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Preview: Cardiff's financial troubles could ruin play-offs bid
Cardiff City have more crucial long-term concerns than beating Posh and maintaining a Championship promotion push tonight.
Cardiff City have more crucial long-term concerns than beating Posh and maintaining a Championship promotion push tonight.Even a glamorous fifth round FA Cup tie at Chelsea pales into insignificance compared to the threat of financial meltdown.
Match coverage: Cardiff v Posh.
Cardiff could enter administration tomorrow and suffer a 10-point deduction which would send them sliding out of the play-off places.
Tonight's match could even be accompanied by angry crowd scenes. The last Championship fixture saw hundreds demonstrate outside the stadium after a 2-1 win over Doncaster.
The scenes were so volatile, Cardiff chairman Peter Ridsdale apparently left the ground via a window in the ladies toilet as demands of 'where's the money gone?' and 'Ridsdale out' were hurled in his direction.
Ridsdale, who was at Elland Road when Leeds United started to suffer financially, has been accused by fans of hiding the truth about the club's cashflow problems.
Cardiff face a winding up oder tomorrow. The Bluebirds have to settle a 2.7 million tax bill, but hope the sale of some land will be enough to stave off the the worst-case scenario.
It's against this background that manager Dave Jones must keep his players focussed on their promotion challenge.
Striker Jay Bothroyd, who is a doubt tonight after picking up a thigh strain on Friday night, said: "The fans are angry with the chairman at the moment, but to be fair to him he held his hands up and apologised.
"We are together as a club and the chairman is part of that club so he has the support of the players.
"We want to push in the same direction and that's to the play-offs. We can definitely get there this season."
Jones was just grateful to keep his squad intact during the January transfer window. Star striker Michael Chopra, last season's top scorer Ross McCormack and free-scoring midfielder Peter Whittingham were all linked with moves away from Wales, mainly because of Cardiff's perilous financial situation.
Jones' relief was soon overcome by a chastening experience at St James' Park on Friday night.
Jones said: "We have been inconsistent for most of the season and occasionally we will get turned over by teams like Newcastle.
"We can only bring in emergency loan players from now until the end of the season whereas Newcastle spent 3-4 million on signings in January. We will still win plenty of games though."
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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