Division: Championship  Tier: 2Status: ProfessionalBalance: OkayBudget: £0Training Facil.: Youth Facil.: Youth Academy: Stadium Capacity: 26,000Avg. Occupation: 79.7%Max. Occupation: 134.6%Introduction
Cardiff City are a Welsh club playing in the English N-Power Championship, one of only two Welsh teams playing in the English football league. Cardiff have had a bit of a notorious reputation over the last couple of decades, although have worked hard to lose that bad image, and are currently the Football League’s family club of the year.

History
The Bluebirds were originally formed as Riverside FC in 1899 as a way of keeping the Riverside Cricket side fit during their off-season. Needless to say that football quickly grew in popularity and overtook the cricket team within no time. In 1905, King Edward VII granted Cardiff city status and Riverside applied to change their name. This was turned down as they didn’t play at a high enough standard (at this point they played in the Cardiff district league) but a year later the club joined the South Wales League and became Cardiff City.

The 1920’s were the clubs most successful and remains so to this day. In 1924, the club finished runner up to Huddersfield in the Old First Division. A year later and the Bluebirds were at Wembley in the FA Cup final where they lost to Sheffield United. Back at Wembley again two years later, they beat Arsenal to life the FA Cup. Hughie Ferguson scored the winner as the Bluebirds were the first team to take any of the top 3 English trophies out of England. Ironically, they did this on April 23, 1927 – St George’s Day.

Cardiff City have played in Europe and did this predominantly in the 1960’s. They qualified through the Welsh Cup and had several memorable victories. Their first ever European tie was in the Cup Winners Cup against Esbjerg FB where they triumphed 1-0 over two legs. Two years later the Bluebirds reached the semi-finals of the same cup. They made history by reaching the furthest any non-top division side had ever reached (equalled by Atlanta in 1988). They lost in those semi finals, 4-3 to Hamburg, but there was more European exploits to come for the City. No doubt, the clubs most famous European victory came in the 1970/71 season. Despite John Toshack’s sale to Liverpool, Cardiff managed to beat European giants Real Madrid, 1-0 in front of 47,000 fans at Ninian Park. Brian Clarke headed that famous goal.

Up until two seasons ago, when they moved into a modern stadium, Cardiff played at Ninian Park. This was a proper old-fashioned British Stadium full of character and famous memories. It was their home for over 100 years and also held numerous international ties. The stadium held as many famous non-footballing events as it did footballing ones. In June of 1976, Bob Marley played a concert at a packed Ninian Park. Pope John Paul II also held a rally there in 1982. Unfortunately, Ninian Park was where the great Jock Stein died in 1985 during an international qualifying match between Scotland and Wales.

Honours
As mentioned previously, Cardiff City remain the only side to ever take the FA Cup out of England which they achieved on St George’s Day in 1927. They were also runners up twice in 1925 and 2008. In 1927, following that FA Cup win, Cardiff also won the FA Charity Shield. The Bluebirds have also won the Welsh Cup 22 times and the FAW Welsh Cup once, in 2002. Famously, they were runners up in the old First Division in 1923/4 harshly losing out on goal average. This was an old concept and had the current system of goal difference been used, they would have been crowned champions.

What have they been up to lately?
Under current manager Dave Jones’ guidance, Cardiff have become one of the best sides in the Championship and are currently challenging for automatic promotion to the English top flight for the first time since the 1962/63 season. With new Malaysian billionaires in ownership of the club and the new Cardiff City Stadium there is an air of stability around the club, something Bluebirds fans have not been used to. Former Wimbledon chairman, Sam Hammam, guided the club through the football league after he bought Cardiff whilst they languished at the bottom of Division 3. He undoubtedly did wonders for the club but like Wimbledon he left the club in financial ruin. Transfer embargos, unpaid tax bills, you name it - Cardiff have had it. Thankfully, they avoided administration and have now been stabilised under the new foreign ownership.

A few appearances at the new Wembley in recent years has pleased the Cardiff faithful, with appearances in the FA Cup Final 2008 and 2010 Championship Playoff Final. Unfortunately on both occasions they were crowned runners up, so there’s scope to improve!

Has anyone famous played for/managed them?
An abundance of famous players and managers have a connection with the club. Undoubtedly, the most famous man to wear the blue of Cardiff is legendary former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, who played for the club for a short time whilst based at local RAF base. From the more distant past Cardiff had two of the finest Welsh players on their books. John Charles and later John Toschack both called Cardiff their footballing home with both having distinguished careers with Leeds United and Liverpool respectively.

In recent years former international players pulled on the Cardiff shirt whilst in the twilight of their careers. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Robbie Fowler and Trevor Sinclair all played for the club in the past few seasons. The nurturing of talent has been at the core of Cardiff City in the recent past with many well known players having come through the ranks at the club. Joe Ledley, Robert Earnshaw, Chris Gunter and James Collins with them all moving on to a variety of big clubs.

So how does this tie into Football Manager?
There’s no doubt that Cardiff City would make for a very interesting Football Manager save. Returning teams to their former glories is something many enjoy doing in Football Manager, and that’s exactly what you get here. Why not take over the Bluebirds and attempt to re-take the FA Cup out of England, or ultimately go even further and be the first to take the Premiership trophy out of England. A sleeping Welsh giant lying dormant in England needs awakening.

A new, fairly big stadium, good youth facilities, and of course a fantastic squad, easily good enough to win promotion to the Premiership. The team is sprinkled with current internationals including; Chris Burke, David Marshall, Seyi Olofinjana and Jason Koumas. And of course the local hero- and everyone’s favourite footballer, Craig Bellamy.