A Tribute To Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha - The Man Who Changed Leicester City Football Club

On October 27th 2018, Leicester City chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha lost his life as he died in a tragic helicopter accident along with five others. A sad day for football.

Srivaddhanaprabha was the founder and CEO of King Power Duty Free, Thailands retail travel group based in Bangkok. He was ranked by Forbes magazine as the 7th richest man in Thailand, reportedly worth 3.3 billion dollars.

In August 2010, Vichai and his son Aiyawatt purchased English Football League Championship club Leicester City. He took over from Milan Manadaric as chairman in February 2011 whilst continuing as the owner. Aiyawatt became the vice chairman. The owners renamed the stadium from the Walkers Stadium to the King Power Stadium in July 2011. Srivaddhanaprabha was a very quiet and reserved man who didn't talk to the media a lot. He turned up to matches (not something a lot of owners do) and understood what football fans wanted. Success.

Ever since then the club has transformed from a play-off pushing Championship side to Premier League champions in 2016. The club were promoted to the Premier League in 2014 when they won the Championship title, finishing with 102 points. The following season back in the Premier League (2014/15), the club pulled an unexpected great escape winning all of their last eight matches to cement another season in the top flight. But the season after that (2015/16) the club did the impossible and won the Premier League title. They were 5000/1 odds to win the title and were picked by many to go down. The summer before the 2015/16 campaign, Srivaddhanaprabha only spent 22.7 million pounds on transfers. Not something a title winning team would do. On the day the Foxes lifted the trophy, the chairman and his son were attached to the Premier League trophy, putting smiles on all faces related to Leicester City.

Throughout that time he awarded every fan attending Leicester's last home game in 2015 a free Singh beer for their great support and even awarded every player who was apart of Leicester's title winning season a blue sports car in 2016.

Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel said Srivaddhanaprabha changed football and gave hope to everyone that the impossible was is possible. Players and fans of not just Leicester City but from all over the world shared their emotions via social media.

The Leicester City chairman certainly put smiles on the faces of all Foxes fans and players. A man who will be missed by football. The game could certainly do with more people like him.