Posted by Even when it comes to Welsh rugby, this last week was packed particularly full of controversy, drama, anger and frustration. From businesses being sold and multi-club ownerships, to Parliamentary Select Committees and CEO statements, and then supporter protests and statement performances on the field.
Of course the major news is that Ospreys majority owners Y11 Sport & Media Limited have been selected by the Welsh Rugby Union as the preferred bidder for Cardiff Rugby and will now enter a 60-day exclusivity period during which they will attempt to thrash out the final details of buying the capital club.
It’s news those of us of a Blue & Black persuasion feared would come, but hoped wouldn’t and that the competing bid from Martyn Ryan’s consortium would be successful. The energy and enthusiasm, as well as the big plans they had, were very welcome and hugely exciting.
Who knows, they may have the chance to return to the table if the current preferred bidder falls through.
For now though it seems Y11 will crack on with buying Cardiff as the WRU confirm that they intend to run both ourselves and the Ospreys as separate teams. The Ospreys future is uncertain beyond the summer of 2027, meanwhile “brand and heritage” was considered in the decision to go with Y11 and the Blue & Blacks will “remain an independent club and brand playing at Cardiff Arms Park”.
Over the last few weeks the opposition to the Ospreys owners potentially coming to the capital has been particularly vociferous, led by CF10 Arms Park Rugby Trust through some excellent blogs and the media appearances of chair Lynn Glaister.
The case made has been centred around the positive reaction to Ryan and his consortium, the complete lack of desire to be seen as the team who survives at the expense of a fellow Welsh club to the west, and the distinct lack of trust that Y11 would retain were they to leave the Ospreys to close in favour of switching up the M4.
Yet despite that excellent work from the Trust and the similar reaction it has provoked across social media, it seems Y11 have continued to crack on with the purchase undeterred. Why? That is the million dollar question.
Clearly there is big business potential in the capital; a club that turns over £13m-plus, a city centre location in one of the fastest growing capital cities in Europe, and a possible stadium redevelopment on the horizon that could take the company to the next level as a commercial entity and in a rugby sense. There’s an undoubted attraction there for bidders.
Whether that alone is worth the hassle and backlash of seemingly turning your back on the existing club you own in favour of a rival is the great unknown though, or whether the WRU have offered some sort of incentive around the repayment of covid debts or in a model of central contracting. That would be a risky move in terms of negotiating with the other sides on a new deal, but wouldn’t necessarily be a surprise.
Whatever the main driver for Y11 is though, clearly it is something which means they are happy to soak up the rejection of their buying of the club by supporters. So attention then turns to how we as supporters could stop the sale going through. A petition has got over 2,000 signatures, a silent protest of phone lights got a good response against Benetton, while partial boycotts and marches have been spoken about.
What this last part of this piece aims to do though is underline what sort of future awaits Y11 should they complete the purchase and become the owners of the historic Cardiff Rugby Club.
They will never be trusted. They could deliver an original skull and crossbones jersey, a return to the long-time club badge for the first team, help with a newly redeveloped Arms Park, sign Antoine Dupont and inject enough money to do a United Rugby Championship and Investec Champions Cup double, but they will constantly have a cloud of suspicion around their intentions hanging over them.
As people they will never be comfortable at the Arms Park. James Davies-Yandle and his colleagues will forever be viewed as the people who turned their backs on the Ospreys and essentially left them for dead. How does one look at themselves in the mirror knowing they have chosen to take jobs from people and removed the importance of a rugby club to the supporters and the wider community? Not the sort of individuals I, and I suspect many other Arms Park regulars, would wish to interact with.
And for the rest of time they will be referred to as those who sold the Ospreys down the river. When written about in the media they will be “the former Ospreys owners”, when referred to on the terraces they’ll be “them that killed the Ospreys”, and in history books it will be remarked how they arrived under a cloud having betrayed their former club.
If that’s a future they want to sign up for then best of luck to them, but they will not get an easy ride at the Arms Park. Without wishing to appear critical of supporters who give up their own time to run supporter organisations or media, Y11 have largely been allowed to act as they want at the Ospreys. There has been little or no public pushback even when it became obvious they were in to buy Cardiff for a second time.
That will not be the case at Cardiff where the likes of CF10 and those of us with an online presence are more than happy to get stuck in to the club when events are taking place we don’t agree with. Maybe sometimes too keen to do so! Which is not necessarily a bad thing.
The hope continues to be that Y11 will have a change of heart and drop out in favour of Ryan & co returning to the process and buying the club, but in the meantime all we can do is keep the pressure on as the selling process continues. The WRU are taking a lot of heat online, but none of this happens without Y11 wanting out of the Ospreys and into Cardiff.
Don’t let them off the hook.
Cardiff Rugby Life 