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Manchester City foi comprado
Manchester City accepts bid from Thaksin
By Rob Hughes
Published: June 21, 2007
LONDON: Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed prime minister of Thailand, announced Thursday that Manchester City directors had recommended that the club's shareholders accept his bid to purchase the team - the same day that prosecutors in Bangkok formally charged Thaksin and his wife with corruption.
Manchester City, the poor relation to Manchester United, agreed to Thaksin's offer of £81.6 million, or $162 million. It is his third attempt to purchase an English Premier League team, following aborted interest in Liverpool and Fulham.
The military council that overthrew Thaksin, who now lives in exile in England, said it would not oppose his takeover of Manchester City.
"He still has a lot of money and can move around, making big business deals like this," Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd, a government spokesman, said, The Associated Press reported from Bangkok. "That's his private matter. We will not interfere."
The recommendation by the team's board makes Thaksin a likely member of the growing band of entrepreneurs from the United States, Russia, Egypt and Iceland taking ownership of the richest league clubs on earth.
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The lure of English soccer is bolstered by a new television rights deal that will bring in $5.3 billion over the three years from this summer until 2010.
There are 20 teams in the league, with equal rights to the television income.
The acceptance of the bid seems to have come at an odd time: The military government in Thailand has moved aggressively to separate Thaksin from his wealth in recent weeks, freezing two dozen bank accounts containing the equivalent of more than $1.6 billion.
But the announcement Thursday was interpreted in Thailand as an indication that the tycoon-turned-politician has money beyond the reach of the generals who ousted him.
Thaksin, who is ethnically Chinese and from the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, made his fortune in the technology business. His first successful venture was in the 1980s when he sold IBM computers to the police department where he once was an officer.
He made the bulk of his money after he obtained government concessions in the telecommunications industry, including a license for a cellphone network just as that technology became popular.
Populist and opinionated, Thaksin expanded his business to satellites, airlines and television broadcasting before he entered politics in the 1990s.
When he became prime minister in 2001, he revolutionized Thai politics by focusing his platform on rural and poor voters in a country where two-thirds of the population live outside cities.
During his five years in power, he rankled the Thai elite with his populism and stoked the fires of Muslim insurgencies in southern Thailand with his tough, uncompromising stance. And he was accused by human rights groups of encouraging the extrajudicial killings of thousands of suspected drug dealers.
By the time he was ousted in the military coup last September, he was still admired by farmers and laborers, but generally despised by the intelligentsia and moneyed elite.
This week the police summoned Thaksin back to Bangkok to face corruption charges.
Thaksin, like other recent buyers, does not seem to be much deterred by the sentiment recently expressed by Mohamed Al Fayed, the foreign buyer with the longest pedigree in acquiring English soccer stock.
He paid £30 million for Fulham in 1997, claims to have invested seven times that amount in keeping the London team in the Premier League and said this month: "We are all completely mad - you cannot make a return on the investment."
Yet Americans - the Glazer family, which owns Manchester United, and George Gillett and Tom Hicks, who bought Liverpool last year - see returns through marketing of the clubs. The Asian market, where the television market is growing, has been locked for two decades into the allure of English soccer.
There have been myriad reasons why foreign investors go where few of England's rich have trodden in recent soccer takeovers: Land acquisition comes with some clubs, like Portsmouth.
However, the entrepreneurs' club sets its own rules. Roman Abramovich paid just over £60 million to land Chelsea four years ago but has not even begun to reap - or apparently even seek - financial returns on the almost £500 million he has lavished on buying and paying international stars.
The Chelsea players are fast becoming the richest sportsmen outside America, with John Terry, Michael Ballack, Didier Droga - players from England, Germany, the Ivory Coast - and the Portuguese coach José Mourinho banking more than £5 million a year from the Abramovich payroll. Abramovich is one of many Russian oligarchs making their home in London.
Thaksin must know that his impending purchase of Manchester City puts him on the second tier of playing power in the league. His reported aim is to tempt Sven Goran Eriksson to rebuild the team. The Swede has been unemployed while continuing to draw a millionaire's salary from England's Football Association since he was fired after the World Cup a year ago.
Thaksin initially aimed high, having been impressed by Manchester United. Then he bid somewhat lower, talking to Al Fayed about a possible Fulham buyout. While in office as prime minister, Thaksin proposed an offer for Liverpool that would effectively have come through the Thai taxpayers' pockets - he suggested that a Thai national lottery finance the bid for part ownership of the Reds of Liverpool.
The money for Manchester City, accepted despite campaigns by fans who read Amnesty International reports of alleged human rights abuses by the Thaksin government during a crackdown on drugs, is relatively small.
It may require double that amount to tempt quality players to the Sky Blue colors of Man City, and will come from the funds that Thaksin managed to get out of Thailand before the coup.
The criminal corruption charges against him and his wife, Kunying Pojaman, followed the announcement that the 52.9 billion baht of Thaksin family assets were being frozen in Thailand.
The charges concern property dealing and tax evasion. Thaksin's company, Shin Corp., is under investigation for deals involving billions more baht. Prosecutors say that if the former Thai leader ever goes back to Bangkok to face charges, he could be jailed for 10 years.
A soccer club for a business, if not a political comeback, might appear to be one of the more extreme incentives to buy into what some club owners insist is a lose-lose financial situation.
Manchester City finished 14th among the 20 English Premier League teams in the season just ended - just four points safe from the relegation to a lower league that cuts the bottom-ranked clubs out of the global television exposure game.
Thomas Fuller contributed reporting from Bangkok.
