It took just 30 minutes for Leicester City’s Thai billionaire owner to decide to buy the English football club in 2010. It now looks like an inspired investment.
The club was struggling in English football’s second tier at the time. It has since won promotion to the premiership, and, remarkably, sits at the very top of the world’s richest league with over half the season gone.
Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal are all chasing hard, but in one of the sport’s biggest surprises of recent years, the giants of the national game can’t catch a team that many had expected to be dragged into a relegation scrap.
For the owner, duty free magnate Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the priority is to ensure the club from central England and its supporters do not get carried away. And while his son and club vice-chairman, Aiyawatt, prefers to keep discussions on soccer and money separate, Leicester’s ascent brings with it plenty of business opportunities.
“Anything can happen, so we need to keep our feet on the ground,” said Mr Aiyawatt, who runs the club from “behind the scenes” while his father makes strategic decisions.
“It doesn’t just depend on us,” he said. “The big teams are not doing well … That’s why middle or small teams can make some difference. This season is a bit unusual, but it’s quite good for football in England.”
It could also be good for King Power, the travel retail company Mr Vichai founded in 1989 that employs more than 10,000 people, dominates major airports in Thailand and has branched into restaurants, hotels and solar power.
Mr Vichai, a self-made businessman whose personal fortune is estimated by Forbes at US$3 billion (107.4 billion baht), wants to use Leicester’s growing international appeal to boost Thai brands abroad via a new online business under development.
“People around the world know this website through Leicester City Football Club which several billion people watch closely already,” Mr Vichai said recently. “We will use this channel to make our website known.”
King Power is aiming for revenues of 85 billion baht in 2016, a 25% increase from 68 billion baht last year, although the company’s website is still only a small part of that.
WHERE DID IT ALL GO RIGHT?
Leicester’s performance means the £100 million (5.15 billion baht) Mr Vichai’s family has poured into the club so far will reap dividends more quickly. With premiership survival all but guaranteed, Leicester can plan ahead on surer footing.
Next season will bring the biggest payday yet for Premier League clubs thanks to a record-breaking £5.1 billion television deal with Sky and BT that runs from 2016-2019.
Champions Chelsea received £99 million last season while even fourth-placed Manchester United secured a payout of £96.8 million. A finish in the top four means a tilt at the Champions League, estimated to be worth another £40 million.
Quick ca ll: It took Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha just 30 minutes to decide to buy Leicester City club.
“We are getting a significant amount of international attention and are on the radar of more international companies,” said Ian Flanagan, Leicester City’s commercial director. “We are the good news story of the Premier League this year.”
With 14 games left Leicester City were due to travel to Etihad Stadium early this morning three points clear of a chasing pack, led by Manchester City but missing some usual suspects. Later this week they visit Arsenal.
It sounds daunting, but all season Leicester have refused to bow to supposed superiors and rather than fade, the Midlands club are growing in stature at just the right time.
They have bagged 10 points from their last four games, conceding just once, and even their most pessimistic followers are starting to believe that Leicester can become the first club outside the usual cartel to win the English title since Blackburn Rovers in 1995.
Mr Aiyawatt, nicknamed “Top”, puts the success down to old-fashioned family values. “It’s the culture that we brought to the team,” he said, when asked to explain Leicester’s improvement.
“It’s the Thai culture. We give our time to the staff, the players and to the manager. We try to manage it like a family, try to listen to the problems of every single member of staff.”
The owners have avoided supporters’ animosity that marked some foreign forays into English soccer, including the purchase of Manchester United by the Glazers from the United States.
Another wealthy Thai, ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, took over Manchester City between 2007 and 2008. Although he reportedly sold it at a profit, his involvement was cut short and he was sentenced to prison for graft.
There have also been canny player signings and managerial appointments at Leicester, whose success has helped it make up ground on traditional soccer powerhouses in Thailand.
On the rooftop of a Bangkok shopping complex during Leicester’s recent match against Liverpool, about 200 people gathered to follow the game.
“I’m very proud to see them grow to this level,” said 39-year-old Tanaporn Meesrisom, who was in the crowd. “The fan base will definitely grow. I used to be a Liverpool fan, but now I’m rooting for Leicester to win the championship.”
SELF-MADE MAN
According to an interview last year in a local luxury magazine, Mr Vichai, one of Thailand’s top 10 richest men, studied in Taiwan and the United States as a child.
His interest in the duty free business began during his school days in Taiwan, because flights back to Thailand stopped over in Hong Kong.
“As I grew up I saw duty free businesses from all over the world. I found it an interesting business … so I said to myself I might be able to do it,” Mr Vichai told Praew magazine.
He began as an agent for luxury brands before investing in a duty free business in Hong Kong that he eventually acquired. According to Praew, he developed contacts at home and won lucrative concessions to run duty free shops from Airports of Thailand, the mainstay of his private company.
His Majesty the King bestowed on Mr Vichai and his family a new surname.
Mr Vichai’s passion for sport, particularly polo and football, led him to England and a shirt sponsorship with Leicester City. He came then to acquire the club for a reported £39 million.
The first big leap for the club and its owners came in 2014, with promotion to the top division after a 10-year absence.
“Money-wise, that would only come when we were in the Premier League so we pushed a lot of money, time and effort to make it happen,” Mr Aiyawatt recalled.
An equally tough test will be to turn this season’s early form into more lasting success for Leicester and rivals who have sprung surprises and added to the league’s appeal, outside the established elite.
Flying visit: A helicopter reportedly owned by Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the owner of Leicester City football club, lands on the pitch after an English Premier League match between Leicester City and Chelsea at King Power Stadium in Leicester last year.