28 Oct Leicester City confirm tragic death of owner

The Leicester City Football Club has confirmed the death of owner and chairman, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.

Following Leicester’s Premier League game against West Ham United on Saturday evening (UK time), the helicopter carrying the club’s Thai billionaire owner crashed into an adjacent carpark outside King Power Stadium.

The Foxes released the following statement:

*“It is with deepest regret and collective broken heart that we confirm our chairman, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, was among those to have tragically lost their lives on Saturday evening when a helicopter carrying him and four other people crashed outside King Power Stadium.

“None of the five people on-board survived.”*

Read more below:

pic.twitter.com/hQSR0IDWWg

— Leicester City (@LCFC) October 28, 2018

Speaking on SEN Breakfast this morning, senior reporter at BBC Radio Leicester, Tim Parker, gave some further details into the character and significance of Mr Srivaddhanaprabha and his ownership group.

“These are people who care about the club. The owner and his son are both from King Power organisation which runs the duty-free in a lot of Thailand airports, including Bangkok,” he said.

“They have done what a lot of investors don’t do at football clubs in this country. They’ve gone in and poured in millions of pounds.

“It was a club going nowhere when they bought it. As you know, a couple of years ago, we made the headlines for all the right reasons (when winning the Premier League title).

“Today, I’m afraid it is the other way around.”