Bluebirds memorabilia remains up for grabs

A host of prized Cardiff City items due to be controversially auctioned off this week has not been withdrawn from sale and look likely to be sold, it has emerged.

The memorabilia, believed to have been in the possession of the club’s historian, will go ahead on January 25 and 26, according to the website of Lockdales auctioneers.

Bluebirds officials had been involved in behind-the-scenes efforts to ensure the collection – which dates back to the beginning of the last century – would be retained and kept within the Welsh capital.

Sources at the club said at the weekend that the lots had been pulled from the auction as a result.

Yet it emerged last night that the vendor and the auction house were planning to proceed with the sale after all.

The memorabilia features everything from unique 1927 FA Cup Final mementos, to bound volumes detailing Board meetings, to player contracts – including those involving Welsh legends John

Toshack, who was sold to Liverpool, and John Charles, who was signed from Roma.

Many of the minutes of the Board meetings, from 1915 to 1972, are in copperplate writing and described by the auctioneers as “A truly unique piece of club history being the original Directors Minute Ledgers, Weekly Payment Records, Wages Books, Share Register, etc. Must be viewed (approx 35 volumes) Heavy.”

It is claimed the collection was gathering dust and was rescued from the old Ninian Park when the ground was demolished 11 years ago.

But there is believed to have been a behind-the-scenes dispute about ownership and the Bluebirds hierarchy were understood to be ready to embark down a legal route, if necessary, rather than let the items be sold.

Cardiff director Steve Borley and the club’s Head Of Operations Wayne Nash have been locked in behind-the-scenes dialogue to try to resolve the issue.