Cardiff City under investigation after Vincent Tan's illegal £3.7m bonus offer

Vincent Tan creates another controversy

To say that the current campaign for Cardiff City has been bad, would be an understatement. Their form on the pitch has been abysmal and to make matters worse, off the pitch, their owner Vincent Tan has been hogging the limelight for all the wrong reasons.

Just when it seemed as though it was starting to get better off the pitch, it has just gotten worse as the Premier League is set to write to Cardiff City to ask about an illegal £3.7m bonus offered by Cardiff’s owner to his players before their match with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

According to the Daily Mail, the incident took place, when the controversial Tan was addressing the players at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane on Saturday evening. In the aforementioned meeting, the team, which has just managed 19 goals this campaign, were told that they “need to shoot more” if they are to stay in the League. He then went onto to offer the players £3.7m to share, if they avoided the drop, which is in contradiction with the League’s rules.

The Premier League rule regarding bonuses state that “Full details of a player’s remuneration including all benefits to which he is entitled whether in cash or in kind shall be set out in his contract. The terms of a contract between a club and a player shall be strictly adhered to.”

Although relegation bonuses are commonplace, they must be made clear in the players’ contracts, before the start of the season and must be lodged with the League. And if the matter is deemed serious, Cardiff could face a fine, or even worse, a points deduction for breaching the rules.

A spokesman for the Malaysian businessman told the Sun newspaper: “Vincent didn’t realise it was against the regulations. He has since rescinded the offer, which he made only with Cardiff’s best interests at heart.”

Whilst it is unlikely that Cardiff will face a full investigation, their Chairman Mehmet Dalmain has nevertheless said that Tan had no executive powers to offer bonuses to players. In a season that has already been filled with plenty of disappointing news, this was certainly something that the Blue Birds could have done without.