. Many of our board members have been fans of the club for more than 50 years and we will continue to support our club long after the current directors have departed.
“Of course, we back supporter representation on the club’s board with a representative democratically elected. That is something recommended by the UK Government’s Fans’-led Review which will be implemented over the next few years. It was made perfectly clear in the review that clubs should no longer pay lip service to its supporters.
“The Trust is proud to have organised the fundraising for the iconic Fred Keenor Statue, surely an example of our love for the club, along with raising thousands of pounds for charity and in recent times organised two foodbank collections, with support from club staff, to help those in food poverty.
“We are always open for dialogue - something we have been crying out for - and we hope the powers that be will engage as we’ve been trying to do so for many months. This has to be about the future of the club and its relationship with the people that matter most, the fans of this great club.
“The Trust was asked by the club – which we were happy to do – to handle the money donated from the Ukraine collections at the Cardiff City Stadium. The Trust has been liaising with local representatives of Ukrainian charities to target the funds collected at specific initiatives. It begs the question why the club then doesn’t consider us to be a ‘proper’ fans’ group?
“We can also confirm that we have continued to be recognised as a group by Football Supporters’ Association ever since we ceased to be a formal Mutual Society and that we are in the final stages of registration with the Financial Conduct Authority as a formal Community Society. The comment of not meeting the “minimum standards” of FSA membership is therefore just simply untrue.”
