simon lim out of his depth report

IME was when British football club chairmen came from the ranks of the local butcher, baker and candlestick maker. They made a few bob in business, sat on the board of the club they'd supported as a boy and eventually landed the top job.

But such gradual ascents have gone the way of oak panels and smoke-filled rooms: today's chairmen can come from diverse backgrounds, are often not locals at all or know much about football.

But even by recent standards, Simon Lim's (right) rise to become acting chairman of Cardiff City is very much out of left field: he was initially hired to be the financial controller of a hotel in London.

Sitting in his office on the ground floor of Cardiff's smart new stadium, Simon takes up the story.

"Berjaya advertised for a position to be based in London. The only reason I applied was because I have a daughter in London who's studying there.

"Only when I got a call did I realise it was Berjaya and that they wanted a financial controller at their (Berjaya Eden) hotel. The final interview was with (Cardiff City owner) Tan Sri Vincent Tan who wanted me to go 'tomorrow'.

"I joined on June 1, 2012 on the premise that I would undergo training at Berjaya Times Square Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. I was aware he owned Cardiff.

"Coincidentally it was the day The Sun (UK) reported that he would spend £100 million (RM500m). He asked how I knew and I referred him to the article. He said: 'I don't know where they got that figure from.' It was the only reference made to Cardiff City Football Club."

"No sooner had I started my training than Tan Sri called me up out of the blue and said he wanted me to do an audit to see how his money was being spent.

"I left the next day and spent two and a half weeks here. I submitted a report and thought nothing of it. I resumed my training at the hotel."

But it wasn't long before Simon was to switch from discussing check-out times to kickoff times.

"In late August," he recalls, "Tan Sri called me again and proposed I take over as financial director. 'How soon can you leave?' he asked. I left the following week and arrived on Sept 11 – an auspicious day. I started as financial director on Sept 13."

Simon may have been plucked from left field but Vincent had an instinct that he was the right man.

The new recruit duly took over from the previous financial director but before his business cards were even printed he had a new title.

"Within two weeks acting CEO Alan Whiteley announced that he had finished the tasks he had been asked to do as acting CEO and left to pursue other interests.

Tan Sri then asked me to step in temporarily – so no sooner had I been announced as financial director, I was acting CEO at a Championship football club."

It was a series of seismic changes that might have caused a hardened high-flyer's heart to flutter, but Simon took it in his stride.

"Nothing fazes me," he said, "as I had been involved in a variety of industries – from oil and gas to financial services to satellite communications. But this was a whirlwind and, in terms of regulations, I asked Tan Sri: 'Are you sure (about this)?'

"He assured me, saying: 'I will be behind you, guide you and advise you and you'll be fine'. So that gave me the confidence to carry on. And around Christmas he called me up to confirm me."

What about the culture shock? I ask. "There was not so much of a culture shock as I'd been living and working in the UK for 15 years first as a student and then I came back as an accountant in the City of London," he said. (And it was during this second spell that he became one of Sky TV's earliest subscribers – because they were showing the Premier League.)

"In terms of culture, I am very used to working with British people and in Malaysia I worked with multinationals.

"But football is another culture – totally different to everything else I've ever done. Tan Sri told me to treat it as any other business – you still have overheads, revenues etc. But the difference is we're in the spotlight. That's what makes it very different.

Everything we do is under the microscope. And also the fans – in most businesses you have a few hundred customers; here we have 22,000 customers and 80,000 on our data base.

"Fans feel it's their club and that it's a community. It's very hard for them to detach themselves. Clubs used to be run like communities.

"Only since Sky came in has it become different. But fans should be able to separate the two. But it's up to us to decide what's best for the club moving forward. History is great but you can't harp on it too long."

Now confirmed as CEO and feet firmly under table, it wasn't long before there was another upheaval in Simon's extraordinary saga. It came when chairman Datuk Chan Tien Ghee decided to resign in February of this year and there are no prizes for guessing who would be asked to take his place.

It helped of course that on the field Cardiff were top of the league and running away with the Championship. A place in the top flight looked theirs for the taking and nothing was to be allowed to distract the team from completing that task. Least of all, a potential crisis with the fans that came out of nothing.

Simon takes up the story: "It was an interview Tan Sri did with the BBC and all hell broke loose. It was supposed to be aired in the evening and they gave it a write-up on the website and chose to highlight a very controversial issue – changing the name. All Tan Sri had said was that you never say never. And they ran that we were thinking of changing the name!

"We reckon they wanted to boost their ratings. Cyberspace was going crazy and we had to nip it in the bud so we issued a statement to say we wouldn't change the name - or the badge. It calmed down but there was one more issue. It was that there was no chairman, Datuk Chan having resigned.

"Ordinarily it wouldn't matter but in a football club it does so I called Tan Sri and said we should fill this position. The locals felt it was important. So we wanted to nip this in the bud also. I put my suggestions forward and he rejected them all. So I said what do you want me to do? He said: 'You take over'. So that's how I came to be acting chairman."

If that was a baptism of fire, he now faces the small matter of being in the cauldron that is the Premier League. A massive task by any standards but Simon remains unfazed.

"It's a dream to be involved in a football club and thanks to Tan Sri's support I am confident we can handle it. He'll call me from wherever he is in the world - sometimes more than once a day. So far, it's not as daunting as I thought it would be."

With Simon's appointment making it six Malaysians and three locals on the board, I ask if there's been any resentment about the Malaysianisation of the club hierarchy.

"None at all," he answers. "I was sent over to look after Tan Sri's money. It's quite logical for someone who has invested that sort of money to have their own eyes and ears looking after it. In fact, the staff wondered why it took so long to send someone over.

"Multinationals always have the top two positions from head office – usually the CEO and head of finance initially. It's no different here."

Besides handling the finances, the future stadium expansion plans and the day-to-day running of a unique business, perhaps the most demanding challenge for Simon is dealing with the transfer budget.

In some clubs this can be a minefield for a CEO if he finds himself trapped between the conflicting ambitions of a spendthrift manager and a frugal owner, not to mention those of agents.

So, how, I ask, is he coping?

"Tan Sri is well-documented as quoting Harry Redknapp when it comes to agents," he says, "about them being like piranhas sucking the money out of the game.

But most perform a necessary role and do a good job. And we three – manager Malky Mackay, myself and Tan Sri work very well as a team. We have our differences but we arrive at the same decision in the end.

"As for the budget, we are not going to spend silly money. He's mentioned £25 million (RM125m). We may spend £25 million but we're not going to spend £25 million for the sake of it. If we can spend £10 million (RM50m) we will make do with £10 million. We're not going to break the bank – we are not Chelsea.

"We have key positions to fill - it's no secret. Everyone is looking for that 20 goals-a-season man. Even MU and Man City. That striker that will keep you up… we won't know until the end of the season how much we needed to spend.

It was time to go but there was just one more question to ask. Malaysians have made quite an impression in the three short years since Vincent Tan bought Cardiff.

Former chairman Datuk Chan was once told that if he stood for mayor, he'd get elected, while Wales' First Minister Carwyn Jones bestowed "sainthood" on Vincent himself.

So, where in this lofty pecking order did Simon think he stood? He paused for a second before smiling: "Oh, I'm just an accountant." And then burst out laughing.
A safe answer. Cardiff City looks to be in a safe pair of hands.

What would you like to discuss?

No mention of Moody when it came to handling the transfer budget.....