Chairman across the Championship are aggrieved with Manchester City for giving Craig Bellamy to Cardiff City (6/1 – Championship outright) and paying his wages, according to John Ryan.

The Doncaster chairman has criticised the moneybags regime at Eastlands for allowing the 31-year-old striker to go on a season-long loan to Cardiff and continue to pay the majority of his wages.

Bellamy scored one goal and got two assists on his debut at the weekend as the Bluebirds steamrollered Ryan’s Doncaster (16/1 – to be promoted) 4-0.

The Wales striker is on a reported £95,000 a week at City and made the switch to Cardiff despite interest in his services from Premier League sides Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham.

At a time when Championship sides like Doncaster have to scrape around to sign players on the cheap and look to the Premier League to allow younger, unproven footballers to go on loan to them, the details of Bellamy’s deal has irked a number of chairman across the country.

Ryan told the Daily Mail it is not a case of “sour grapes”, as he would have done exactly the same as Cardiff if they had the opportunity, but he is more disappointed with City for allowing the deal to happen under the circumstances it did.

He has claimed that the move is going to “distort the integrity of the Championship” and harm what is an “incredibly competitive division”.

“Handing a striker of Bellamy’s quality to Cardiff – and paying most of his wages – undermines the sanctity of the competition,” added Ryan.

“Manchester City shouldn’t have done that. I feel let down by that, as do many other Championship chairmen.”

“If everyone goes to Cardiff and gets slammed 4-0 like us, the result will be an unfair competition because Manchester City are bankrolling Cardiff’s success.”

Despite Bellamy’s successful debut for the Bluebirds, he has moved to calm down supporters who are expecting him to single-handedly bring success to the club this season.

The striker said he cannot get Cardiff promoted on his own and all the players at the club need to “step up to the plate” if success if to happen to Dave Jones’ men this season.

Cardiff face League One side Peterborough in the Carling Cup on Tuesday and after that travel to face beleaguered Portsmouth (50/1 to win the Championship) on August 28.

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