Rishi Sunak was Prime Minister, Wham had their first Christmas number one song and Vincent Tan last attended a Cardiff City game. It was Boxing Day 2023 when the club's owner watched a 2-2 draw against Plymouth that left the Bluebirds two points from the Championship play-off places. One thousand days have since passed without further sight of a divisive and elusive character in the Welsh capital.
When things go wrong on the pitch, such as relegation to League One in May 2025, the fans' anger is inevitably directed his way. Tan's absence has been criticised but without his money - he took over the club in 2010 - the club would surely struggle to even exist. On the day the Malaysian billionaire reaches the curious milestone, BBC Sport Wales examines his stewardship of the club.
Colwill's 'surreal' Ronaldo and Haaland ambition Moylan double ends Cardiff's winless start against Charlton Plenty has happened over the past 1,000 days since Tan last turned up to a Cardiff match. The Bluebirds are on to their third permanent boss in that time having been relegated to the third tier before bouncing back with promotion the following year. A planned visit last season never materialised and a slow start in the Championship this season has been compounded by injuries and an inability to bring in new players on transfer deadline day.
"It's not a good look when the owner himself doesn't turn up to see the team that he owns," said former captain Jason Perry, who played for the club for a decade between 1987 and 1997. "It's not good knowing the owner's not here but there's no infrastructure here to carry that. "Not only are we not seeing him, we're not hearing anything and that's the disappointment." Keith Morgan, of the Cardiff City Supporters Trust and chair of the Fan Advisory Board, shares Perry's views.
"It's the total lack of communication rather than lack of physical presence," he said. "He hasn't even communicated by way of a video message or an email. No messages on the club website.
"One of my criticisms is that he hasn't got the right structure in place at senior level. "We don't have anyone with football knowledge on the board, which could have saved some excesses which cost him some money in the past." However, head coach Brian Barry-Murphy spent four weeks in Malaysia with Tan and his family during the summer after masterminding a return to the Championship. "His knowledge of the team and what we did last season was beyond what I expected.
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