Criminal Wanted: Thaksin and Pojamarn

As Manchester City threaten to descend into civil war, Goal.com's Will Wood takes a closer look at the City of Manchester club. Will Thaksin Shinawatra stay at the club, or will Mark Hughes be left to pick up the pieces of a flirtation with the big time?

Little over twelve months ago, former Thailand Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, completed the purchase of one of England’s so-called ‘sleeping giants’; a club steeped in history, but one that found itself aspiring to sit side-by-side with Tottenham Hotspur and Everton rather than Manchester United and Chelsea. That said, he was controversial, at least for a while. “Billionaire,” people then said, and with one word the allegations of human rights infringements seemed to evaporate quicker than an football agent’s payment.

Chequebook Out

“Champions League”, Shinawatra himself said, and so the turnstiles at the City of Manchester stadium began to turn. In came former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, greeted by the same fans that surely vilified him as the national side’s boss, but who believed that even the cumbersome Swede could find success with the masses of spending money on offer at Eastlands. Then entered the likes of Martin Petrov, Valeri Bojinov and Elano, most of whom were hardly the household names that billionaires in football are expected to buy, but many of which came with sufficient price-tags on their head to suggest they were far better options than the likes of Danny Mills and Paul Dickov.

Three straight wins in the Premier League, including the 1-0 defeat of arch-rivals Manchester United, saw a mass-eruption of belief that the blue half of Manchester could enjoy the kind of successes usually reserved for the boys from Salford. Shinawatra spoke of his desire to win the league and the Champions League within five years, Elano was starring as his value rose to £20 million – his decline over the proceeding months a symbol of the club's own demise, but that's yet to come – and Eriksson had been embraced to greater lengths than at any point in his England career.

Delicate

And yet it was all so delicate. As the cracks began to appear, and City secured just three league wins in January, February and March, Shinawatra refrained from unifying himself with his manager. Instead, he weakened the foundations of an already teetering campaign, refusing to clarify Eriksson’s position and instead citing the end of the season as the time for reflection. In other words, unless Eriksson miraculously turned round what looked remarkably like a sinking ship, the man that had appointed him just several months earlier would demonstrate the kind of impatience that makes Hearts’ Vladimir Romanov look nonchalant.

What ensued was one of the biggest farces in modern football as Shinawatra’s meagre attempts to have his cake and eat it backfired. Perhaps in the world of politics, where positions of power seem to come before dignity, Eriksson would have clung to his managerial hot-seat regardless of Shinawatra’s blatant thoughts for managerial change at the end of the season. Either way, Eriksson himself knew he was leaving, the club’s fans knew he was leaving and, most significant of all, the players knew he would be leaving.

At the risk of sounding ridiculous, my friendship with one particular City player allowed me an incredible insight into events at the club in the latter half of the season, and it is no wonder Richard Dunne, the captain and immensely popular figure, was close to joining Tottenham Hotspur upon the season’s end. While the 28-year old claimed earlier this week that City “won't be made weaker by business decisions,” he was speaking with his heart rather than his head. Nor is it any surprise that some of the younger, highly-rated players considered their future at the club as their tutor, Eriksson, was forced out by an owner whom they had shared little more than a greeting with spending less and less time in England.

Having already removed the well-respected chief executive, Alistair Mackintosh, and nullified Paul Tyrell, the director of communications, Shinawatra had free reign to mould his putty as he saw fit. City fans must have glanced south and towards Aston Villa, mouthing the words ‘what could have been’ as they saw a group of young, British players reminiscent of their own. While the likes of Ashley Young, Gabriel Abgonlahor and Nigel Reo-Coker helped Martin O’Neill’s side to sixth in the Premier League and developed what promises to be a new era at Villa Park, City’s own crop of promising youngsters, the likes of Joe Hart, Micah Richards, Stephen Ireland and Micahel Johnson, could only watch as their club collapsed around them.

Dramatic

This may all seem very dramatic. The club have, after all, appointed one of the countries most highly-rated managers in Mark Hughes, they finished eighth last term and they have recently completed the £20 million signing of Jô. Yet crucially, the lynchpin of it all, Thaksin, still finds himself in a precarious position with regards to charges of fraud from his homeland, predictably accompanied by numerous bids for extradition by the current Thai government. His wife, Potjaman, has already been convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to three years, though she remains out on bail. How can a flourishing tree grow when its very roots remain weak?

Central to the club’s plight this summer was the fact that, in a Peter Ridsdale-esque fashion, Shinawatra reportedly secured borrowings to purchase the club against the £800 million of money frozen by the Thai regime when he fled the country for Britain last summer. Confident that the money would eventually be released, the 59-year old allegedly took out high-interest loans that are now bringing the club and its owner to their knees as he struggles to finance the repayments without full access to his excessive fortune.

