Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan: ‘Media racist towards me’

Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan has, in an interview with the BBC, accused the British media of being “a little bit racist”.

Since the 62-year old Malaysian took ownership of the club, he has changed the team’s colours from blue to red and sacked manager Malky Mackay after promotion to the Premier League.

"“One day we are a hero, another day we are a zero. 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 fansHe will never change the club’s colours back to blue from redMackay “got lucky” when he landed the job as managerHe is “convinced” manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will save Cardiff from relegationForeign owners are good for British footballPlans to list Cardiff on the Singapore stock exchange have been abandoned"

Cardiff currently sit one place off the bottom of the Premier League table, with 11 games still to play.

"“I am now more involved and under my leadership the club will be in good shape. “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. No matter how much good you do, there will always be a few per cent of people who don’t support you.”"

Tan also hit out at the portrayal of him as a Bond villain:

"“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. 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.”"

Former manager Malky Mackay was also a subject covered in the interview:

"“He didn’t do very well at Watford, but somehow our CEO and our chairman hired him and replaced Dave Jones. 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?”"

There was also no indication that the club would revert to its traditional blue colours:

"“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.”