Owner of Cardiff City FC Vincent Tan has a phone conversation with his personal advisor :-
P.A. (on work experience at CCS, painting walls) - Uncle Vinnie.....I've heard there's a big game on Friday and it's almost a sell out!
VT - What? Nobody tells me anything. And the new manager just appointed.
PA - Yes, and I have very good news for you. You know your new red-seater stand where nobody normally goes?
VT - Yes, yes!
PA - It will be full and , what's more, all the fans will be wearing red!
VT - My boy, this is marvellous!.....it must be the influence of Slade.
PA - Yes, I love their songs, especially the Christmas ones, didn't know they were doing a concert.....
VT - Enough of that, you sound like a 'Western Mail' reporter. Tell me more, good boy.
PA - Well, the dragon will be displayed everywhere and we will have one of the best players in the world playing for us.
VT - Not Etien Velikonja at last?
PA - No, a local Cardiff boy called Bale.
VT - Never heard of him. Did we sign him on loan? Slade is a magician!
PA - No. Just one problem Uncle Vinnie. We will now be called Wales.
VT - I like it.....that means the whole country will support us, even Swansea fans , and I get to hug the big dragon mascot.
PA - You must turn up for this one and wear your best red shirt.
VT - Who are we playing?
PA - Bosnia- Herzegovina.
VT - Don't I own them as well?
PA - I don't think so, Uncle Vinnie.... they play in blue!
Something truly remarkable happened last Friday at the Cardiff City stadium.
No, I don't mean the Wales footie team drew 0-0 with Bosnia to maintain their unbeaten record in the Euro qualifiers.
I mean the fact that over 30,000 fans turned up (over 2,000 Bosnians, of course) and the atmosphere was simply the best I can recall since....well, actually, I can't remember.....probably v. England at the Millennium.
Though, in a way, this was better as a smaller ground generates that much more intensity and passion and the Bosnian fans were great, bopping up and down and chanting throughout.
A beautiful mistake, I thought I'd ordered tickets for my usual Ninian Stand, but had them for the standing section of the Canton instead.
I love standing. It took me back to the days of the old , wooden Grange End when I first starting following the Bluebirds : chanting, singing and ranting at the referee.
(The fact that a single spark from fag or match could have sent the whole thing up in flames like the dreadful Bradford disaster doesn't extinguish my nostalgia).
The truth is (as I've blogged before) football and not rugby is our national sport.
Rugby internationals may attract a lot more fans, yet there are whole swathes of Cymru which have no interest in it.
A lot of the Welsh-speaking north-west, such as Caernarfon and Bangor, as well as the north-east like Wrecsam all have much stronger footie traditions. Growing up in Aberystwyth even, it was football not rugby we played on street and park.
Rugby's areas of support come predominantly from the south, stretching from Carmarthen to Newport: it is a south Wales rather than national sport.
If our football team actually managed to qualify for a major tournament, I predict that the support would be unprecedented and come from the four corners of the country, as it did last Friday.
Swansea's Premier League success and the Bluebirds brief spell there has only added to this and it helps that the Wales captain is also captain of Swansea, Ashley Williams.
The team could even boast a Welsh-speaking midfield in Joe Allen, Emyr Huws and Aaron Ramsey ; common in rugby, this is a new phenomenon in footie.
What heartened me last Friday was the total unity of the chanting.
To be frank, I couldn't believe it!
There were constant chants for Ashley Williams and even a proper rendering of the Swansea song 'Ar Hyd Y Nos' ; all happening in the midst of many CCFC banners!
Of course, it's possible to read too much into this.
On Monday we could lose to Cyprus and fans could turn on Williams with that galling chant 'You're not even Welsh!'
All that unity of purpose, which saw players hug after the game, could disappear into disillusionment again.
However, there was a glimpse of what could be.....no, not just a 'glimpse' but a surge of emotion......a feeling of a small nation full of joy and confidence.
A moment, yes, but a significant one.
ON TO GLORY!
I just love those Welsh songs
'Nah-nah, nah-nah
Nah-nah'
and
'Dur-ra dur-ra dur-ra
Duh-duh'
from the four corners of the globe
well 'o bedwar ban y wlad'
gogs, hwntws, Cardis fel fi
Kairdiffians, Valley Boyz
Wrecsam fans, Westies
I just love those Brazilian rhythms
and the sheepshagger chanting
and, what's that?
'Ar Hyd Y Nos' ?
it's a Jack invasion!
standing on the Canton
like the ol' days of the wooden Grange End,
kids with their mobiles
and those vuvuzelas
and those flappy, snappy
free cardboard things
everyone's clapping
like old-time wooden rattles
one country together
singing 'Men of Harlech' -
well 'Nah-nah,nah-nah'
on to glory....
a 0-0 draw
and an almost victory.
