' VINCENT TANS LATEST STATEMENT '

Vincent Tan: Cardiff City owner insists he is not a 'villain @BCC sport

BBC 28th February 2014.

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".



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.

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.

"In the January transfer window, I was very involved. We spent about £6m for seven players. In the summer, we signed seven players and committed almost £50m. I want to make sure we spend correctly. If I'm involved, I make better business decisions, getting better value for my money.

"Next summer I'm sure we will do better transfers because I will be personally involved. We're not going to let our manager run wild."

Tan is quick to take responsibility for securing a pre-contract agreement to sign 31-year-old Spanish striker Javi Guerra on a free transfer from Real Valladolid next summer.

And he put Cardiff's poor form under Solskjaer, appointed as Mackay's replacement in January, down to "the bad transfers we did in the summer" - singling out Andreas Cornelius and John Brayford.

He also identified Southampton and Hull City as clubs who prove "you can avoid overspending and have good football management".

Tan, who believes British clubs are "very blessed" to have foreign owners, denied he would walk away if Cardiff were relegated ("unless the fans really p*** me off so much, then I may leave") and pledged to donate £1m to local charities if they stay up.

But he has shelved plans to list Cardiff on the Singapore stock exchange until "we can make this club stable and sustainable in the Premier League".

Building bridges with disgruntled supporters is on the Malaysian's agenda, but he will not budge on the shirt colour.

"No way I will change it back to blue under my ownership," he said. "Perhaps they can find an owner who likes blue, pay up and buy me out. Sure they can go and change it to blue after that. I go somewhere and build another red club.

"Of course it helps that, in Asia, red is a colour of success, festivity, joy. After we changed it, that same season we got promoted. I think that was a good omen, a good sign."

At least we now were we stand now, he has made his position clear here. Loads of points to discuss on this thread, its gonna be a busy day on the forum.

Lads, keep your replies decent, racism, abuse and trolling will not be tolerated at all on this thread, this is a good platform for discussion and I know people are going to get opinionated and blood pressures may rise, but keep it clean and on topic and you won't find yourself with a 1 day ban allowing the rest of us discuss this like gentlemen

At least we now were we stand now, he has made his position clear here.

Gavin Well then we will always be a Divided club.
Once again he attacks Malky and the Dictator makes threats, he is a total Clown.
Tan should be getting us behind the team all as one, at least trying to.
Tan says he will be personally getting involved in future transfers, he hasn't a clue.
Threatens to walk, bull shit he wants out now, trying to blame our fans.
I will never stop fighting for our identity back

The article just reinforces my fears for the club and my opinions on Tan.

At least we now were we stand now, he has made his position clear here.

Gavin Well then we will always be a Divided club.
Once again he attacks Malky and the Dictator makes threats, he is a total Clown.
Tan should be getting us behind the team all as one, at least trying to.
I will never stop fighting for our identity back

Ive Edited my post with some posting guidelines for this thread Annis.

Even the Painter & Decorator knew Malky was over paying for players.

Can't argue with that.

Boom called every part of that interview.

Interesting how the last time he said he would walk away if fans drove him away he said that he wouldn't guarantee the club would go to safe hands because that's how he does business. That aspect left out this time.

Also he hasn't done that much home work if he thinks Cardiff can be saved from this position.

At least we now were we stand now, he has made his position clear here.

Gavin Well then we will always be a Divided club.
Once again he attacks Malky and the Dictator makes threats, he is a total Clown.
Tan should be getting us behind the team all as one, at least trying to.
Tan says he will be personally getting involved in future transfers, he hasn't a clue.
Threatens to walk, bull shit he wants out now, trying to blame our fans.
I will never stop fighting for our identity back

At least we know our identity will never be returned and we can concentrate on football

Right first discussion point for me;

*Debt to equity transfer is now only 'being considered'
*Stock exchange float is abandoned.
*Club will be made sustainable via Premier league success
*VT will stay if we are relegated


A definate change of direction from VT here.

Even the Painter & Decorator knew Malky was over paying for players.

Can't argue with that.

He was 18 his FIFA knowledge was awesome

He can't be helping his legal case with Malky when he publicly slags the man off at every given opportunity.

Somebody please buy our club and rescue us from this madman...

Even the Painter & Decorator knew Malky was over paying for players.

Can't argue with that.

If he didnt want to pay those prices he should have made it clear to his Chairman Simon Lim who authorised the transfers that there were limits - its not the managers job to control the clubs finances...

It has already been made clear that there was an issue with communication between Tan and his Manager and this is the fault of Tans administration - Malky made it clear that he tried to contact Tan many times with no response

If he cant run his club efficiently then its down to him - he is to blame for all the problems he mentions in this interview and he wants to blame the manager for all of them - crack on Tan - carry on with this juvenile attitude but the '5%-10%' of us will always oppose you and you're rebrand

Gutted as his statement makes it clear.blue is not returning. I have been on the fence all.week about renewing in the glimmer of hope a return to blue was possible. Not sure now to renew and fight back against tan or stop going and giving tan my hard earned money. Difficult as my 7 year old has been a season ticket holder for 4 years..what to.do?

