Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay has said supporters must trust the club's Malaysian owners after the change of colours from blue to red and the introduction of a new badge.
The club said the changes are part of a "major and significant" investment pledge from the owners.
Mackay says the club are in a better position as a result of the changes but understands some fans' objections.
"We've got to trust our backer," Mackay said.
Malky Mackay Cardiff City manager“I absolutely get the fact that the red or blue debate goes on and some of our fans will feel it's moving away from tradition”
"Everyone's trying to do their best for the football club going forward."
Cardiff will be wearing red rather than blue home shirts from next season after investors Tan Sri Vincent Tan and Dato Chan Tien Ghee pledged their commitment to the club.
Chief executive Alan Whiteley said the driving force behind the move was to put Cardiff on a firm financial footing, with the aim of gaining promotion to the Premier League.
"Obviously it's going to be different but change is constant in life. If you embrace and go with it then success can happen," Mackay told BBC Sport Wales.
"I absolutely get the fact that the red or blue debate goes on and some of our fans will feel it's moving away from tradition.
"But on the other side of that I've also been at Watford where we were two hours from administration and that being the case it's a scary place to be.
"If we don't have backing from a major financial backer then there's a good chance that could happen to football clubs.
"But at the end of the day I think we've got to be realistic that we've got Tan Sri [owner Vincent Tan] is actually backing our football club.
"He's someone who could have left the football club after the play-off final against Blackpool [and] could have walked away at that point.
"He could have walked away a year later when we didn't make it [and] could have walked away this summer."
Mackay said he was flattered to have been linked with the managerial role at former club Norwich City after Paul Lambert left the Canaries to join Aston Villa.
Norwich have since appointed Chris Hughton and Mackay insists he still has work to do at Cardiff City.
"I was flattered to be linked," said Mackay. "It's a club, that's well documented, is close to my heart. I had a long and successful period there.
"I do know the owners Delia [Smith] and Michael [Wynn Jones] well and I know that the chief executive has done a very good job at the football club.
"But I've got a project that I've started here, a project I'm working with really good people at this football club.
"I'm enjoying living in south Wales and working for Cardiff. This is a club that I want to push forward."
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
No sunshine for Jason in Florida - icDerry
Quality track and field action from Watford featuring Connor Bradley, National League competition in Antrim and Jason Smyth in Clermont, Florida kept the local athletics scene busy last weekend.
And there was also the annual Buncrana 10k road race on Saturday evening which saw Greg Roberts and Marina Campbell lead home a large field at the Inishowen venue.
The Sunshine State failed to live up to its billing once again as Jason Smyth failed to crack the Olympics 100 metres “A” standard on Saturday.
With clockings of 10.34s and 10.39s the Eglinton sprinter was off target again in the short sprint and he will now be returning from his Florida winter base to continue his quest at a series of races in Europe with the European Championships in Helsinki at the end of the month, perhaps the final shot at making the time of 10.18s or better, prior to the July 8th cut-off date.
Both he and coach, Stephen Maguire remain convinced of his ability to succeed and continue to plan for a summer which hopefully will see the Eglinton Flyer at both the London Olympics and Paralympics.
He also ran his first 200m of the season but in a wet track in the aftermath of a thunderstorm and was clocked at 21.25s. This was encouraging and was just 0.31s off his 200m personal best from last year. Jason had switched from the New York Diamond League meeting in favour of his “home” track in Clermont in a bid to avoid unfavourable weather conditions but the expected sprint friendly Florida conditions, sadly refused to cooperate and the quest continues.
Connor wins in Watford
The BMC Grand Prix at Watford on Saturday produced a new 1,500m PB for Connor Bradley when he impressed by winning his graded race in an excellent 3m 45.55s, ahead of two English runners.
And in fourth place came young Letterkenny athlete, Ruari Finnegan, who made the upcoming European Junior standard with a 3m 46.27s effort.
Just about half a second separated the top four in an exciting battle which the Spartan was delighted to win. Connor continues to improve and will target hitting the low 3m 40s figures as the season develops.
The two local clubs Olympian and City of Derry meantime were in National League action in sunny Antrim on Sunday and both squads impressed.
