Risdale book reveals details behind Hammam ouster from Cardiff

Welsh Cardiff City chairman Peter Risdale has come clean in his new book, saying former chairman Sam Hammam needed to be removed if the club was to be saved.

In "United We Fall – Boardroom Truths About the Beautiful Game" Risdale said the club was a financial disaster.

"In early 2005, I received a phone call from Sam saying he was in trouble and needed my advice," Risdale wrote. "When we met, he looked like a man with the world on his shoulders and when he outlined the mammoth financial burden besetting his club I could see why. If (Risdale's former club) Leeds thought it was in dire straits, you should have seen Cardiff's figures. It had GBP 30 million of debt, compared to a turnover of GBP 9 million. It had seemingly no chance of finding air to breathe."

Risdale added that he told Hammam he would help if Cardiff City could stay afloat for a few more weeks. Risdale did not think the club would survive that long.

But it did, and Hammam gave Risdale power to clean up the financial mess. Risdale saw one clear solution.

"The only way of keeping the club alive was to get investors to put money in," Risdale said. "But I emerged from meeting after meeting with investors and the local council with the same message: 'We'll only invest money in Cardiff if there is a change of control.'

"Informing Sam of this harsh reality was a tough task. His heart really was in the club and to have to wrench it away from him was like asking a parent to hand over his only child."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.