By Rob Hughes
Published: June 21, 2007
LONDON: Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed prime minister of Thailand, announced Thursday that Manchester City directors had recommended that the club's shareholders accept his bid to purchase the team - the same day that prosecutors in Bangkok formally charged Thaksin and his wife with corruption.
Manchester City, the poor relation to Manchester United, agreed to Thaksin's offer of £81.6 million, or $162 million. It is his third attempt to purchase an English Premier League team, following aborted interest in Liverpool and Fulham.
The military council that overthrew Thaksin, who now lives in exile in England, said it would not oppose his takeover of Manchester City.
"He still has a lot of money and can move around, making big business deals like this," Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd, a government spokesman, said, The Associated Press reported from Bangkok. "That's his private matter. We will not interfere."
The recommendation by the team's board makes Thaksin a likely member of the growing band of entrepreneurs from the United States, Russia, Egypt and Iceland taking ownership of the richest league clubs on earth.
Related Articles
Vantage Point: Politics and sportsmen
Today in Sports
Manchester City accepts bid from Thaksin
Horse racing: Yeats wins Gold Cup for 2nd year in a row
Vantage Point: Politics and sportsmen
The lure of English soccer is bolstered by a new television rights deal that will bring in $5.3 billion over the three years from this summer until 2010.
There are 20 teams in the league, with equal rights to the television income.
The acceptance of the bid seems to have come at an odd time: The military government in Thailand has moved aggressively to separate Thaksin from his wealth in recent weeks, freezing two dozen bank accounts containing the equivalent of more than $1.6 billion.
But the announcement Thursday was interpreted in Thailand as an indication that the tycoon-turned-politician has money beyond the reach of the generals who ousted him.
Thaksin, who is ethnically Chinese and from the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, made his fortune in the technology business. His first successful venture was in the 1980s when he sold IBM computers to the police department where he once was an officer.
He made the bulk of his money after he obtained government concessions in the telecommunications industry, including a license for a cellphone network just as that technology became popular.
Populist and opinionated, Thaksin expanded his business to satellites, airlines and television broadcasting before he entered politics in the 1990s.
When he became prime minister in 2001, he revolutionized Thai politics by focusing his platform on rural and poor voters in a country where two-thirds of the population live outside cities.
During his five years in power, he rankled the Thai elite with his populism and stoked the fires of Muslim insurgencies in southern Thailand with his tough, uncompromising stance. And he was accused by human rights groups of encouraging the extrajudicial killings of thousands of suspected drug dealers.
By the time he was ousted in the military coup last September, he was still admired by farmers and laborers, but generally despised by the intelligentsia and moneyed elite.
This week the police summoned Thaksin back to Bangkok to face corruption charges.
Thaksin, like other recent buyers, does not seem to be much deterred by the sentiment recently expressed by Mohamed Al Fayed, the foreign buyer with the longest pedigree in acquiring English soccer stock.
He paid £30 million for Fulham in 1997, claims to have invested seven times that amount in keeping the London team in the Premier League and said this month: "We are all completely mad - you cannot make a return on the investment."
Yet Americans - the Glazer family, which owns Manchester United, and George Gillett and Tom Hicks, who bought Liverpool last year - see returns through marketing of the clubs. The Asian market, where the television market is growing, has been locked for two decades into the allure of English soccer.
There have been myriad reasons why foreign investors go where few of England's rich have trodden in recent soccer takeovers: Land acquisition comes with some clubs, like Portsmouth.
However, the entrepreneurs' club sets its own rules. Roman Abramovich paid just over £60 million to land Chelsea four years ago but has not even begun to reap - or apparently even seek - financial returns on the almost £500 million he has lavished on buying and paying international stars.
The Chelsea players are fast becoming the richest sportsmen outside America, with John Terry, Michael Ballack, Didier Droga - players from England, Germany, the Ivory Coast - and the Portuguese coach José Mourinho banking more than £5 million a year from the Abramovich payroll. Abramovich is one of many Russian oligarchs making their home in London.
Thaksin must know that his impending purchase of Manchester City puts him on the second tier of playing power in the league. His reported aim is to tempt Sven Goran Eriksson to rebuild the team. The Swede has been unemployed while continuing to draw a millionaire's salary from England's Football Association since he was fired after the World Cup a year ago.
Thaksin initially aimed high, having been impressed by Manchester United. Then he bid somewhat lower, talking to Al Fayed about a possible Fulham buyout. While in office as prime minister, Thaksin proposed an offer for Liverpool that would effectively have come through the Thai taxpayers' pockets - he suggested that a Thai national lottery finance the bid for part ownership of the Reds of Liverpool.
The money for Manchester City, accepted despite campaigns by fans who read Amnesty International reports of alleged human rights abuses by the Thaksin government during a crackdown on drugs, is relatively small.
It may require double that amount to tempt quality players to the Sky Blue colors of Man City, and will come from the funds that Thaksin managed to get out of Thailand before the coup.
The criminal corruption charges against him and his wife, Kunying Pojaman, followed the announcement that the 52.9 billion baht of Thaksin family assets were being frozen in Thailand.
The charges concern property dealing and tax evasion. Thaksin's company, Shin Corp., is under investigation for deals involving billions more baht. Prosecutors say that if the former Thai leader ever goes back to Bangkok to face charges, he could be jailed for 10 years.
A soccer club for a business, if not a political comeback, might appear to be one of the more extreme incentives to buy into what some club owners insist is a lose-lose financial situation.
Manchester City finished 14th among the 20 English Premier League teams in the season just ended - just four points safe from the relegation to a lower league that cuts the bottom-ranked clubs out of the global television exposure game.
Thomas Fuller contributed reporting from Bangkok.
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