£5,000 Boost For Ty Hafan

22 October 2009

Cardiff City's new shirt sponsors SBOBET.com kicked off their partnership with the Bluebirds by handing a £5,000 cheque to Ty Hafan children's hospice.

SBOBET.com chief executive Bill Mummery presented the cheque to Frank Ady of Ty Hafan at our match with Coventry City.

Cardiff City chairman and chief executive Peter Ridsdale said: "We are very proud to be associated with SBOBET.com. We were delighted to get a sponsor who cares about being involved in football. They are already connected with West Ham of the Premier League, which is where we aspire to be.

"We're also delighted because we are associated with a sponsor who feels very strongly about doing the the right thing. SBOBET asked whether we had a charity that we could dovetail our relationship with. I was delighted to recommend Ty Hafan, which does outstanding work in the local community.

"Our under-18 and under-16 shirts and all junior replica kit will bear the Ty Hafan logo. That demonstrates the way this partnership will be working."

Bill Mummery said: "I was introduced to Peter by phone some weeks ago. I was in transit from Copenhagen travelling down to Singapore. What's nice is that we hadn't met until today! We had our discussions starting in Copenhagen. I had a chat with Peter in London over that weekend, then a couple of calls from Singapore and then the following Monday from Manila in the Phillipines. The next day you had the game against Derby with the brand on your shirts, so we did the whole thing in two weeks.

"That requires an enormous amount of trust and goodwill on both sides. There is a model in our relationship with West Ham. The Bobby Moore cancer charity is a very strong part of their culture and we created a model that we thought was valuable. So it was very easy and very quick to agree with Peter that this was the way we should move forward. I'm delighted to be associated with Cardiff City and delighted to be associated with Frank and Ty Hafan.

"In my view, five to ten years from now businesses operating in a community will have to wake up to the fact that they absolutely have a reponsibility, an obligation and a privilege to engage with that community and put something back into it and to be seen to be a bigger part of that community's values and aspirations. And it won't be boards of directors or shareholders who will call that agenda, it will be our customers. They won't associate with the values of business who don't conduct themselves it that way.

"It may be slightly ahead of its time, but it has to be the right way. I'm hoping to get down to Ty Hafan and see the work that goes on there in the same way that Cardiff City built their relationship with them."

Frank Ady, head of corporate partnerships at Ty Hafan, said: "We were delighted when Peter rang us to tell us about the new relationship and that Bill and co had selected us as junior sponsors. It meant so much to us to get the name of Ty Hafan out there and it's a reflection the values and integrity of SBOBET that they have discussed that from the outset.

"We have had a relationship with Cardiff City for a number of years. Players have visited the hospice and believe in what we do. A lot of the players were moved by those visits and this will help that relationship go from strength to strength."