There is no way on earth I am going to be in any way critical of the Leicester City owner,Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who died so tragically in the helicopter accident by the Kingpower Stadium on Saturday evening. I know little about him, other than the fact that his generosity meant that the football team he owned and funded were able to win the Premier League. His generosity went well beyond what happened on the pitch, too, as he funded some worthy and wonderful projects off the pitch too. There was genuine love for Mr Srivaddhanaprabha from the people of Leicester. Through his great wealth, he was able to make dreams come true. It was what Arsenal legend Ian Wright last night on BBC Radio Five Live that got me to thinking.
In his generous praise, Wright said that he felt Mr Srivaddhanaprabha did for Leicester City represented “the benchmark of how it should be done.” I suppose it depends how you look at it. We know that without his massive investment, Leicester City could not possibly have won the Premier League. That is simply a fact. They might not even have got out of the Championship, who knows? I suspect the vast majority of supporters up and down the land would welcome such an investor at their club if they believed they might have a chance of enjoying the success achieved at Leicester. I have never believed that success in football should be bought.
“That’s just the way it is,” as Bruce Hornsby, put it. “Some things will never change.” If Leicester City bought the Premier League, then so did Blackburn Rovers, so did Manchester City, so did Manchester United. It’s the way of the world. Unless you are lucky enough to have your own Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, you have no chance of winning anything. Even a common or garden billionaire like Bristol City’s Steve Lansdown can’t manage more than a mid table Championship position. What price the rest?
In my ideal world, inhabited by, I admit, a small minority of people, supporters would have genuine influence at their own football clubs. Not necessarily by complete fan ownership, but certainly a real partnership between owners and supporters. The football club should surely be part of the community, not just a massive business where supporters are little more than customers. In my opinion.
However, if you are one of the mourning Leicester City supporters, you will have no interest in my words and why should you? Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha gave them something that was impossible, yet it came true. They will never forget it, they will not care how it came about. And why should they? 2016 was the greatest season of all.
My world, of clubs where supporters everywhere were fairly represented, has never really existed. The game has always been owned, in pure financial terms, by the elite few although football will always be owned in spirit by the supporters.
I don’t think, as Ian Wright does, that what happened at Leicester City represented “the benchmark of how it should be done” but no one can deny that it worked and the people who were there will forever be grateful to Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, as they should be. It is rare in football, as in real life, that no one seems to have a bad word for him. My love and thoughts are with his family, his friends and everyone connected with Leicester City. I am not dissing what he did because he did it his way and it worked.
It’s me, dreaming of a so called ideal world which is as relevant to the digital age as sepia-tinged photographs. Leicester City lived the dream and now the man who made it happen has died. It’s so, so sad.
