Thai quest for Premier League football
Countless football clubs in England are now under foreign ownership.
Many fans in Thailand switched allegiances to Manchester City when Thaksin Shinawatra briefly gained control of the club back in 2007. Fast forward four years later and it's the same manager at the helm - in the form of ex-England manager Sven Goran Eriksson - but a far more competent and determined set of owners from Thailand: Vichai Raksriakorn and his son Top Aiyawatt (successful owners of the Thai duty-free outlet King Power) now flying the flag for Thailand in its quest to take Leicester City back to the promised land.
Doubters of their intentions have been forced to eat humble pie, as they smashed the club's transfer fee to bring in central defender Matt Mills from Reading for £5 million. Vichai has consistently stated he will not leave any stone unturned to achieve the goal of Premier League football. He has given full backing to Sven in the transfer market, as well as promising they will still be around in five years time and longer to make the club a permanent fixture in the Premier League.
Yet it seems that after trying a quick fix - via the loan transfer market last season, when many Leicester City matches were televised live on Thai TV - this revolution will not be televised. We were teased with a glamorous but meaningless friendly against Real Madrid on Channel 3 a few weeks ago. Yet marketing the club when the real business starts in the league campaign on Thai TV this season appears to have been neglected by Vichai and Top this season. The match against Nottingham Forest was the featured football league match, made available to stations around the world on an ad hoc basis. It was shown in Hong Kong, via Goal TV, which seemed to supply Thai TV with the signal last season when games were shown live. Yet the Thai public and Leicester expats were faced with blank screens or dodgy Internet streams to follow their beloved club.
After paying £5 million for one player, would it cost so much for our new Thai owners to strike a definite deal with a Thai TV station to show some matches this season? The Chiang Mai LCFC supporters club will find it difficult to increase its membership without live fixtures.
Clive Nagington
Chiang Mai
