Why RM15m for Vincent Tan’s EPL club, PKR MP asks: KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 — A PKR lawmaker is alleging wastefulness in the Tourism Ministry’s £3 million (RM15 million) part sponsorship of the English Premier League Club owned by Tan Sri Vincent Tan, saying the move will not repay the country in tourist arrivals. In Parliament yesterday, Petaling Jaya Selatan MP Hee Loy Sian also asked if the ministry’s entry into the kit sponsorship deal with newly-promoted Cardiff City could be considered government aid for the Berjaya Corp tycoon. “The other question is, why the Cardiff City EPL football club and not another club in the English leagues?” according a statement from the lawmaker issued last night He did not, however, suggest alternatives. Hee later said the ministry should have been “more creative” in promoting the Visit Malaysia Year 2014 than placing a logo of the campaign at Cardiff City Stadium, but did not provide examples of what these should be. Instead, he said the allocations should be diverted to local football clubs that he said were short of funds. It is unclear how the suggestion would aid the country’s tourism. In a written reply to Hee’s questions yesterday, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said the kit sponsorship deal was undertaken as EPL broadcasts reached a global audience of 720 million people across 80 media partners. The minister revealed that the deal was for £7.35 million but the ministry was contributing less than half the amount. Nazri said the deal also entitled the ministry to hold a season-long exhibition for the Visit Malaysia Year 2014 campaign at the team’s stadium as well as display the logo there for the entirety of the 2013/14 term. He further added that the sponsorship was aimed at drawing “high-end tourists” from the UK and other western European nations, adding that both were Malaysia’s largest market for long-haul arrivals. Tan became a major shareholder in Cardiff City in 2012 and arrived with unconventional ideas on how to revamp the club. Among the more controversial were plans to change the club’s colours from blue to red and replace their bluebird badge with a dragon. The kit change was dropped initially, after fans protested, but has since come to pass. The dragon, however, remains on the backburner. The Berjaya Corp chairman’s fortunes at the club has outshone that of another Malaysian magnate, AirAsia’s Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, whose Queens Park Rangers went in the opposite direction and was relegated from the Premier League the same season Cardiff was promoted. dlvr.it/41wp4n
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 03:33:10 +0000
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