by Sean Robinson

Intro is here if you missed it.

If you were to google LAFC and stumble upon its Wikipedia page you would see what is basically the skeleton of a football club. No history, players, not even a single staff member, infact the References take up about as much space as the entire entry. The only information listed is about the aforementioned dope logo (which is also shown), the stadium plans (and lies about how much they will help the local economic situation), and an ownership group that reads like the cast of a mix of Semi-Pro and Kicking & Screaming (has Will Ferrell run out of ideas?). But hidden among this star studded list of wikipedia hyperlinks is the name Vincent Tan.

Vincent Tan looks like Bobby Lee playing a character based on Kim Jong Un, like maybe his brother or cousin, again Will Ferrell might have a movie here. I am just hoping that at some point Toki Fong and Vincent Tan can meet and discuss life. And while he maybe a unknown name to some he is an extremely hated name to many others. Tan made his money mainly in bringing McDonald’s to his home country of Malaysia, and by money I am talking about the roughly 2 billion he is worth. With this money he bought a few toys. The most notable and infamous of which is Cardiff City FC.

Pushing the Kim Jong Un comparison further he basically ran this club like a dictator. Vincent’s favorite color was red so he changed the kit color to red. Vincent didn’t like bluebirds (Cardiff City’s mascot and logo) so he changed it to the Welsh dragon (later he changed it to an oriental dragon which makes no sense at all). Though the club supporters branded him a dictator in retrospect the moves read more like the cries of a toddler. He basically became the most hated thing in English soccer, got Cardiff relegated, fired the manager, made a statement that he did not know the rules of soccer. All of this lead USAToday to call him the worst owner in professional sports. But the dumbest thing he did had to be the 12 month rolling contract that he gave new manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, basically making him a continuous lame duck manager except he only lasted ten months on the job. Wow, and I am going to put my fandom in the hands of this man.

Well let’s look at why many of these things can be written off. First changing the crest and kits has no effect on a brand new club. In many ways it fits his desires better. Vincent Tan wanted to make something his own, a club with no history or sensitive and loyal supporters to piss off is ideal for him. Secondly, he is only one fifth of the main ownership meaning he shouldn’t have dictator-like power as he did in Cardiff. But almost as quickly as I breathed a sigh of relief I looked into the other owners bio’s.

The main owner is Henry Nguyen a man who also made his money in bringing McDonald’s to his home country (Vietnam). Who knew that McDonald’s made so many people rich. After digging a little deeper it seems that many of his business dealings in Vietnam have been expedited due to his familial ties to Vietnamese government officials, most notably the Prime Minister (his father-in-law). All I am saying is this guy has some parallels to Vincent Tan. So now two out of five votes seem a little tainted.

Next is Ruben Gnanalingam another Malaysian businessman who was quoted in an SI piece as saying, “There is no relegation? All right, you got me!” Gnaglingam a partial owner in second tier London based Queens Park Rangers, much like Vincent Tan would know the pain (both financial and psychological) of relegation. And even though this comment is sold as a joke the fact that the ownership is a mishmash of owners of other (bigger) teams in leagues whose rules do not align with MLS is not that reassuring. Leading a 60% majority of votes people I don’t want running my club given their pasts.

The last two of the five principal owners are Tom Penn and Peter Guber. Both with ties to the NBA, Penn as a former front office exec of both the Blazers and Grizzlies and current ESPN Analyst and Gruber as a part owner of the hugely successful Warriors. Both of these guys worry me a lot less. They have dealt with North American salary cap rules and in Penn’s case analysed these types of transactions heavily. However, percentages of ownership is nowhere to be found and one has to believe that the Asian trio has to have it, both with their financial strength and Nguyen as the definite leader as he was the first one on board.

But as if to hide themselves they surround this ownership with a bunch of high profile names. NBA great and LA superstar Magic Johnson, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley, sports power couple Nomar Garciaparra and Mia Hamm, and of course funnyman Will Ferrell who insists, “This is not a joke.” And it isn’t but calling any of them owners seems a little bit like one.

This is all extremely worrying because in American sports especially, ownership has been the best indicator of prolonged success. In professional leagues with a draft system and salary cap the rich cannot just simply get richer as in most foreign leagues. This has made eccentric billionaire owners not only ineffective but detrimental to most franchises they’ve owned. I’m looking at the Brooklyn Nets, Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Sacramento Kings. The fact is that spending large amounts of money quickly has been a horrible way to compete.

So maybe Vincent Tan isn’t going to ruin this club or send me to some eternal purgatory with his ownership decisions. Infact I doubt he makes that big of an impact or is given much power. But the fact that two of the other guys don’t have the greatest backgrounds either and the huge market that they are set in, doesn’t reassure me totally. And surrounding themselves with stars almost scares me more.

Next time on My LAFC Problem: Big Spending and Big Expectations.

