http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/cardiff-city-chairman-simon-lim-4880290?
Lim's comments are below and the full article is available at the link above. On preparing for the Premier League Lim said
“We are not going to spend silly money,
“He (Tan) mentioned £25m; we may spend £25m, but we’re not going to spend £25m for the sake of it.
“If we can spend £10m we will make do with £10m.
“We’re not going to break the bank – we are not Chelsea.”
Lim moved into the role of acting chairman in February following the sudden departure of Dato Chan Thien Gee – the man who had first forged Malaysian links to Cardiff and brought Tan to the table.
He formed part of a three-way decision-making team at the very top of the club alongside Tan and Mackay.
And although Lim admits the details and responsibilities at a football club so integral to its community is unlike any other venture, Tan’s key is to keep treating it like business.
“In terms of culture, I am very used to working with British people and in Malaysia I worked with multi-nationals,” Lim said.
“But football is another culture – totally different to everything else I’ve ever done.
“Tan Sri told me to treat it as any other business – you still have overheads, revenues etc.
“But the difference is we’re in the spotlight. That’s what makes it very different.
“Everything we do is under the microscope. And also the fans – in most businesses you have a few hundred customers; here we have 22,000 customers and 80,000 on our database.
“Fans feel it’s their club and that it’s a community. It’s very hard for them to detach themselves. Clubs used to be run like communities.
“Only since Sky came in has it become different. But fans should be able to separate the two. But it’s up to us to decide what’s best for the club moving forward. History is great but you can’t harp on it too long.”
But, despite the Premier League opportunities around the corner, talk of history does remind Lim of the divisive decision to rebrand under Tan that came back into focus earlier this year following suggestions he would be ready to change the club’s proud name.
“It was an interview Tan Sri did with the BBC and all hell broke loose,” Lim said after Tan first sparked the angry worry with his comments right at the peak of the side’s promotion charge. It was supposed to be aired in the evening and they gave it a write-up on the website and chose to highlight a very controversial issue – changing the name.
“All Tan Sri had said was that you never say never. And they ran that we were thinking of changing the name!
“We reckon they wanted to boost their ratings. Cyberspace was going crazy and we had to nip it in the bud, so we issued a statement to say we wouldn’t change the name – or the badge. It calmed down.”