The female Spartans convincingly topped their Women’s Division One pool and look good in advance of round two next month. With a sweeping 11 event wins they saw off all the opposition and will travel, probably to Santry on July 22nd for the second round, pretty well nailed on for a spot in the eight team final and a shot at promotion to the Women’s Premier Division. Their stand-out performers on the day were Mary Devlin who posted a 100m, Long and Triple Jump treble and double Hurdles winner Emma McCay. The smaller Olympian squad finished in 5th place.
In the Men’s Premier Division the male Spartans relied significantly on their younger squad members and in a loaded pool did well to notch a total of 94 points for a fifth pace finish.
North Down, Tallagh, St Abban’s and reigning champions Clonliffe Harriers filled the top four spots but the Spartans kept alive their chances of making the League final with a spirited all round performance. Hopefully a few more quality bodies can be added to the squad for next month to boost the challenge.
Hammer thrower, Andrew Doyle was the sole winner on the day but second spots from Padjo Hamilton 400m, Mark McGarvey 110m Hurdles, Andrew again in the Shot and the sprint relay quartet of Mark McGarvey, Ryan McParland, Daniel Reid and Jack McCloskey contributed to a decent points haul.
The Olympian men were in Division One action and did well to claim the runners-up spot behind a strong Sligo County team. They posted a healthy 117 points and will fancy their chances of making the division Final for the second year in a row. John Coyle impressed with a Long Jump and 200m double as did Lee Barlow in the Throws and Patrick O’Donnell weighed in with another win as the squad maximised their efforts across the division’s 15 scoring events.
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London leading destination city in 2012-study - Reuters
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - The home of this summer's Olympic Games and the Diamond Jubilee celebrations for Britain's Queen Elizabeth is also the world's top destination this year, according to an index released by global credit card company MasterCard on Monday.
MasterCard's "Worldwide Index of Global Destination Cities" predicted that London will see 16.9 million people arrive by air compared with a million less for second place city Paris and airmiles ahead of New York at 13th place with 7.6 million arrivals.
The index also said that London, for the second year running, will attract the highest international visitor spend at $21.1 million, just ahead of New York at $19.4 million.
"London offers better value for money than New York," MasterCard Worldwide's global economic advisor Yuwa Hedrick-Wong told Reuters.
The queen's diamond jubilee saw London fill with visitors from abroad and around Britain for four days of celebrations at the start of June and the Olympics which will take place at venues in and around London from July 27 to August 12 is expected to pull in visitors from all over the planet.
"As our fantastic Diamond Jubilee celebrations demonstrated, London knows how to throw a party and, as we prepare to host the greatest Games the world has ever seen, it is no surprise our capital is the top choice for tourists," London Mayor Boris Johnson said in a statement along with Mastercard's index.
Well established international destination Bangkok was the other big winner in the index at third place with 12.2 million visitors who will spend $19.3 million.
"Bangkok's advantage is that it's a very tolerant culture," Hedrick-Wong told Reuters. "That explains its durability, especially attracting Europeans and Americans. I cannot imagine Western visitors doing the same thing in Malaysia, even China."
The Index, which encompasses 132 of the world's most important cities, is being marketed as a new map for understanding global connectivity.
Businesses and investors might find the Index's list of city growth rates of more interest than current rankings. Brazilian and Chinese cities also featured highly in the survey for both visitor numbers and spend.
"The growth patterns show how important cities are," says Hedrick-Wong, "and they're popping up from everywhere. They take on some really important local or regional significance overnight because of a new development."
Expect to hear much more about Recife and Belo Horizonte in Brazil, and Chengdu, Harbin, Xian and Guangzhou in China.
Using information gleaned from 87 airlines, national tourism boards, the United Nations and other global agencies, the MasterCard Index offers an optimistic overall forecast.
Total visitor numbers and cross-border spending will increase by 5.7 percent and 10.6 percent respectively for the top 20 destination cities in 2012.
The result is a bright spot in a period of slow world economic output, a persistent euro zone crisis and increased uncertainty in the financial sector.
"The growing need and desire to travel, especially by air, are set to expand in spite of the ups and downs of the business cycles," MasterCard's report said.
In a survey also out on Monday, by Mercer, London was ranked the 25th most expensive city in the world and the most expensive city for expatriates.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
Source: www.reuters.com
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