
Originally Posted by
The Lone Gunman
My theories based on many hours of research in the central library:
Blue shirts (which were initially a lot lighter in colour) were chosen to mimic the rugby club, who were already very well established by the time Cardiff City became a professional football club. Incidentally, the early Cardiff City never played in the Riverside colours. Although CCFC was a further development of Riverside in some respects, they were basically two different clubs in reality. One was a parks team. The other was a newly-formed professional football club.
The original nickname of Cardiff City was the Citizens. By the early-Twenties when the club had entered the Football League, the team was being referred to in the local press as both the Citizens and the Bluebirds. I believe the Belgian play is a red herring. I reckon Bluebirds became favoured by City fans and the press in answer to local rivals Bristol City being the Robins and Swansea City being the Swans.