Tycoon Vincent Tan is now a notorious figure among English Premier League fans after he sacked his team Cardiff City FC's popular manager Malky Mackay.

Over the past few days, Tan has been the target of harsh criticisms from Cardiff City fans who are supportive of Mackay's work with the team over the past two-and-a-half years.

Mackay had helped bring the club the League Cup finals in 2012 before steering the team towards a promotion to the premier league for the first time in 51 years.

The sacking was the Tan's latest and possibly the most serious rub with Cardiff City fans, since acquiring a controlling stake of the club in 2010.

Tan said in a press release today that Mackay had generated good publicity for the club, but accused the manager of causing airing the club's "dirty linen" in public.

"Indeed, far too much dirty linen has been exposed to the public gaze but, I stress, not by me.

"Indeed, I have deliberately not responded to this, hoping that the club can be judged on its football rather than personalised arguments about who said what to whom.

"I have, however, regretfully concluded that it is no longer fair to the club, its players, its fans and the public more generally for this uncomfortable state of affairs to continue.

"Cardiff City Football Club means far too much to us all for it to be distracted by this," said Tan, according to AFP .

Malaysia's interest

Previously, Cardiff City fans had cried foul over several of Tan's decisions for the team, which includes swapping the team's iconic blue jersey for red.

He later changed the team's logo into a Welsh Dragon, a move that infuriated fans because the team's original logo - the Bluebird - is also the team's nickname.

Tan went on to remove of Iain Moody, the team's highly experienced recruitment head, favour of 23-year-old Kazakh Alisher Apsalyamov in October.

Fans scoffed at the move and there were some who accused Apsalyamov of being a friend of one of Tan's son.

The fate of Cardiff City is of interest to Malaysia because the country's ministry of tourism is among the club's major sponsors.

According to Tourism Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz, the deal was is worth £7.35 million (about RM40 million), but the ministry was contributing less than half the amount.

Nazri's written reply to Parliament stated that the deal was undertaken because the English Premier League broadcasts reached a global audience of 720 million people across 80 media partners.

He added that the deal also entitled the ministry to hold a season-long exhibition for the Visit Malaysia Year 2014 campaign at the team's stadium and display the logo there.

The word "Malaysia" is also the most prominently featured logo on the team's jersey.