Leicester Leadership

Since the inception of the Premier League – the money bags version of a football league – to choose to support a club outside the ‘top-six’ is to choose adversity gift-wrapped.

That was certainly the experience of Leicester City supporters when Thai billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha bought the club in 2010.

Soon after, he bought back the fairly new stadium that had been sold off to a US pension fund, and renamed it the King Power Stadium – his company’s name.

There was further investment in the training and sports science facilities along with player acquisitions.

Within four years the club won promotion to the Premier League after a ten year absence and, in their second season, won the Premier League title – a once in a lifetime achievement. Next season Leicester City reached the quarter finals of the Champions League.

Since then, the club has returned to ‘the norm’ of mid-table, but the investment has continued: expanding the stadium capacity and building a state-of-the-art training facility.

So the supporters’ outpouring of grief and tributes following the owner’s fatal helicopter crash, is entirely understandable and while the press and media coverage has been welcomed there does appear to be an underlying motive.

In the wider picture of football club ownership the demise of ‘good cop’ Vichai is being used to offset the damage done by the many ‘bad cop’ owners: the ruination of Portsmouth FC, the Glaziers’ debt-laden takeover of Manchester United and the under-investment by Sports Direct Mike Ashley of Newcastle United, are but a few.