91Èȱ¬

Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan says he is "days away" from an agreement with creditors Langston which would result in the club becoming debt-free.

The debt to Langston - whose spokesman is former Cardiff City owner Sam Hammam - was taken out in 2004, and is thought to be about £24m.

Mr Tan, receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of South Wales, said the deal was "in Sam's hands".

Mr Tan said his total investment in the club so far would be about £120m.

Mr Tan, speaking at a news conference at the University of South Wales in Treforest, said: "We are talking to Sam Hammam to try to resolve the Langston issue.

"I have been talking to Sam," he said.

"We have been friendly, talking. I like to regard Sam now as my friend and we will come around and resolve this.

"We are, I think, days away from an agreement."

Mr Tan said if the deal could be done, he could "convert all my loans to equity and make the club financially much more secure and hopefully debt-free".

He added: "That's my goal - to make the club debt-free, so that the club won't be under any threat and after that we just have to manage it prudently, run it like a business."

Asked to confirm an agreement could be reached within days, he replied: "Days away. It's in Sam's hands."

He expects his total investment in the club to be about £120m, once the debt is resolved.

He said he expects to stay at the club a while, adding: "If I sell now a lot of people in Cardiff would be disappointed and a lot of people in Malaysia would be disappointed."

However, he said he was still disappointed with the reaction of some fans over the club's re-branding, which included a change of club colours from blue to red.

"If too many fans show that we are not welcome then maybe they will have a new owner but right now my experiences are that we are very welcome," he said.

He also appealed to fans not to be too negative or disruptive.

Mr Tan said he was studying the possibility of floating part of the club on the Malaysian stock exchange to bring in Malaysian shareholders who would be friends and supporters of Cardiff.

He also spoke about the signing of an agreement with FK Sarajevo in Bosnia to work together as affiliated clubs to try to develop players.