There are many teams that can claim the title of the greatest underdogs in history.
There's the Iraq national team, who won the 2007 Asian Cup despite being exiled from their
war torn homeland.
Or perhaps West Germany winning the 1954 World Cup final just nine years after the end of
World War Two, the so called Miracle of Bern.
But, for pure unlikely-ness, Leicester City's 2015/2016 English Premier League title is
perhaps the longest shot of all.
Indeed, famously you could’ve got 5000-1 odds on the team winning the title in the
August of that season.
One reason that Leicester City's championship resonated around the world was the fact that
this kind of thing just doesn't happen in sport anymore.
Wages, by and large, correlates with success on the pitch, meaning the richest almost always
win.
An unfashionable club that – with Claudio Ranieri at the helm – put together a team
of bargain buys on a fraction of the budget normally needed to compete.
The likes of Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and N'Golo Kante are all now household names.
If it can happen to Leicester, it could happen to anyone, right?
Not quite.
One man who can claim a large slice of credit for that historic success, perhaps even the
largest: Thai billionaire Vichai [VEE-SHY] Srivaddhanaprabha [SREE-VUHD-HANA-PRABHA],
whose company King Power International owns the club.
As with most billionaire foreign owners who acquire English football clubs, little was
known about Vichai Raksriaksorn (as he was known then, more on that later) when King
Power International bought the club in 2010 for close to £40 million.
He was one of Thailand's richest men, with a penchant for polo (which King Power also
heavily invests in) and for hanging out with the royal families of the world.
He had made his riches in retail, opening his first shop in Bangkok in 1989 but his
fortune skyrocketed to over $4 billion thanks to King Power securing the contract for Thailand's
lucrative duty free concessions.
By far the biggest earner was the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, a hugely expensive pet
project of the then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's that was opened in 2006 and came
to represent, for many Thais, the largesse of the Thaksin era.
In fact Vichai and Thaksin were close allies.
Like Thaksin, Vichai is a member of Thailand's ethnically Chinese elite.
Both became billionaires in Thailand's rapidly growing economy in the 1990s and both decided
to invest some of that fortune in English football (Thaksin's one season owning Manchester
City between 2006 and 2007 was, it's fair to say, less successful).
Still, that didn't put off Vichai and in 2010 King Power had just signed a three year shirt
sponsorship deal with Leicester City before deciding to go all in.
Famously, Vichai would arrive for games by helicopter, which would land on the centre
circle of the newly renamed King Power Stadium.
When he took over, Leicester City had just returned from a brief spell in English football's
third tier.
He became chairman when previous owner Milan Mandric left and, soon enough, and with son
Aiyawatt following closely behind, and with Nigel Pearson at the helm, Leicester City
were back in the Premier League after a few yo yo seasons.
However, in June 2015 Vichai sacked Pearson largely due to the fall out from a video of
several Leicester City reserve players (including Pearson's son) involved in a racist orgy whilst
on a training camp in Thailand.
Claudio Ranieri was hired, Buddhist monks were brought in to the bless the pitch and
give spiritual guidance to the players, Jamie Vardy scored 13 goals in 11 consecutive games
and the rest, as they say, is history.
But things could have turned out very differently for Vichai, whose fortune and success had
been made during, and connected with, Thaksin's regime.
Everything was put in jeopardy when a coup removed Thaksin from power, forcing Vichai
to placate the country's powerful military elite and, ultimately, fall back on his close
relationship with Thailand's beloved and infallible monarchy.
But we get ahead of ourselves.
Back in 2005 Thaksin had just won a historic re-election campaign, the first Thai prime
minister to do so given the country's long history of military coups and counter coups.
Almost as soon as Thaksin was elected, a political crisis enveloped the country between the pro-Thaksin
“Red Shirts” and anti Thaksin “Yellow shirts”.
In September 2006 Thaksin was removed from power by the military who also control powerful
business interests.
This left Thailand's business elite who had got rich during the Thaksin era with a dilemma:
how could they keep their fortunes without being purged, like Thaksin had.
The answer was to deftly switch allegiances.
Soon after the coup, Thailand's' military controlled regime moved quickly to invalidate
King Power's duty free contract.
The Airport Authority of Thailand accused Vichai of leveraging his
political connections to ensure there was no competitive tendering and the deal was
therefore invalid, which Vichai strenuously denied and fought.
It was a huge honey pot.
Suvarnabhumi Airport alone generated $403 million in sales in 2007.
After a lengthy battle, Vichai beat off the legal challenge, but it cost him millions
more in back fees
and taxes.
At the same time he had allegedly leveraged his political influence to avoid Thaksin's
fate . Many believed that corruption was rampant during Thaksin’s reign, but dealing with
a military dictatorship was a much more opaque affair.
“If you want to do business in Thailand, these are the people you need to talk to:
business people who are associated with the military,” said Dr Paul Chambers from the
Institute of South East Asian Affairs in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
“King Power remains influential.
The threat by the junta to break off some of the monopoly power of King Power didn’t
happen.
Instead, the influential reach of Vichai saved him.”
It could only have helped that Vichai had long been working hard to raise money for
several charities close to Thailand's beloved king King Bhumibol Adulyadej [BPUM-IBOL ADOOL-YA-DAY],
who died in 2016.
In return, in 2013, Vichai Raksriaksorn [RAKS-RE-AK-SORN] was awarded the royal name ‘Srivaddhanaprabha’
meaning ‘the light of progressive glory’.
As Thaksin remained in exile (to this day, in fact), Vichai skilfully maintained his
fortune at home by navigating the treacherous waters between pro and anti Thaksin factions.
But it also involved accepting the new rules of Thailand's political game, which included
accepting Thailand's military dictatorship.
A second pro-Thaksin government, led by his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, was also toppled
by the military in 2014 and long awaited elections have been postponed.
A referendum on a new constitution, which was seen as a brazen attempt to entrench the
military's hold on the country, was lambasted by human rights groups.
“Vichai is a super-wealthy guy, connected to military dictators in Thailand and making
sure an underdog team in England win,” said Dr Chambers.
“It isn’t such a Cinderella story.”
But this is the price of doing business for Thailand's elite.
Thaksin Shinawatra believes that Vichai, who he still considers a friend, learned the lessons
of what happened to him by avoiding mixing business and politics.
“He saw my lesson,” said Thaksin.
“Politics is not good for a very successful businessman.”
But owning a football club has its uses according to Thaksin.
“I think that might be a good strategy for him [Vichai].
Being a business and then threatened by different camps of politics.
And now he is a popular man because of the football club.
Somehow it is an insurance policy.
It is good insurance.”
Which doesn't mean that Vichai doesn't face other obstacles.
Another lawsuit accusing King Power of shortchanging the Thai government over sales from Suvarnabhumi
airport's duty-free monopoly is currently ongoing (although Vichai and his family are
not directly accused of wrongdoing).
Vichai's son Aiyawatt denied the allegations and said in a statement to The Guardian that:
“King Power has always followed and been absolutely committed to the highest standards
in proper and ethical business practice.”
The King Power contract at Suvarnabhumi airport ends in 2020.
Meanwhile, Vichai's interest in football club ownership has expanded.
In March 2017, King Power purchased Belgian club Oud-Heverlee Leuven [OWDT – HAY-VER-LAY
– LOW-VEN].
But, as ever, the fortunes of Thailand's super-rich will depend on the shifting political sands
back home.