Cardiff owner Tan offers players illegal £3.7m bonus to beat Premier League drop

Cardiff chief stuns strugglers with incentive ahead of last Sunday's clash with Spurs

Tan broke Premier League rules by offering bonus during the season

Owner encouraged players 'to shoot more' if they wanted cash

Premier League to investigate Tan

Malaysian 'didn't realise it was against regulations'

Cardiff are second bottom of the top flight

Cardiff City face a Premier League investigation after owner Vincent Tan offered his players a £3.7million bonus before Sunday’s defeat by Tottenham.

Sportsmail can reveal Tan broke Premier League rules, which state every team must lodge their bonus schedule before the start of the season, when he gave his players a financial

incentive to avoid relegation.

It is understood Tan did not offer the Cardiff squad a bonus to avoid the drop before the campaign began because he did not believe they would be in a relegation fight after his significant investment.

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Under scrutiny: Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan made an illegal offer to players

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Instead, the controversial owner walked into Saturday evening’s team meeting at the Hilton Hotel on London’s Park Lane and stunned the players with his extraordinary offer.

Tan told the Cardiff squad they would ‘need to shoot more’ if they wanted the bonus at the end of the season.

He promised the squad, who were sitting open-mouthed, £3.7m to share between them if they survived their first season in the Barclays Premier League.

At the start of the campaign every club must register any bonuses not mentioned in players’ contracts with the Premier League to protect the integrity of the game at the highest level.

The regulation is designed to stop owners such as Tan using financial inducements to motivate players and other staff outside of their existing agreements.

However, clubs were given a month’s grace this year because of the new TV deals.

Dejected: Cardiff's players look gutted after Soldado scores for Spurs

No joy: Tan's team talk couldn't inspire Cardiff at White Hart Lane

Many players believed they should take a bigger slice of the TV pool and several clubs could not reach agreement with them before the first game. Premier League chiefs gave every team a month to settle their affairs but they were not allowed to alter or make verbal agreements after these had been lodged.

Now the Premier League are to investigate the Cardiff owner after sources close to Tan confirmed he had made the offer to his players.

Tan breached Premier League rules T12 and T13 by offering a financial inducement outside of the players’ contracts.

According to T12: ‘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.’

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Gutted: Fabio Da Silva looks to the ground as Spurs celebrate Soldado's winner

T13 says: ‘The terms of a contract between a club and a player shall be strictly adhered to.

‘According to those players’ contracts, the bonus schedule agreed with the squad at the start of a season and lodged with the Premier League cannot be changed during the season under any circumstances.’

Tan’s offer did not have the desired effect on Sunday at White Hart Lane, where Cardiff lost 1-0 to Tottenham following a first home goal in open play from £27m striker Roberto Soldado.

On Monday night the Premier League confirmed they would write to Tan to ask him for his observations.

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The Premier League board have a number of options available to them if they find Tan guilty of an offence, including a fine.



If the matter is deemed serious enough, it can be taken to an independent regulatory commission, where the sanctions - including fines and points deductions - are almost unlimited.

Cardiff seem to be hurtling towards relegation and are second from bottom in the Premier League table after losing three of their last four league games.

Malky Mackay’s sacking in December after a series of clashes with Tan over transfer policy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s appointment as manager have resulted in a dramatic drop-off in form.



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The players are in open revolt against the club hierarchy and Solskjaer, in his first job in the Premier League, seems unable to motivate them.

The former Manchester United striker’s authority was significantly undermined on Saturday evening when Tan arrived at the team hotel and announced he would be addressing the players.

As the Norwegian stepped aside, Tan declared his offer to the Cardiff squad.