Before anyone says impending relegation has nothing to do with the decision. In a strange way I am not bothered about relegation if it happens. The last 2 years watching the club in red has not been the most enjoyable as it.clearly should have. Having been a season ticket holder since 92 this is the most difficult time supporting what was once a great club!

A key part of the rebrand was debt to equity and seems thats.now.not happening anytime soon. More lies and this I thought the fans said was the key reason to reluctantly accept the rebrand.

City fans where is your fight and passion for our club. Tan needs to now be driven out! Fight for what is right!

Obviously a hugely successful business man, but just as obviously delusional It will be interesting to see the interview in its entirety. His ego has taken over his business head in getting involved in football and especially with Cardiff, the best solution for all would be if a new buyer could be found

Unbelievable........continues to divide the club further and further. My apathy for my beloved Cardiff City grows by the day. He does and says what he wants with absolutely no regard whatsoever about anyone else. I have to admit that I couldn't give 2 hoots if we go down......can anyone who was there in the dark days actually say that they love the club more now and enjoy the experience more than they did when we struggled in the football league? If you don't have your pride and identity success means nothing. Tan out.

Gutted as his statement makes it clear.blue is not returning. I have been on the fence all.week about renewing in the glimmer of hope a return to blue was possible. Not sure now to renew and fight back against tan or stop going and giving tan my hard earned money. Difficult as my 7 year old has been a season ticket holder for 4 years..what to.do?

Before anyone says impending relegation has nothing to do with the decision. In a strange way I am not bothered about relegation if it happens. The last 2 years watching the club in red has not been the most enjoyable as it.clearly should have. Having been a season ticket holder since 92 this is the most difficult time supporting what was once a great club!

A key part of the rebrand was debt to equity and seems thats.now.not happening anytime soon. More lies and this I thought the fans said was the key reason to reluctantly accept the rebrand.

City fans where is your fight and passion for our club. Tan needs to now be driven out! Fight for what is right!

never mind what division we are in, support the TEAM. Don't let this man's crazy decisions stop your son from watching Cardiff City FC.

The only thing I agree with is Malky was a poor manager, his time at Watford proves that without money he is shite.

An interesting interview, I think that the fans who want to force Tan out, should instead direct their energies to coming up with a plan to find a new investor to buy the club, rather than just shout and demand Tan go, which is the easy option.
He has made his position very clear and will not change the shirt colour and without his investment we would have gone bust and there was nobody else willing to buy the club, Paul Guy didn't and just saw the club as a piece of real estate to make money from.
Tan is a successful businessman and will sell the club if we find a buyer, so my message is if you want Tan out organise yourselves and try and come up with a plan to attract an investor to buy the club.

Boom called every part of that interview.

Interesting how the last time he said he would walk away if fans drove him away he said that he wouldn't guarantee the club would go to safe hands because that's how he does business. That aspect left out this time.

Also he hasn't done that much home work if he thinks Cardiff can be saved from this position.

Perhaps we should have told him to go first time around when we did have the guarantee of being left in safe hands. Opportunity missed?

If he was so good a business man and so good in the transfer market with his new football knowledge then he would have made sure we signed a quality striker to score us goals to keep us up, he ain't got a clue,clown

Here's the interview.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26348240

He now wants to get more involved

il just sell up go to another club and make them red the guys a mad man its just a hobby to him he couldnt give a shit

The only thing I agree with is Malky was a poor manager, his time at Watford proves that without money he is shite.

I presume this is a joke.

Boom called every part of that interview.

Interesting how the last time he said he would walk away if fans drove him away he said that he wouldn't guarantee the club would go to safe hands because that's how he does business. That aspect left out this time.

Also he hasn't done that much home work if he thinks Cardiff can be saved from this position.

Perhaps we should have told him to go first time around when we did have the guarantee of being left in safe hands. Opportunity missed?

I don't think there was or is anyone out there with the money or want to take the club over. Stadium is heading for red, new seats are red it doesn't look like he's going anywhere. Just have to hope that his new found scrutiny over transfers doesn't limit OGS. But if he's involved in sales too he should be able to get a tidy profit from the 3/4 players that would leave following a relegation he should be able to build a side to win the Championship.

The fans have known what to do if they want Tan out. Unfortunately not enough fans want him out as proved by the numbers at the various marches. Everyone wants blue but many want Tan to stay because whether you like to admit it or not, he has done some good for the club. If it wasnt for the rebrand he would be considered eccentric and nothing else.

His point on Malky is a valid one. Virtual unknown, didnt do great at Watford and came here with a huge budget.

We would not have got promoted without Tans money

We did not get promoted because we changed to red

I get from that interview that he is more determind than ever to make us successful.

To me he wants out,but who is going to buy us?
This is the beginning of the end of Tan's reign and all I hope he doesn't start selling off the assets to get some cash back.
The next six months are going to be crucial.

The only thing I agree with is Malky was a poor manager, his time at Watford proves that without money he is shite.

I presume this is a joke.

Deadly serious, any joker could of got us promoted with the money given.

I hope all the Cardiff City Hippies who thought Tan has it in him to change his mind on the rebrand, will stop smokin the green & wake up

We will see if his stance changes when the lucky red bounces down a division