Leicester City’s charismatic Thai boss feared dead

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Leicester City’s charismatic Thai boss was feared dead on Sunday (Oct 28) after a helicopter belonging to the billionaire crashed and burst into flames in the football stadium car park moments after taking off from the club’s pitch.

Neither the police nor the team would confirm or deny whether Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, a regular at matches who flies to and from home games, was on board when the helicopter appeared to develop a mechanical problem in its rear propeller after takeoff.

The BBC, Sky News and several British papers quoted sources saying the 60-year-old was among five people who boarded the blue craft from the middle of the pitch once the stadium emptied after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with West Ham.

Leicester City said they would issue no statement on Sunday while police thanked fans for their “patience” in a tweet issued a full day after the crash.​​​​​​​

Images showed orange balls of flame engulfing the wreckage in the car park at King Power Stadium – the scene of unbridled jubilation after Leicester’s against-all-odds Premier League title victory in 2016.

A witness told Sky News the helicopter spun out of control after clearing the roof of the stadium before steadying itself and crashing into the car park and away from the packed media centre nearby.

Prayers and tributes poured in from across Britain for the jovial man many credit with bringing glory to the central English city with the miracle-making club.

“He’s put Leicester on the map,” supporter Cathy Dann, 55, told AFP. “He’s made us big.”

A steady stream of grieving fans laid down football scarves and shirts outside the home fans’ entrance as aviation experts picked through small pieces of wreckage scattered on the stadium’s edge.

Among the tributes was an image of Ganesh – a Hindu god also seen in Thai Buddhist temples.

“It is a family business and they have instilled this sense of family not just throughout the club but into the city as well,” Andrew Hulley, the team’s chaplain for the past seven years, told AFP.

While still holding out glimmers of hope, silence from the club and their Thai owners made most people presume the worst.

Sven-Goran Eriksson, who was manager of the team under Vichai, called his former boss a “very, very generous man” who “saw every game during my time”.

And ordinary fans in central Bangkok said Vichai helped develop Thailand’s football as well, bringing the Southeast Asian country greater recognition in the sports world.

“He is an important person who has raised the bar of Thai football further,” Apichart Jitratkavee, a Leicester fan in the Thai capital, told AFP.

Vichai bought Leicester City in 2010 and moved to chairman the following February, pouring millions into the team and becoming a beloved figure in the club and the city – a feat not always achieved by the Premier League’s foreign owners.

 

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