By Andrew Warshaw
December 27 – Controversial Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan (pictured) has extended his European operation by agreeing to take over FK Sarajevo in Bosnia’s top division.
The Malaysian businessman, who similarly saved Welsh club Cardiff but infuriated fans first by changing the team’s colours from blue to red, then, today, by brutally sacking manager Malky Mackay, is understood to have agreed to invest $2 million into the struggling Bosnian club.
“We have signed an agreement which defines the investment and management rights in accordance to the club’s statute and legislation that is in force in Bosnia,” Sarajevo general director Dino Selimovic told Reuters.
It remains to be seen, however, how Tan’s purchase will sit with UEFA whose rules prevent dual ownership by the same person at the same time.
Sarajevo, established in 1946, is heavily in debt and the deal is thought to include an agreement to allow players to be exchanged between Sarajevo and English Premier League club Cardiff.
“We plan to play friendly games, exchange players, organise joint training camps and marketing campaigns,” Tan told the Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz in an interview back in September when the takeover was being negotiated. “I am very optimistic and hope that this cooperation will be very useful for both clubs and for Bosnian football generally.”
Hundreds of Cardiff City fans staged a pre-match protest against Tan before the club’s Boxing Day game with Southampton. It followed his “resign or be sacked” ultimatum to Mackay – originally sent in an e-mail – which was later withdrawn after talks with the Cardiff chairman. But the fallout between owner and manager clearly ran too deep as Mackay, who took Cardiff to the Premier League for the first time in its history this season, lost his job with the club is currently just above the relegation zone.
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