Peter Lim's football club Valencia axes president Anil Murthy over crude leaked recordings

Spanish football club Valencia CF has axed its president Anil Murthy (pictured) after recordings emerged of him speaking unfavourably about the club earlier this month. According to numerous reports, the leaked recordings contained Murthy’s views describing Liverpool and Newcastle crudely as "s***" cities, and also allegedly speaking ill of the club's owner Peter Lim – a renowned business man in Singapore – who bought the club in 2014.

To address the situation, Valencia CF also published a media statement addressing the recent events and clarified that the content of the leaked conversations between Murthy and various third parties are his personal views, and not of Valencia CF. The statement also said that “the board holds the view that a change in leadership is required, in order to regain the trust of the fans and the community and put Valencia CF in a position for success”.

The club has also begun a search process to appoint a new president for Valencia CF, and an announcement will be made in due course.

The statement added that the board values the importance of a close relationship between the club, the community, fans, government authorities, media and other stakeholders.

In the interim, Valencia has appointed Sean Bai as acting director general on an interim basis. Bai has been with the club since 2018 and is currently the director of the VCF Academy. Meanwhile, Khojama Kalimuddin, a non-executive director of the Board of Valencia CF, will stand in as president of the board of directors to oversee the administration of the club during this interim period.

According to multiple reports in publications The Straits Times (ST) and CNA, Murthy is also claimed to be threatening to vilify Valencia players in the media if they forced an exit. 

When the reports first emerged, Valencia had come to Murthy's defence accusing the publication of "intentionally adulterating and misrepresenting the content of the conversations held" in an earlier press statement. "This newspaper, which collaborates with a criminal who recorded a private conversation, has only one objective, as is being shown: To distort reality and deceive people with clickbait," it had then said. 

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