As ever, Ffwtbol sums up the only sane response to the shameful goings on in Cardiff.

The only issue I have is that despite the feedback from the fans they went ahead and changed the colours regardless - that is not acceptable. Otherwise, I honestly don't see the problem with changing a teams' colours or badge; it's happened to every club over the years.

It really hasn't. I can think of no British club that has completely changed their colours and emblem (and therefore their nickname) at a stroke in the modern era. Even Palace had some thread of consistency/similarity, though I still considered them a laughing stock.

Rick had already posted the link to this story on The Redbirds thread.

another sane response

supportersnotcustomers.com/2013/02/21/th...-the-bluebirds-died/

Excellent piece, it sounds like you or Harry writing it.

Thanks for the link Rick Derris.

There's nothing wrong with changing or evolving kits and badges but the way this has happened at Cardiff City just stands out as ruthless marketing ploy, which it seems most supporters are happy to swallow in return for the promised land of the Premier league where everything is great...........next step they'll be moving to Milton Keynes!

Harry Truscott wrote:


I don't think that is true, Harry.

72-73 kit, badge and presumably nickname given what is written on the badge;



And by 73-74...




There are others who have changed well established colour schemes (i.e. excluding switches made soon after formation when the club was still settling down) and associated branding as well.

Watford in April 1959

And in September of that year

There is also a set of black/white kits which they apparently used for 20 years before switching to blue/white for 30 and then yellow/black evolving to yellow/black/red

Scunthorpe Spring 1982

Autumn 1982

And as with Watford, there was a third wholly different colour scheme (white/blue in this case) used for a significant period.

Leeds also junked their original badge and got a new nickname based on the new kit when Revie ditched blue/yellow in favour of all white.

So it isn't as exceptional as is maybe being claimed. However, the reasons for changing are exceptional, and they should be the target of ire.

Heh, I've just discovered that Wrexham switched from blue to red shirts, presumably to emphasise their Welshness rather than to sell more replica shirts/because the chairman was an autocrat. Not in the modern era, though.

Also, there was a craze for adopting yellow or old gold in the 1950s.
As well as Watford, Southport went old gold/black in 1954 when old gold had first appeared in their kit in only 1952 (they were previously black and white stripes). As did Torquay in the same summer, no previous association with the colour but they were suddenly yellow/black/blue (black was quickly dropped) when all their previous league kits had been solely white and black. One guesses this is mostly Wolves doing. Or possibly anti-Newcastle feeling...?

Janik, I take your point but having looked at the Historical kits website, both Scunny and Watford returned to their traditional colours. When Watford started wearing yellow again, they also reintroduced their badge from 1927. And Palace's new colours were at least similar to those they wore previously. This change on the other hand shows a complete disregard for history.

There's something incredibly sad about fans willing to chuck a club's identity overboard in return for a big-money loan from an owner with no previous affinity to the club. That's what really makes this different.

Disagree on Watford. Those early kits are all pre-modern stuff, when clubs switched colours repeatedly.
Watford and their precursors did have yellow in some early kits, but it was one colour amongst many. By the modern era it was not a traditional colour of that club any more than red is traditional of Gillingham or pink of Everton. It is quite jarring to have it alongside what they had previously been wearing and what their fans must have been accustomed to.

Rather depressing replies on the Ffwtbol blog.

And "Fire and passion"? For goodness' sake...

Janik, can't really make much sense of your initial post as many of the images aren't visible to me.

My point was that there was some thin thread of consistency in even the most radical of previous changes in the modern era (Leeds had at least had white in their pre-Revie kit. Palace had sky blue and claret as elements of their colours before switching to royal blue and red).

I really can't think of any switch so all-consuming as the Red Dragons' and, as you say, more importantly never for the same cynical reasons and with such shameful methods.

It looks better if you go through the daily discussion page than via the article.

But basically Watford went from a kit of blue shirts, white shorts and blue socks (variations on which had been their kit from the 1920s) to a kit of yellow shirts, black shorts and yellow socks. There was extemely limited precedent in their history for these colours and it was almost certainly not with regard to this that the new colour scheme was chosen (see the Wolves speculation and the others that went yellow at very similar times). It wasn't long afterwards that a hornet started appearing as a badge, although it was soon replaced by their iconic badge design. I doubt there was any hornet association predating the new kit, Watford not being famed for large stinging insects.

Torquay - white/black/white to yellow/blue/black

There is no consistency in either. It was a complete rip it up and start again re-brand. Which is why I think it is the attitude rather than the lack of historical precendent about the Cardiff re-brand that is the most important thing.

Scunthorpe came full circle, rebranding three times and ending up back at their original colour scheme twenty-five years after abandoning it. They were probably the last club prior to Cardiff to change shirt, short and sock colours and badge all at once, back in the 80s.

Shrewsbury adopted the Blue and Amber that most fans identify as 'our' colours now in the late 70s. They were the Chairman's horse racing colours.

Janik wrote:


The Wolves speculation is probably the truth in our case. Hornets comes from the colours as far as I know, and not the other way round, so the colour change created the nickname. Before the 50s we'd been known as the Brewers, as Benskin's brewery pretty much owned the town back in the day, and sorted out Vicarage Road for the club. The only other realistic nickname we could've had would be an allusion to the printing industry, Hornets aren't really relevant to us even as town/district heraldry.

The reasons weren't as cynical as Cardiff's owners', mind.