The sad passing of our Assistant Safety-Officer JEFF RICHARDS, who died at the age of 61 last Sunday at the University of Wales Hospital is a major blow to the Club. He was taken ill following our home match against Queen's Park Rangers on February 25th and was admitted to hospital where he remained until his passing three days ago.
Cardiff City manager Dave Jones said, "Jeff was a valued member of the set-up, a true servant of the club and will be deeply missed by all who knew him. We are holding a minute long appreciation to Jeff tonight by a means of applause, while the squad are donning black armbands as a mark of respect."
Cardiff-born Jeff was a former police-constable, originally with the Metropolitan Police whom he joined in November 1970.After two years with them, he transferred to South Wales Police with whom he spent the rest of his police service before retiring in 1998. He worked in the city centre headquarters in various departments before switching to Canton Police Station in the mid-1980s. He was Football Liaison Officer and Football Intelligence Officer covering Cardiff City matches, and was a keen supporter of the Club, so being on duty at our home matches over the years was very much something that he enjoyed being involved in.
Following his retirement from South Wales Police, Jeff joined our match-day safety-staff as a CCTV camera operator, as well as doing a similar job on match-days at the Millennium Stadium. In 2003 he was appointed deputy to our Safety-Officer Alan Kerslake, and Jeff's experience of dealing with crowds proved invaluable.
Upon hearing the news, Cardiff City Chairman Peter Ridsdale has kept in touch with Jeff's family and said, "Jeff will be deeply missed by everyone at Cardiff City. He was an integral part of the club and widely respected by his peers, working closely with many of us for our matches both at home and away venues. Our thoughts are with his family at this sad time."
He will be very much missed by our safety-staff, and Alan Kerslake in particular, who said, "I will miss him very much. He was my right-hand man in this job. He was a great guy and very popular with everybody. He was one of the kindest fellows that I have ever met."
For Vince Alm of our Supporters' Club, the loss of Jeff will be keenly felt. According to Vince, "Our first thoughts must be for Jeff's family and we in the Supporters' Club extend our deepest sympathies to them. I worked closely with Jeff on away matches where he was of major help to our fans. He helped us with any problems that we encountered on our travels, with tickets etc., and liaising with opposing clubs' stewards. In fact when it came to organising away travel for our supporters, he was in effect my right-hand man.He was there for Cardiff City to deal with the safety aspects of away matches as far as our fans were concerned, but he was always of help to them. He was a good friend to all City fans who regularly travel away, and his friendly demeanour will be sadly missed by us all."
Jeff's wife Stephanie, his daughter Alison, son-in-law Carl, and grandchildren Hannah aged 13, and Rhys aged 7 will be here tonight as we pay tribute to Jeff. They have sent the following message to us.
"Jeff was a true family man and Cardiff City was the love of his life. He was very much looking forward to being involved at the new stadium, and we would like to thank everybody for their overwhelming support during this very difficult time. Jeff would have been so proud."
The funeral will take place on Wednesday, March 25th at Coychurch Crematorium near Bridgend (11.30am). By request it's family flowers only, but any donations are welcome and may be given to the R.N.L.I. (Cardiff branch).
