Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha became one of their own at Leicester in an era when foreign ownership of clubs is questioned

Fairytale success: Vichai celebrates the title triumph on the pitch with the players, just seven years after buying the then Championship club
Getty Images
Tony Evans29 October 2018

Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s death in a helicopter accident on Saturday is a distressing postscript to one of football’s greatest stories. There was much speculation when the billionaire bought Leicester City for £39 million eight years ago. What could the CEO of King Power, the Thai retail giant, possibly want with a provincial club languishing in the Championship?

Srivaddhanaprabha wanted to gatecrash the Premier League and scare the life out of England’s elite. Leicester, under their chairman, succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of the fans and players.

It was easy to be sceptical about the businessman’s motives. Foreign ownership has brought mixed blessings to the English game. Overseas cash turned Chelsea and Manchester City into global powers but clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool found themselves loaded with debt after takeovers in the half-decade before Srivaddhanaprabha bought Leicester.

Leicester did not need to worry. Srivaddhanaprabha was respectful towards the club’s heritage and engaged with the supporters and the city. The Foxes Trust, the fans’ group, described him as “generous, so warm and friendly.”

The club gave away free beer and doughnuts to celebrate the chairman’s birthday but Srivaddhanaprabha’s involvement with the community won him even more friends. He visited, and made substantial donations, to hospitals in the area. At a time when football teams can feel increasingly distanced from the communities that hold their roots, Leicester remain a club fixed in local values.

That alone would satisfy most supporters but Srivaddhanaprabha delivered something else: a Premier League title. The invigorating, unlikely charge to the top of the table in 2015-16 was a feelgood story full of improbable heroes. Just seven years after being in the third tier of English football, Leicester reached its apex.

The team had barely survived relegation in the previous season and the appointment of Claudio Ranieri as manager provoked widespread derision. The Italian and his preposterous cast of journeymen and discards did what many people believed was impossible by finishing above Arsenal, Chelsea and the Manchester clubs — the teams that had monopolised the title for more than two decades. The owner’s joy at the success — on a budget that embarrassed some of the division’s big spenders — was obvious.

Flowers are liad at the King Power Stadium
EPA

Yet sentiment was never allowed to get in the way of progress. Ranieri and his squad basked a little too much in the glory of the Premier League success, so the manager was dismissed nine months after winning the league. Leicester were again threatened with relegation and Srivaddhanaprabha could not countenance that.

Even former managers are largely positive about the man who handed them their P45s. Sven-Goran Eriksson, whose appointment signalled the Thai’s ambitions for Leicester, hails the chairman’s contribution to the club and admits “he sacked me but I think he did well. I bought the wrong players.”

Tributes laid for Leicester City chairman Vichai Srivaddhanapra

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Nigel Pearson’s departure was hastened by a hugely embarrassing situation when his son James, a squad member, was filmed using racist language on a sex tape while on a team tour of Thailand.

Srivaddhanaprabha might have been forgiven for breaking ties with the Pearson family but the former Leicester manager has spent the last year in charge of the owner’s other club, OH Leuven, in the Belgian league.

Many foreign owners watch the travails of their team from afar but the 61-year-old was no absentee landlord. He attended virtually every home game, helicoptering in and out of King Power Stadium. Saturday’s visit for the 1-1 draw with West Ham United was just another fixture until tragedy struck.

The Thai’s time in charge will be remembered for the title win but Srivaddhanaprabha’s greatest achievement was to retain and enhance the club’s soul.

The team is still a flagbearer for the area, an intense source of civic pride. The people of Leicester will miss a man who arrived as a stranger but became one of their own.

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