Part of the downfall of Leeds came about when the club decided to enlist the help of Ray Ranson’s company, Registered European Football Finance, to recruit players without incurring the transfer fees. It worked both ways, however, and while the players’ values rose, the club’s precarious finances could not be resolved through the sale of the same players who had been bought in the buy-to-let agreements. Incidentally, Ranson attempted to buy City prior to Shinawatra taking over -how things could have been much rosier had he done so!

You need only read Hughes' comments last week regarding communication at the club to get an insight into the turmoil each and every employee is facing. The last thing a new manager should be concerning themselves with is an undermining of their authority. Yet that is exactly what the disciplined and outspoken former Blackburn Rovers manager had to do as representatives of the owner attempted to conclude the sale of Vedran Corluka to Tottenham Hotspur and Stephen Ireland to Sunderland to ease the finances for at least a few months.

Mayhem

Amid all the mayhem, the new campaign got underway as City hosted FC Midtjylland in the UEFA Cup second-round qualifying round. All of City’s efforts from last season were invested in the tie, but an abysmal performance saw the visitors from Denmark walk away with a 1-0 win. Their manager spoke of poor fitness levels and early season jitters, but then they were hammered 4-2 by Aston Villa and all of a sudden the gaps in their squad and beyond have been further exposed.

Granted, three of the goals came courtesy of Abgonlahor’s sensational performance which included a stunning seven-minute hat-trick, but there was an ill-ease about City’s performance that suggested that there was more to the defeat than a lack of player conditioning. The game with West Ham United next weekend takes on an even greater significance, and it’s hard to imagine Hughes and Hammers manager Alan Curbishley’s post-match drink will be anything other than a sombre affair as both take heed of their respective positions. A loss for City would send them into the second-leg of their UEFA Cup tie, as well as domestic games away to Sunderland and at home to Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Chelsea, on minus confidence.

As Hughes and O’Neill shook hands in the aftermath of Sunday’s clash, you could not help but feel that in the current climate, it was a meeting of two clubs heading in opposite directions. While O’Neill enjoys the understated support of Randy Lerner, Hughes is left to pick up the debris of Shinawatra’s ongoing battle with his former nation. A sinking ship can be stabilised, but it requires all hands on deck and an experienced and committed captain, and it is the latter than should concern City fans.

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"Everybody is laughing at us . . . again. But this is Manchester City, we'll still come here, 40,000 of us every week," insists one valiant club fan.

Owner Thaksin Shinawatra leaves the club in uncertain times

The words of this one City fan sum up the mood of the masses.

The start of a new season is meant to be a time for optimism among football fans, a few weeks when everybody can look to the future and hope.

But it's proving hard to find optimists here at the ticket office outside the City of Manchester Stadium.

Following this club has always been a rollercoaster ride - at the moment you get the impression the supporters just crave stability.

Billionaire chairman Thaksin Shinawatra is wanted in his home country of Thailand on charges of corruption and abuse of power, plus £800m of his assets have been frozen pending a verdict.

Speculation has surrounded the future of new manager Mark Hughes and there are whispers that star players like Vedran Corluka and Stephen Ireland could be leaving.

All in all, City fans feel they have every reason to be downcast as the new Premier League gets under way.

"It's the uncertainty that is getting to people," says Kevin Parker from the Man City Supporters Club.

"People are looking at the financial side of all this and worrying because you think of what happened to Leeds United.

"Look at them now, they're in a division we were in seven or eight years ago and we don't want to go back to that."

A top 10 finish and a place in the UEFA Cup wasn't enough to keep Sven Goran Eriksson in his job as City manager and his successor has been busy this week answering questions about the situation on and off the pitch.

I am very focused on what I aim to achieve here and that means success on the pitch.

Manchester City Manager Mark Hughes

"I had a meeting with all the players this week and the contents will remain private," Mark Hughes told reporters.

"Basically we needed to make the group aware that I'm in charge and will make decisions that will affect players."

Hughes added that every football club attracts its share of speculation and that he believes most of it is not grounded in fact.

What is fact is that an arrest warrant has been issued in Thailand for City's owner.

Mr Thaksin maintains the charges are politically motivated and an attempt to remove him from politics.

We'll soon find out what affect the coverage of his situation has had on City's players and their motivation.

Source: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Manchester-City-FC-Faces-A-Gloomy-Season-As-Thai-Owner-Facing-Arrest/Article/200808315079604

It could only happen to Manchester City. Mark Hughes has been forced to distance himself from reports of an early exit from Eastlands as the club's erstwhile owner seeks political asylum in Guildford. The theatre of base comedy has plunged to a new low. Though few Blues will see the funny side, their despair giving way to wondering just how their club was allowed to collapse into this mess.

