Advertisement

Valencia fans call for Peter Lim to sell club, daughter hits back at online abuse

Valencia fans protest against club owner. Source: Twitter
Valencia fans protest against club owner. Source: Twitter

Singapore billionaire Peter Lim’s daughter Kim Lim has been the target of racist comments from disappointed Valencia fans over the last few months.

Since Lim’s takeover of the club in 2014, Valencia CF has reached what is arguably its lowest point after selling more than 100 million euros (S$150 million) worth of players at the beginning of the season, including a deal that sent Shkodran Mustafi to Arsenal.

Then came the shock resignation of coach Cesare Prandelli last week and a 4-1 loss at home to Celta Vigo on Tuesday.

The home loss prompted a foul-mouthed tirade from former assistant manager Phil Neville, while Prandelli also slammed the club’s board for undermining his decisions during his brief three-month tenure.

With Los Che almost certainly out of the Copa Del Rey, fans are frustrated that they may be relegated at the end of the season.

After directing their disappointment at the players’ performance in recent games, Valencia fans protested outside the Mestalla stadium on Wednesday, calling for the tycoon to sell the club.

Apart from protests, the fans have been hurling abuse online at Lim’s 24-year-old daughter, Kim Lim.

The socialite responded to the abuse with the following post at the end of December: “Looks like some Valencia fans choose not to have a life again. I welcome comments again for everybody to see again, how amazing, the manners of some Valencia people are. Looks like the first comment is already racist and vulgarities are still being hurled. Others just try to justify with everything else irrelevant. Go home, go home = blah blah blah. What if we don’t go home?! LOL”

Source: Kim Lim's Instagram page
Source: Kim Lim’s Instagram page

As of 6 Jan 2017, Lim has disabled more than 300 comments from fans on her Instagram posts. Most of the comments told her and her father to “go home”, and some of these messages were of a shockingly racist nature, with many fans hurling vulgarities in Spanish.

In a post written a week ago, she added, “SOME of the Valencia fans humor me sooooo much (sic) you guys are so funny. They say I have no education & manners because I “answer back” to them. But…. if you slur profanities and write racist comments about me, why should I sit back and let them do so?”

Source: Kim Lim's Instagram page
Source: Kim Lim’s Instagram page

Lim was also abused online by Valencia fans last year after posting a photo of tickets to a Manchester United game. Lim told The New Paper in November 2016 that she was surprised that most of the comments came from men. “Why would they swear at a lady like that? They were cyberbullying and the profanities they said were ridiculous,” she said

She also told the paper, “I have to stand up for my family and I want to protect my dad, who loves me so much. “I’m also not just standing up for myself, but for Asians as a whole.”

Her father made headlines two years ago when he bought the cash-strapped La Liga club for $609 million. Valencia CF’s executive president Chan Lay Hoon admitted in an interview with Yahoo Singapore last year that the season “[had] not been very smooth”.