Cardiff on rise in tale of two Welsh cities

Last weekend saw the fates of Wales's two biggest clubs sealed. Swansea City and Cardiff City will cross paths again this close season, in a tale of takeovers by two London-based businesses. The former Wimbledon owner Sam Hammam's Cardiff will ascend to the Second Division while Swansea, owned by Ninth Floor, a London Stock Exchange vehicle, will crash into the basement.

Last weekend saw the fates of Wales's two biggest clubs sealed. Swansea City and Cardiff City will cross paths again this close season, in a tale of takeovers by two London-based businesses. The former Wimbledon owner Sam Hammam's Cardiff will ascend to the Second Division while Swansea, owned by Ninth Floor, a London Stock Exchange vehicle, will crash into the basement.

Hammam's renowned publicity-generating skills have awoken the whole football world to the Lebanese businessman's invoking of Celtic spirit and the Welsh nation in the revival of Cardiff, which his company took over for £3.1m last August. Swansea's story since their 1997 acquisition by Ninth Floor ­ so-called because they occupy the ninth floor of an office block on London's Marylebone Road ­ has been more muted. It is ending now in a cancelled flotation, the club up for sale again and relegation last Saturday, followed, on Tuesday night, by a 1-0 home defeat to Wrexham watched by 2,665 bedraggled souls.

Both clubs have underachieved for years, failing to grasp the large potential of their cities and wider Welsh football enthusiasm. Hammam is seeking to reverse that. Over £30m richer than when he arrived at Wimbledon, he finally left their Crazy Gang, David-and-Goliath image behind last year, having sold the old Plough Lane ground to Safeway, then the club to the Norwegian businessmen Bjorn Rune Gjelsten and Kjell Inge Rokke.

He arrived in Cardiff soon after the unveiling of the Millennium Stadium, and Wales's football internationals against Finland and Brazil which attracted, respectively, crowds of 55,000 and 66,000. Cardiff's then-chairman Steve Borley was looking for investors at the time: "How many 50,000-plus gates do you want to see before someone decides Cardiff City are worth a punt?" he asked.

Hammam's "punt" has included many old Wimbledon tricks; the former Dons manager Bobby Gould is director of football while the manager, Alan Cork ­ another ex-Wimbledon stalwart ­ has been backed with close to £2.5m in transfer funds.

From the beginning, Hammam has talked up Cardiff's potential market as countrywide, echoing the plan to expand Wimbledon's potential market by moving the club to Dublin. At Cardiff, he has proposed changing the club's name and badge, and appealed to Celtic and Welsh nationalism to a degree close to excess. As at Wimbledon, he is expert at mingling with the fans, watching some games from the terraces and talking of himself as head of a "family". The club's official website relates Hammam telephoning a supporter during last summer's takeover negotiations: "He said it was up to the fans to show passion for their heritage as Welshmen. We will only make it into the First Division if we have the backing of Cardiff, but can make it to the Premiership with the backing of the whole nation.

"Sam," the website continues, "will take nothing from the club. He wants to be with and part of the fans and show his commitment to the football side. He will not earn anything from being the owner. If his shares make him a fortune in the future, then good luck to him, he took a risk and it paid off."

At Wimbledon, he did make a fortune, and fans' feelings now run a little mixed. Hammam revelled in the aggressive impudence of the little club he took over in 1981 from Ron Noades for a reported £100,000 and spent 14 years in the top flight, as well as the famous 1988 FA Cup final win over Liverpool. There too he mingled winningly with fans while shrewdly managing the club's finances.

But Hammam moved the club from Plough Lane in 1991 without finding an alternative site. The reserves were charged rent for playing there, then in August 1998 Hammam sold the ground to Safeway for a reported £8m. Ground-sharing with Crystal Palace at Noades' Selhurst Park, in 1997, with football the financial flavour of the minute in the City, Hammam sold 80 per cent of Wimbledon for a reported £30m. Last year he sold the remaining 20 per cent of the club to Rokke and two other businessmen, Charles Koppell, the current chairman, and Matthias Hauger, for a reported £1.2m.

"We give great credit to Sam in our history for our wonderful rise," said Kris Stewart, chair of the Wimbledon Independent Supporters' Association. "But he has left a nasty taste. He made a hell of a lot of money out of our club. The fact he sold our ground without having found another one tarnished it for me."

While the Norwegians were arriving in SE25, Ninth Floor, then called Silver Shield, arrived in Swansea in 1997, also speculating for football riches. The chairman, Neil McClure, delivered the same rhetoric as Hammam: Premiership within five years, tapping Swansea's large potential in a new super-stadium. Now he frankly admits that it was purely a business venture.

"We are in the business of acquiring companies, turning them round and selling them on at a profit. The City had decided because of the TV money pouring in that football was wonderful. Swansea was a business proposition."

Ninth Floor's business is described by Hemmington Scott business information service as: "Provision of windscreen replacement, the operation of Swansea City AFC and the operation of a remote video monitoring service." Ninth Floor last year sold its car windscreen repair business to Kwik Fit, for £7.5m, a £2m profit. McClure says of Swansea that when the City lost its short-lived interest in the national game, his company could not raise the money required to turn the club round. It has still taken £4.5m to keep it going, he says, even though they have spent little in transfer fees ­ the most paid for a player was £125,000 for Steve Watkins. Two managers, Jan Molby and Mickey Adams ­ after a fortnight ­ both walked out, complaining that promised funds had not materialised.

Fans gradually became demoralised, despite the club's promotion last year. A new 25,000-seat stadium is being planned by the council on the site of the current Morfa stadium by the River Tawe, and the Swans' current ground, the Vetch Field, has decayed sadly during the wait. As late as last January, Ninth Floor was proposing to float Swansea on the Alternative Investment Market, hoping to raise £4.5m, equivalent to their own losses, but it came to nothing. In February it announced the club was up for sale.

"If we had had the money, we could have stayed in football," said McClure, a Norwich supporter who admits he has spent much of this season watching Arsenal. "But it has been a drain on our company. Our strategy now is to focus on technology-based solutions for building and property management."

Anthony Thomas, the editor of the Swansea fanzine website www.mouthfuloflead.co.uk, is scathing about the club's experience in the hands of these out of town speculators. "In four wasted years, this club has had the heart ripped out of it. Fans are defecting to the League of Wales or their armchairs, and Swansea City is reduced to struggling, with crumbling infrastructure, vulnerable to yet more take-overs and exploitation. This club has to wipe the slate clean, foster a sense of community and give the supporters a major say in its direction."

Any new owner fancying a punt on Swansea should benefit from the stadium move. Councillor Byron Owen said the council plans to have the stadium ready for the club to share with Swansea rugby union club for the start of the 2002-03 season. The money for the £25m stadium is expected to come from selling adjoining land for retail and leisure development.

"We aren't as fortunate as elsewhere: we have a football club with no money, a rugby club with no money, and a council with no money. As we say down here, we haven't a tap between us." The same cannot be said of Ninian Park, or its new owner, Sam Hammam. The Bluebirds are flying, the Swans sinking.

davidconn@freeuk.com