P.A. (on work experience at CCS, painting walls) - Uncle Vinnie.....I've heard there's a big game on Friday and it's almost a sell out!
VT - What? Nobody tells me anything. And the new manager just appointed.
PA - Yes, and I have very good news for you. You know your new red-seater stand where nobody normally goes?
VT - Yes, yes!
PA - It will be full and , what's more, all the fans will be wearing red!
VT - My boy, this is marvellous!.....it must be the influence of Slade.
PA - Yes, I love their songs, especially the Christmas ones, didn't know they were doing a concert.....
VT - Enough of that, you sound like a 'Western Mail' reporter. Tell me more, good boy.
PA - Well, the dragon will be displayed everywhere and we will have one of the best players in the world playing for us.
VT - Not Etien Velikonja at last?
PA - No, a local Cardiff boy called Bale.
VT - Never heard of him. Did we sign him on loan? Slade is a magician!
PA - No. Just one problem Uncle Vinnie. We will now be called Wales.
VT - I like it.....that means the whole country will support us, even Swansea fans , and I get to hug the big dragon mascot.
PA - You must turn up for this one and wear your best red shirt.
VT - Who are we playing?
PA - Bosnia- Herzegovina.
VT - Don't I own them as well?
PA - I don't think so, Uncle Vinnie.... they play in blue!
Something truly remarkable happened last Friday at the Cardiff City stadium.
No, I don't mean the Wales footie team drew 0-0 with Bosnia to maintain their unbeaten record in the Euro qualifiers.
I mean the fact that over 30,000 fans turned up (over 2,000 Bosnians, of course) and the atmosphere was simply the best I can recall since....well, actually, I can't remember.....probably v. England at the Millennium.
Though, in a way, this was better as a smaller ground generates that much more intensity and passion and the Bosnian fans were great, bopping up and down and chanting throughout.
A beautiful mistake, I thought I'd ordered tickets for my usual Ninian Stand, but had them for the standing section of the Canton instead.
I love standing. It took me back to the days of the old , wooden Grange End when I first starting following the Bluebirds : chanting, singing and ranting at the referee.
(The fact that a single spark from fag or match could have sent the whole thing up in flames like the dreadful Bradford disaster doesn't extinguish my nostalgia).
The truth is (as I've blogged before) football and not rugby is our national sport.
Rugby internationals may attract a lot more fans, yet there are whole swathes of Cymru which have no interest in it.
A lot of the Welsh-speaking north-west, such as Caernarfon and Bangor, as well as the north-east like Wrecsam all have much stronger footie traditions. Growing up in Aberystwyth even, it was football not rugby we played on street and park.
Rugby's areas of support come predominantly from the south, stretching from Carmarthen to Newport: it is a south Wales rather than national sport.
If our football team actually managed to qualify for a major tournament, I predict that the support would be unprecedented and come from the four corners of the country, as it did last Friday.
Swansea's Premier League success and the Bluebirds brief spell there has only added to this and it helps that the Wales captain is also captain of Swansea, Ashley Williams.
The team could even boast a Welsh-speaking midfield in Joe Allen, Emyr Huws and Aaron Ramsey ; common in rugby, this is a new phenomenon in footie.
What heartened me last Friday was the total unity of the chanting.
To be frank, I couldn't believe it!
There were constant chants for Ashley Williams and even a proper rendering of the Swansea song 'Ar Hyd Y Nos' ; all happening in the midst of many CCFC banners!
Of course, it's possible to read too much into this.
On Monday we could lose to Cyprus and fans could turn on Williams with that galling chant 'You're not even Welsh!'
All that unity of purpose, which saw players hug after the game, could disappear into disillusionment again.
However, there was a glimpse of what could be.....no, not just a 'glimpse' but a surge of emotion......a feeling of a small nation full of joy and confidence.
A moment, yes, but a significant one.
ON TO GLORY!
I just love those Welsh songs
'Nah-nah, nah-nah
Nah-nah'
and
'Dur-ra dur-ra dur-ra
Duh-duh'
from the four corners of the globe
well 'o bedwar ban y wlad'
gogs, hwntws, Cardis fel fi
Kairdiffians, Valley Boyz
Wrecsam fans, Westies
I just love those Brazilian rhythms
and the sheepshagger chanting
and, what's that?
'Ar Hyd Y Nos' ?
it's a Jack invasion!
standing on the Canton
like the ol' days of the wooden Grange End,
kids with their mobiles
and those vuvuzelas
and those flappy, snappy
free cardboard things
everyone's clapping
like old-time wooden rattles
one country together
singing 'Men of Harlech' -
well 'Nah-nah,nah-nah'
on to glory....
a 0-0 draw
and an almost victory.
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