A community football club has been hit by vandalism for the second night in a row.
Cardiff Draconians FC, which has been a key hub of its community since for 60 years, confirmed that seats were damaged, barriers were ruined and glass was smashed on the pitch at its home ground.
The club, based on Llanidloes Road, also confirmed that children’s football practice had to be postponed for safety reasons.
Committee member Paul Yanez said he was sickened by the vandalism.
He said: “We’ve had spates of vandalism and antisocial behaviour for quite a period of time now, but this last week it has become really bad.”
Paul said the damage was so bad that the children’s football training had to be called off.
“We couldn’t guarantee that it was safe for them, which is a real disappointment,” he added.
The club in Gabalfa has a mix of players, some local and some from afar.
(Image: Cardiff Draconians Football Club)
Paul said he was even more disappointed as the senior side has now reached its highest level of football within the Welsh League. Cardiff Draconians are in the third tier of Welsh football.
“We live in a good community, we are finding over the last couple of years we have to expand our facilities,” he said.
Paul said the ground has developed hugely since when they first started.
“We have had to expand over the last couple of years with our facilities. We’ve built that park up from being a basic pitch out in the open to what it is today. I’m not going to say football stadium but it is a fenced in, has a stand in with changing rooms. It is quite considerable for the location it is.”
Paul said there is a small minority of people who are causing a lot of pain to the community.
“It is not just ourselves, anti-social behaviour affects our neighbours as well. They say now it’s becoming quite disruptive to them as well. “
The damage caused is expensive for the club to repair, he admitted.
“We rely on our members plus some small amounts of sponsorship but now we will have to spend money now on the damaged pieces of equipment.”
Paul said in the long term they we will have to spend thousands on new security equipment.
“We will have to get new fencing put in place as that is the only real answer we have at the moment. “‘
Paul said it isn’t just his club that is having issues.
“It seems to be a common them, most of the Cardiff clubs are experiencing similar things. It is so frustrating, especially for the people who volunteer, give their time, money and effort just to have a few people dump all over it. It is unreal and it makes you think, how do you fix it?”
The team is in contact with their local councillors and police to hopefully fix the issue.
We have approached South Wales Police for a comment.
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