Cardiff City owner insists he is not a 'villain'

Vincent Tan has spoken at length about his ownership of Cardiff City, with the Malaysian businessman insisting he is not the "villain" he is made out to be.

In an exclusive BBC interview, the 62-year-old even accused the British media of being "a little bit racist".

Tan, who upset Cardiff fans by changing the club's colours and sacking manager Malky Mackay, said the "vocal minority" who oppose him should "apologise".

Vincent Tan and Malky Mackay celebrate Vincent Tan and Malky Mackay celebrate promotion to the Premier League

And he is adamant he will not quit unless supporters drive him out.

"One day we are a hero, another day we are a zero," Tan, who bought the Welsh club in May 2010, told BBC Sport. "Without me, Cardiff would have gone bust. Because of my investment, we got promoted."

In a rare interview, and speaking for the first time since sacking Mackay in December, Tan also said:

•He has the backing of 90% of Cardiff fans
•He will never change the club's colours back to blue from red
•Mackay "got lucky" when he landed the job as manager
•He is "convinced" manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will save Cardiff from relegation
•Foreign owners are good for British football
•Plans to list Cardiff on the Singapore stock exchange have been abandoned
Much of the goodwill Tan gained after arriving in the Welsh capital has been lost because of the controversial decisions he has made.

But he expressed a firm belief that Cardiff, who sit one place off the foot of the Premier League table with only 11 games remaining, are in capable hands.

"I am now more involved and under my leadership the club will be in good shape," said Tan.

"Some of my family members really want me to leave. They think it's not worth it. They think no-one is grateful. But you have to be patient, accept the criticism and sometimes the insults."

Tan hopes to be able to tell fans the "truth" about the sacking of Mackay once a legal case between Cardiff and the Scot has concluded and stressed he wants to "unite" with them.

Vincent Tan "I wear sunglasses because of the glare of the spotlights. I wear gloves because it is very cold in the UK"

But he added: "No matter how much good you do, there will always be a few per cent of people who don't support you."

And he has little time for those who portray him as some kind of Bond villain because he often wears dark glasses and gloves when watching Cardiff's home games.

"I wear sunglasses because of the glare of the spotlights," he said. "I wear gloves because it is very cold in the UK. Frankly, sometimes I think they are nuts making all these comments."

He added: "The British press is unfair... maybe because we didn't tell our side of the story that well. When the time is right, I will tell my story. Sometimes the British press is maybe a little bit racist."

After initially taking a 35% share in Cardiff, Tan now owns about 90% and has paid off all creditors.

Who is Vincent Tan?
Age: 62

Nationality: Malaysian

Marital status: Married

Children: 11

Net worth: $1.6bn (making him the 10th richest man in Malaysia)

Source: Forbes

According to Tan, the club's only outstanding debt is about £70m-£80m owed to him, and he will decide in due course whether or not to convert that into equity.

Mackay was appointed in June 2011 by then chairman TG Chan and former director Alan Whiteley, a decision that might not have been made had Tan been more involved.

"He didn't do very well at Watford, but somehow our CEO and our chairman hired him and replaced Dave Jones," Tan said. "Dave Jones actually did much better.

"So I think Malky got lucky when he came to Cardiff. I invested a lot of money and then we went up. Do you think that Malky would have got us promoted without my investment?"

After reaching the Premier League, Tan alleges Mackay and ex-head of recruitment Iain Moody exceeded a £35m transfer budget by £15m - an accusation they deny.

Mackay and Moody also claim every deal was signed off by Cardiff chief executive Simon Lim.

"It went wrong when I found out that we overspent on transfers," said Tan. "I sent Simon Lim from Malaysia. He doesn't really know a lot about football, so he depends on the football expert.

“Perhaps they can find an owner who likes blue, pay up and buy me out”

Vincent Tan

"We have this expert always telling us 'leave the football to me, I'm the expert', so if the expert says 'do this, do this' and asks you to buy A, B and C, what can Simon Lim say? What can I say?"

