How Cardiff chairman Dalman aired his views to Boris over a whisky
CARDIFF City chairman Mehmet Dalman has lashed out at football’s governing bodies for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic and even raised his concerns with Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The impact of Covid-19 has shaken football to its core, with clubs up and down the country facing the very real struggle of trying to steer themselves away from financial oblivion.
Dalman himself has warned Cardiff will not have wads of cash to spend in the summer transfer window owing to the severe impact the crisis has had on the club’s finances.
He believes the damage being felt below the Premier League could have been mitigated if better governance had taken place and the Bluebirds chief has launched a withering attack on football’s decision-makers.
“Football’s governing bodies, whichever one you pick, have been ineffective,” he told Off The Pitch.
“The FA, Premier League, EFL, the PFA, have shown no ability to lead anything in this crisis, in fact they’ve done nothing.
“At the end of the day, the governing body that governs Cardiff City is the EFL, and I have seen absolutely nothing from them to give me any confidence that they will do the right thing which is to step in and help clubs.”
He goes on to describe the EFL’s leadership as “weak” and called for all of its members to work towards achieving a unified view on how best to move forward.
Dalman believes that in order to ensure the game is financially sustainable moving forward it would need some participation from political leaders.
He said he raised his concerns with Mr Johnson “over a glass of whisky”, but the PM was not fully engaged owing to the volume of other issues he is tackling.
But Dalman is fully aware of the challenge facing Championship clubs and reiterated that Cardiff, despite being fortunate enough to have a wealthy owner in Vincent Tan, are not immune to the concerning impact coronavirus has had on the game.
“As well as Wigan hitting a brick wall (going into administration), in the Championship there are going to be quite a few clubs in financial difficulty, including us,” he added.
Dalman is against the notion of government hand-outs, believing taxpayers’ money could be better spent elsewhere.
Instead, he thinks there should be far better distribution of funds from higher up to ensure the game below the Premier League is on a better financial footing.
“I think you need a bigger redistribution of income that comes into the game,” he said.
“The Premier League is sitting on £1.5bn. If you only distributed 20 per cent of that into other leagues everybody would be all right, but they’re not prepared to give £1m away.
“Their strategy is keep your head down, let the storm blow over and we’ll all be back to good times again.”
The Bluebirds last week announced the signing for Kieffer Moore from Wigan for a fee believed to be around £2million.
Shortly after the Wales international signed, Cardiff boss Neil Harris was quick to curb expectations about a summer spending spree, claiming City’s other arrivals this summer will likely come via loans or free transfers.
City’s top brass have made it clear this season, even before coronavirus hit, that the club were adopting a different financial model from what they had done in recent years.
Under Neil Warnock, the club spent over £100million in transfers in three years, albeit there was one season in the Premier League, but Cardiff are now trying to move away from that structure.
Instead, with Harris at the helm, they want to bring through young players and be shrewder when it comes to dipping their toe in the transfer market.
That applies more so now than ever. Players agreed to take a wage deferral at the height of the pandemic, but Dalman believed that option to be short-sighted as the club would still have to pay those salaries down the line.
Now, with players back playing but no football fans permitted inside stadia to drive income, Cardiff, along with all clubs, are being asked to front the bill for player salaries with drastically reduced revenue streams.
Dalman finds the whole predicament quite bizarre.
“We have to absorb player costs with no revenues,” he added. “I think that’s quite odd. They talk about wage deferrals, but how is that going to help? I don’t understand that. I don’t see how this is a viable business proposition.”
As football continues to get to grips with the financial impact of coronavirus, Dalman has urged the game in this country to adopt a complete restructure from top to bottom.
“Time has run out,” he added. “[There is an] opportunity to restructure this business we’re in, so don’t waste this. Our industry needs a big bang. It’s a great opportunity to do that, but it has to come from the top, not from the bottom.
“The minister of sport, all the chairmen and CEOs of all the organisations, from the FA to the Premier League to the EFL, should be saying, ‘look guys, we’ve got to resolve this issue.’”