Public Project
City - The Season
Copyright Bartosz Nowicki 2025
Updated Jan 2014
Topics Action, Belief, Bluebirds, Britain, Cadiff City FC, Cardiff, Casuals, Community, Confrontation, Documentary, Editorial, Events, Fans, Football, Great Britain, Happiness, Photography, photojournalism, Premier League, Protests, soccer, Sports, Supporters, UK, United Kingdom, Vincent Tan, Wales, Youth
On their way back from Wembley after loosing the Championship play-off final for 2012, the Cardiff City FC fans heard for the first time that their club was to be rebranded. At the start of the next season the official colour of the club was to change from blue to red. Colour of the home kit is a part of a club's identity. In the world of football such decision is rather unheard of, so initially no one in Cardiff could believe could happen, but the wors happened. Vincent Tan (the club's majority owner) was the man behind the change and his decision has split the fans in two. All of the sudden nothing is the same. Friends stand against friends and there are dark clouds hanging over the club. On the field the season was the best in more than a half of century and the Bluebirds secured promotion to the Premier League. It seems however that success has come at a heavy cost after sacrificing what for many was most important - Identity."City - The Season" follows Cardiff City FC fans during the 2012-13 campaign, when the Bluebirds wore red. Nowicki presents his own record of the season and explore issues of identity and belonging generated by the club's controversial rebrand.Nowicki gets to the heart of what it means to follow Cardiff City, home and away, the anguish and exitement of watching the game, journeys to away grounds by cramped coaches, the harrying presence of stewards and police, the drinking, the singing and the joke playing and always the colours, shirts and tattoos that were the contested symbols of belonging during the season in which the shadow of the rebrand followed the fans to every corner of Britain.
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City - The Season by Bartosz Nowicki
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