Chairman Peter Ridsdale to quit Cardiff at end of month

Cardiff's Peter Ridsdale and Malaysian businessman Datuk Chan Tien Ghee

Chairman Peter Ridsdale is to leave Cardiff City at the end of the month.

His imminent departure was confirmed in a statement issued by the club at midnight on Friday.

"Agreement has been reached with regard to new funding for the company and restructuring of its existing debt," the statement said.

"As a result of this new fundraising, Peter Ridsdale will be standing down from his position and leaving the company on May 31, 2010."

Malaysian businessman Datuk Chan Tien Ghee is planning a £6m investment, which will give him a 49% shareholding in the club.

That will enable Cardiff to overcome Wednesday's final winding-up hearing in the High Court when they have to settle a £1.9m tax bill.

Ridsdale, who is not making any further comment, has always claimed he would end his five-year association with the club when its financial future is secure.

"Peter joined the company in the summer of 2005 with a three-fold brief: firstly, to assist in the construction of the new stadium, secondly to establish the football club within the Championship, and thirdly to seek new funding," the statement continued.

"All three of these will have been completed by the shareholder meeting.

"Peter leaves therefore with the best wishes and thanks of the board of directors and the shareholders of the company for his energy, commitment and success in completing the tasks that were set for him."

Despite the boardroom activity, Cardiff manager Dave Jones is concentrating on his side's final Championship fixture at Derby on Sunday and their imminent play-off campaign.

"There is a lot going on and until everything is finalised and the club put out the statement from the hierarchy, it is business as normal for me and I'm focusing on the football," said Jones.

"Peter is still here and he has worked hard. He has been abused as we all have but that seems to be part and parcel of football world now."

Ridsdale, the former Leeds United chairman, joined the Bluebirds on an initial three-month contract in March 2005, working alongside then-Cardiff chairman Sam Hammam.

With the club then £30m in debt, his stated intention was to keep the Bluebirds out of administration and ensure that their new 30,000-seat stadium was built.

He took over as chairman in October 2006 when Hammam stepped down, and the club moved into its new Cardiff City Stadium home in time for the beginning of the current season.

Consortium chief Ghee, who became a Cardiff director in December, has become a familiar face alongside Ridsdale in the Bluebirds crowd as the Championship club drove into the play-offs.

The Malaysian property tycoon, known as "TG", is one of five directors who are the "varying sources" that are understood to have helped pay the players' salaries at the cash-strapped club - who have an overall estimated £15m debt - at the end of last month.

The overseas group made an initial £500,000 investment into the club over the festive period and are in talks to make further cash available so their overall financial commitment will be £6m.

The Bluebirds were given a 56-day stay of execution on 10 March when facing their third winding-up order at the High Court as the taxman demands payment of its debt.

The adjournment was granted after Cardiff claimed that a £6m investment from an "Asian businessman" was imminent.