It is almost eight years to the day since the Football League confirmed that Leicester City’s takeover by a Thailand‑based consortium had been approved. Milan Mandaric, the club’s previous owner, who stayed on as chairman initially, announced: “Today is a great day for Leicester City. Our owners are fantastic people with incredible ambition for the future. They have great character and integrity and they will strive for success for Leicester City.”
Few could have imagined how prophetic those words would turn out to be as Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, a Thai billionaire, bought Leicester for £39m and oversaw a magical story of sporting triumph against the odds that rejuvenated a city, never mind a football club, and captured the imagination of people all over the world.
That is Vichai’s legacy and will live on in the hearts and minds of the staff, players and supporters at a football club numb with pain and still trying to digest the tragic chain of events at around 8.20pm on Saturday, when a helicopter carrying Leicester’s owner and four other people crashed outside the stadium.
Little more than an hour earlier Vichai had been doing one of the things he enjoyed most: watching Leicester play. The 60‑year‑old was never one to say much publicly but actions spoke louder than words from a benefactor who invested heavily in Leicester and regularly attended matches, often flanked in the directors’ box by his son, Aiyawatt, the club’s vice-chairman.
A humble and modest man, Vichai left the day-to-day running of the club in the hands of others, notably Susan Whelan, the chief executive, and Jon Rudkin, the director of football, both of whom had his complete trust and would consult with him and Aiyawatt over key decisions.
Occasionally Vichai was required to resolve an issue himself and it is a measure of how highly he was regarded that in those circumstances everything tended to get sorted out with the minimum of fuss. Jamie Vardy’s new contract in the title‑winning season was a case in point. Vichai asked Vardy to see him at his private function room at the stadium – where Vardy had never before set foot – after negotiations between the player’s agent and the club had reached an impasse. The striker accepted the club’s financial position, listened to how much Vichai thought of him and walked out of their meeting more than happy to put pen to paper.
Vichai had that sort of effect on people and his close relationship with a number of the Leicester players – Vardy even invited him to his wedding – made him much more than a football club owner to them. He would take the squad on an all-expenses-paid night out from time to time and his generosity – something that near enough everyone who has spent time in Vichai’s company talks about – was always appreciated.
The kind gestures, whether donating millions of pounds to local charities, handing out 60 free season tickets to fans to mark his 60th birthday or giving every Leicester player a BMW after winning the Premier League title, were never made with publicity in mind.
Vichai preferred to stay out of the limelight and was a private man. Even when Leicester’s title‑winning fairytale was unfolding and everyone wanted a piece of the club, he stayed quiet. Yet behind the public silence was a deep love for Leicester and a relentless determination to drive the club on, whether through breaking transfer records for players or pledging £100m towards the cost of a new state-of-the-art training ground.
Any interviews with the media were generally left to Aiyawatt, the notable exception being a rare press conference in May 2014, when Leicester had just won promotion from the Championship. Speaking to reporters in Bangkok, Vichai said he wanted a top-five finish in the Premier League within three years and that he was willing to spend £180m to get there.
It was bullish talk and, on the face of it, easy to dismiss as unrealistic, especially as Leicester had been out of the top flight for a decade. Yet just under two years after making those comments, Vichai and his son were at Stamford Bridge watching Chelsea hold Tottenham Hotspur to the 2-2 draw that saw Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester side crowned Premier League champions.
The party was going on elsewhere, at Vardy’s house in Melton Mowbray, but Vichai and his family would get to enjoy a special moment of their own five days later, when Leicester were presented with the Premier League trophy after the home fixture against Everton.
It was notable at the time that Vichai was the prominent figure on the cover of the souvenir programme that day and a few eyebrows were also raised after the game, when the owner and his son seemed to be permanently attached to the Premier League trophy during a lap of honour. Maybe, though, that was nothing more than their immense pride shining through – and quite frankly, who can blame them?
Those images will be shown over and again in the days to come and, with one eye on the future, Vichai’s words on that May afternoon are also worth revisiting after a truly awful weekend.
“Our spirit exists because of the love we share for each other and the energy it helps to create, both on and off the pitch,” he wrote. “And in the years to come it will continue to be our greatest asset.”
The Guardian Sport
