http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/cardiff_city/8915964.stmCardiff City have confirmed the debt-ridden Championship club "would love" to sign Wales captain Craig Bellamy.
The 31-year-old striker has been linked with a six-month loan deal to his home-town club as Bellamy is out of favour at Premier League Manchester City.
A Cardiff spokesman said: "With the number and names of the clubs being mentioned in connection with Craig, it is flattering that we are an option.
"But at this stage, it is pure speculation."
Bellamy last week revealed he would consider quitting football if he is frozen out at Roberto Mancini's big-spending City - and the City boss said the striker should find a new club after omitting the player from his 25-man Premier League and 23-man Europa Cup squads.
Scottish giants Celtic and Premier League Fulham, now managed by his hero Mark Hughes, have registered their interest in Bellamy while City's Champions League qualifying rivals Tottenham Hotspur also want the 59-times capped Welshman.
But Mancini - whose striking options include Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Jo, Roque Santa Cruz and new-signing Mario Balotelli - is reluctant to sell Bellamy to a Premier League rival.
Bellamy was one of the top-performers of last season's Premier League and scored his 18th Wales goal in their 5-1 friendly win over Luxembourg last week after admitting he "certainly wouldn't rule out" a move to last season's Championship play-off finalists.
And City would want Bellamy to move down to the Championship - but the Cardiff statement said: "Being connected to a player of this calibre, shows how far we have come to be even considered in a deal like this.
"We would love for it to happen but we are by no means alone in this. "
The Welsh club, who have survived two separate winding-up orders from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs this summer have debts estimated at between £15m-£30m that their new Malaysian major shareholders are bidding to restructure.
Boss Dave Jones admitted on Friday that Bellamy's wage demands could be an issue but the Cardiff fan, who trained with Cardiff last season when recovering from injury, publicly admitted last week that signing for the Bluebirds is an ambition.
"I've always wanted to play for Cardiff," Bellamy told a press conference.
"My wife and kids live here and I've missed them for the last five or six years.
"So that would have more of a pull more than most. I certainly wouldn't rule that out.
"Would I love to get Cardiff into the Premier League? Of course I would, I would have more of an impact doing that than playing 100 games for Wales.
"For us to move forward as a nation football wise we do need a Premier League team to come from Wales, either Swansea or ourselves."
Jones constantly stresses he never talks about signing a player until the deal is done but Cardiff took the unusual step of releasing a statement amid growing speculation that Bellamy will sign a six-month loan deal and be made Bluebirds captain.
The coup of signing Bellamy would be arguably Cardiff's highest-profile signing, but Jones did attract former Premier League superstars Robbie Fowler and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink to the Welsh capital a few seasons ago.
Cardiff, who want Bellamy to fire them to Premier League promotion, hope to have help from their Malaysian backers as well as Manchester City to pay Bellamy's wages.
And Jones admitted last week: "Craig's wages will be unbelievable.
"And the club will have to look at it, if it is a possible then we will look at it but we work within a budget.
"That budget will have to be broken and funded somewhere else - but that would be no different to any other football club."
Cardiff were under a transfer embargo for most of the summer due to their most recent £1.3m PAYE debt - a bill now paid - and have completed the signings of Jason Koumas, Seyi Olofinjana, Danny Drinkwater and Tom Heaton since the ban was lifted.
Chief executive Gethin Jenkins admits the club expect to suffer another transfer embargo soon so Jones knows he must work quickly to strengthen his squad.
And if Jones could sign Bellamy, that would add to a fearsome Cardiff attacking line-up that already includes last season's Championship top-scorer Peter Whittingham, playmaker Koumas and strike pair Michael Chopra and Jay Bothroyd.
But Jones said last Friday: "Too many players that I'm looking at are all been linked with everybody.
"Craig lives two minutes away from me and five minutes away from the training ground.
"And any player of that quality who says he wants to go to you and you've got a chance, then fantastic.
"A player of that ilk talking about this football club means we are doing something right.
"But don't forget It wasn't so long ago when we brought in Robbie Fowler and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and they don't come here if it is not being run right.
"Okay they were at the back end of their careers and Craig is certainly not at the back end of his but he has reasons why, which is only for him to decide - and if we're being named then fantastic. But we're a long way off.
"Listening to the TV Celtic are in for him so we're competing with Celtic and probably about another 20 other clubs. Our draw is we're five minutes away from his home and he is a Cardiff boy.
"But if you are putting it on a scale of one to 10 and 10 being the highest, then we're down in the ones - maybe minus.
"However, if it was a possibility, I would look at every option and I would ask the board to look at every option for any player."
Bellamy has been a Premier League regular since joining Coventry from Norwich in 2000 - except a five-month loan stint at Celtic during his time at Newcastle United - and played for Liverpool, West Ham and also Blackburn Rovers.
Bellamy has endured long-standing knee problems and has had career-saving knee reconstruction surgery in the United States.
I'm surprised he didn't have his family living somewhere in Cheshire while he was at Man City 
