Tey said the , original plan was to take a” major minority” interest of about 20 to 25 per cent, a number that may make it worthwhile to get involved.
” If I invest two per cent, I think there’s not much place”, he said.
He roped in business associates and ancient friends Pang Sze Khai and Lee Kok Leong, and set up a organization- Kickoff Ventures- to invest in Sampdoria.
” We do a lot of business in different fields together… ( When ) I have a deal, I tell them”, said Tey.
There were also ideas for other investors to appear in, but this didn’t materialise.
According to media studies, one of those linked to Sampdoria was Qatar Sports Investments, the owner of French giant Paris Saint-Germain.
At this point, Tey decided to put in more cash.
” We all decided that ( it’s ) a project we want to carry on, we believe in the project”, he said. ” That’s how I ended up from a considerable majority to a lot which is now 58 per cent”.
CNA understands the total amount invested in Sampdoria, along with Italian partners, was 100 million euros ( US$ 110 million ).
Tey later bought Pang and Lee out of their interest in the league.  ,
” I don’t think this ( was ) really their cup of tea- they are not hardcore football fans like me”.
STAYING BEHIND THE SCENES
Two centuries in, the Singaporean has continued to stay out of the spotlight. He hasn’t been involved in some media commitments, if at all, nor done any media events.
Tey said keeping a small profile is really who he is.
It’s even” by style” that an Italian- Manfredi, now club president- is the face of Sampdoria otherwise, while the Singaporean stays “behind the scenes”.
” They may deal with the Italians many better- the language barrier, the social hurdle”.
But earlier this year, he found himself in the articles of native Genovese advertising. This came after a Norwegian store questioned Tey, Pang and Lee’s motivations for getting involved with Sampdoria, by claiming they were involved in running game company FUN88.
The post premised this argument on FUN88’s name and logo being registered by an Isle of Man-based firm called Mustafar Limited- whose constitutional users are Tey, Pang and Lee.
Tey told CNA that he’s one of the proprietors of Mustafar, which owns and has licensed out the FUN88 brand to separate third-party licensed operators- which finally run the betting web-site in different jurisdictions.
He said he had started out operating FUN88 about 15 years ago.
” Along the way as all these regulations changed, I said I didn’t want to get involved in the operator business”, added Tey.
Given that he had built up the business and the brand, he decided to trademark and license it out.
He called the whole affair a “non-issue”, and pointed to the Italian Football Federation ( FIGC ) not raising any concerns either.
To date, there’ve been no reports of authorities responding to the claim.