Cardiff City will have no case to answer from the Football Association even if it is proved by the Football League that they have permitted third parties to exercise control over their players. At a time when Queens Park Rangers face a possible points deduction over the Alejandro Faurlín affair, differing regulations apply to the third-placed Welsh club in the same division.
Seven days before FA charges arose against QPR in March,
Digger revealed that Cardiff hold arrangements that may point to similar third-party influence over team affairs. Cardiff's director and lawyer, Alan Whiteley, denies that the agreements the club hold with the Cayman Islands-registered Player Finance Fund (PFF) constitute third-party influence. The matter is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Football League.
The arrangements pre-date the League's adoption of third-party rules at the beginning of this season.
So its inquiry relates instead to whether Ray Ranson, the former chairman of Coventry, exercised any influence over Cardiff's affairs through Sport Asset Capital, his investment company, or the apparently connected PFF, as indicated in Cardiff's accounts. This would be illegal under dual-influence rules.
It is believed Ranson, who along with his friend and vice-chairman, Gary Hoffman, quit Coventry in March, denies that either he or any company connected with him has made loans to Cardiff. Complicated?
There is one simple fact, however: even if it were proved that Cardiff players were under the control of the chairman of a rival
Championship club – which under FA rules might ordinarily lead to a severepoints deduction – there could be no repercussions as there are against QPR. That is because Cardiff are answerable only to the League and to the FA of Wales. An FAW spokesman said on Wednesday: "We have nothing in our statutes to cover third-party ownership of players." Surely it is time for Welsh clubs for them to yield to English rules.
