Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan: Club would have gone bust without me

Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan

In a candid interview with BBC sport, new Cardiff owner Vincente Tan speaks about various issues surrounding the Premier League including the ‘little racist’ press, and his own club’s fans, who he calls ‘ungrateful’.

Although the Malaysian bussinessman has pumped huge amounts into the Welsh football club since his takeover, Tan has lost favour with the fans after the several unacceptable decisions he has made up until now.

“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.”

“I am now more involved and under my leadership the club will be in good shape,” he said.

He also claims that he is always made the scapegoat, and that people always despise him despite all his good work.

“No matter how much good you do, there will always be a few per cent of people who don’t support you.” he said.

When asked about his peculiar habit of wearing sunglasses at all times, he said the people who complain are harsh.

“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.”

Talking about the controversial sacking of club favorite Malky Mackay, he berated the former manager.

“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?”

His club is currently languishing at the bottom of the Premier League and are odds on to take the drop this season.