LONDON: Cardiff City’s Malaysian owner Vincent Tan says the club could spend up to £25m ($38.2m, 29m euros) on new players after securing promotion to the English Premier League.
The Welsh club will return to the English top flight for the first time in 51 years after a 0-0 draw at home to Charlton Athletic on Tuesday guaranteed promotion from the second-tier Championship.
Financial difficulties in recent years have left the club with an overall recorded debt of £83.1 million, but Tan says they will find the money to fund a competitive assault on the Premier League.
“We need to strategise well and we’d like to spend some money - maybe £20 to £25m,” said Tan.
“Others have spent a big amount of money and don’t do well, so we will try to spend smartly.”
Tan first invested in Cardiff with a group of Malaysian investors in 2010 but sparked anger at the start of the current season by forcing the club to change their traditional colours from blue to red.
Cardiff manager Malky Mackay said he was excited about the prospect of rubbing shoulders with the biggest names, as the Bluebirds prepare for encounters with teams such as Man United and Liverpool.
“It’s a huge challenge,” said the Scot. “We are going into one of the best leagues in the world. We are going to plan properly - that has started already and we will now put that in action.
“We will make sure the structure we have put in place keeps striding forward and keeps adding because change is constant.
AFP
