Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister of Thailand who was ousted last year by a military coup, lodged a formal £81.6 million bid yesterday to buy English Premier League club Manchester City. The club's board has announced it will endorse his bid. "Barring the unlikely scenario that he fails a 'fit and proper person test', he will get the chance to use some of his fortune (estimated at up to £2 billion) to revive a perennially underachieving club and challenge 'the big boys of English football," commented Nick Harris in The Independent (UK).
Thaksin therefore becomes the first Asian to acquire one of the 20 EPL clubs that receive so much revenue from sponsorships, merchandising, tours and television broadcast income from Asian markets.
Thaksin therefore becomes the first Asian to acquire one of the 20 EPL clubs that receive so much revenue from sponsorships, merchandising, tours and television broadcast income from Asian markets.