Vincent Tan leaves Cardiff City debt free by 2021

Cardiff City chairman Vincent Tan has told ITV Cymru Wales he'll write-off the club's debts over the next five years by turning most of his debt into shares.

Cardiff City will be debt free by 2021 after billionaire owner Vincent Tan confirmed he will turn over £100m worth of money owed to him into shares or write-offs.

Tan, who announced the move to supporters during a visit to the capital this week, has written off £10m already over the past two months but confirmed he will imminently turn a further £68m of debt into equity to help ease the club’s financial issues.

The remaining £40m of debt will be turned into equity over the next five years at a rate of £8m a year.

It’s understood the move will almost certainly help Cardiff out of the transfer embargo imposed on them by the Football League for breaching Financial Fairplay rules, in part due to the loss of income due to their relegation from the Premier League in 2014.

'We're going to convert 68 million of the debt owing to me to equity' Tan told ITV News.

'That will leave about over 40 million. And that 40 million is necessary to leave there just to deal with down the road to help the Financial Fair Play rules.

"So, at least this goes to show that what we said we would do one day we do."