Moody was replaced by Alisher Apsalyamov, a 23-year-old Kazakh who is a friend of Tan's son and was on work experience at Cardiff before leaving the UK after his visa application was rejected.
Tan praised Apsalyamov's "incredible football knowledge" and says his view that Cardiff overpaid on transfers "has been proved right".

Speaking at an event in Kuala Lumpur to honour his business and charity work, and celebrate his birthday, Tan joked about his Cardiff takeover, saying: "Sometimes I wonder why I did it."

But when asked in our interview later if that was true, Tan said his only regret was he did not take more control.

"Earlier on I was generous enough to give our football management too much authority and they went berserk," he said. "They went and did bad business. That was a mistake.

"But now I'm involved, I know the value and I study. Every business I don't know, if I spend enough time - a couple of months - I will know a lot. I know quite a lot about football now. I know the value of players and we won't do stupid things.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26366898

 

"Sometimes the British press is maybe a little bit racist."

well i agree there, but i haven't found a reason why he thinks that way, not seriously saying this because he is called a bond villain is he?

also even though this has nothing to do with our club, don't understand why he can't see why their fans don't want a name change, i get he has made them what they are with his own cash, but doesn't give him the right to mess about with the heritage of their club.

 

Oh! Yes he is!

 

He's a twat but what is worse is he is like Dave Whelan; can't keep his gob shut because its all about him.

 

There should be a reality show about this clown. I'm sure he'd love the cameras on him if they bowed to his presence.

He thinks that because he threw money at the club, the cub is now his whore.

 

Premier League asks Cardiff City to explain Tan bonus offer
The Premier League has asked Cardiff City for their observations after owner Vincent Tan offered players a cash bonus to avoid relegation.

The Malaysian withdrew his offer of £3.7m to the squad when it was made clear it was in breach of league rules.

The bonus promise was made before Sunday's 1-0 defeat by Tottenham at White Hart Lane.

That result left the Bluebirds in 19th place - three points behind 17th-placed West Brom having played a game more.

Premier League rules
Premier League rules re: players' remuneration

•T.12. Full details of a player's remuneration including all benefits to which he is entitled whether in cash or in kind shall be set out in his contract.
•T.13. The terms of a contract between a club and a player shall be strictly adhered to.

The Premier League has strict regulations over payment of players, stipulating that a player's benefits will be set out in his contract and strictly adhered to.

Every club must lodge their bonus schedule before the start of the season.

It is thought unlikely the Premier League will take action because the offer was withdrawn promptly once it was realised the payments would have broken its rules.

Speaking after Sunday's loss at Spurs, Cardiff manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said an earlier pep-talk from controversial owner Tan would inspire his side to Premier League safety.

Tan addressed players and manager in the team hotel on Saturday to offer "encouraging words" and, it was later revealed, a bonus payment if they avoided an immediate return to the Championship.

Cardiff, promoted as champions last season, have won only one of their last 12 league games.

Cardiff City chairman Mehmet Dalman said Tan had no executive powers to offer bonuses to players.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26433231

 

Tan's not changing the name of Cardiff, he changed the colours. TBF he does have a point about marketability - Teams in Red generally do better commercially than teams wearing blue in the far east. I know they have always worn blue but if Cardiff really were that big on heritage they wouldn't be a Welsh team playing in England :-/. I don't think he's that bad, him getting rid of Malky wasn't too dissimilar to what Southampton did with Adkins and that worked out OK (admittedly he should have gone with someone more experienced then Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - who evidently was previously being chased by Aston Villa). He has also tried to pay players out of his own pocket to ensure premiership survival so he obviously cares about their position

 

What about Purple?

 

Is it just me or does Tan look like he belongs in some weird Asian porno?

 

I tend to stay away from weird Asian porn when I'm using the search option on pornhub

 

He's been a hero to us Jacks

 

Your loss.