And they could ask what football's authorities did to stop it happening in the first place. The answer is very little indeed.When former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra bought the club last summer amid much fanfare, many observers wondered just how a man on corruption charges who has long been accused of human rights' abuses was allowed to take over a Premier League club.Surely safeguards against such a thing existed? Yet Dr Thaksin sailed past the 'fit and proper persons' test supposedly set down to any prospective owner by the Premier League.Tuesday saw Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore say that his organisation is monitoring the situation at City closely. A classic case of bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Too little too late. The damage looks likely to be already done.With Thaksin having fled Thailand rather than answer charges of corruption and fraud, his wife also skipping bail from appeal after being found guilty of similar charges, City's chances of gaining access to Thaksin's £800m fortune became just higher than zero.Reports suggest that Sven Goran Eriksson's heavy spending of last summer is still yet to be paid for, with much of the money owed to European banks.There are scant funds for new manager Hughes to spend as the transfer window creaks shut. Young stars Verdran Corluka and Stephen Ireland were put up for firesale only for Hughes to cling on to them as both seemed destined for the Eastlands exit.Hughes has described recent events as a 'difficult week'; typically understated from a former Blackburn and Wales boss who also bears the look of a bemused man. Hughes is a fighter and will keep fighting, that is his nature. If only the Premier League had shown a fraction of his determination in a fight to keep bad pennies out of the English game.Questions have been asked of several owners over the last few years; Roman Abramovich had his doubters on his arrival at Chelsea and Sacha Gaydamak's ownership of Portsmouth was under heavy suspicion. However, neither of these Russian émigrés faced criminal charges at the time of their purchase of their respective club.Thaksin was able to seize control of City, despite it being public knowledge that a major proportion of his assets were being impounded by Thailand's government. This may also have begged questions whether he truly possessed the assets to buy and then run a Premier League club.Players Alan Smith, Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer have been withdrawn from England duty in recent years when facing criminal charges. No such action on ownership was taken by a Premier League too happy to count the cash and congratulate itself on becoming a global brand.Some of those, including outgoing chairman John Wardle, who received the £81.6m Thaksin paid for the club are said have expressed regret at making the wrong decision. Rumours of unpaid solicitor's bills arising from the sale abound too.The depth of City's problems is yet to be fully revealed. By then, with Thaksin said to have placed the club in the hands of his children via shell companies, there may be little that the Premier League can do to change the situation. Those likely to suffer most are the club's fans and Hughes, who seems set to be denied the chance to take the step to a bigger club he stated as his desire on leaving Blackburn.As a result of their inaction on Thaksin's takeover, the Premier League may suffer further loss to a reputation already sullied by the '39th game' fiasco. It would only be fit and proper that it did.

Source: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=562509&sec=england&&cc=4716

Thailand's Ministry of Foreign affairs have said that they were considering revoking the diplomatic passport of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who fled to Britain with his wife on Sunday, prompting the country’s Supreme Court to issue arrest warrants for them.

Thailand's Ministry of Foreign affairs have said that they were considering revoking the diplomatic passport of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who fled to Britain with his wife on Sunday, prompting the country’s Supreme Court to issue arrest warrants for them.

Thai Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag said their supreme court must officially inform his ministry of Thaksin’s flight from the country amid a corruption probe, which would then begin the process of determining whether the billionaire’s diplomatic passport would be voided, the Thai News Agency reported.

Thaksin is known to have two passports, and the consequences of losing his official passport is likely to be little more than symbolic for the Manchester City owner.

According to the Thai News Agency, Bunnag said officials from his ministry would need to speak with the Thai embassy in London, as well as the British Home and Foreign Offices, regarding the possibility of extradition to Thailand.

A Thai foreign ministry official said they had not received any information as to whether Thaksin, and his wife, Khunying Pojaman, who is on bail after being sentenced on July 31 to three years in prison on tax evasion charges, would seek political asylum in Britain.

In a faxed statement to news outlets in Bangkok, Thaksin explained his weekend flight to Britain, saying he was forced to flee because his political foes were tinkering with the judicial system to get rid of him and his family.

Thaksin’s latest self-exile comes less than six months after his return to Thailand after a 2006 military coup that ousted him as Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, Bangkok’s supreme court is continuing with their probe into a corruption case against the Thaksins involving their purchase of prime Bangkok real estate in 2003. The purchase from the Bank of Thailand at a bargain price took place while Thaksin was Prime Minister. Thaksin and his wife deny any wrongdoing.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2548613/Thaksin-Shinawatra-could-face-deportation--Football.html

Fantasy football is fun but the reality is funnier. Nobody could make it up. A Premier League referee is suspended because he did not tell the authorities that, allegedly, he owes £60,000 yet the four leading clubs will kick off the season this weekend £2bn in debt and hardly shouting it from the rooftops.

There was a time when anyone could take over a football club without having to prove he could run a whelk stall, let alone a country. Who else but Manchester City could find themselves in the singular situation of being owned by a former prime minister of Thailand who has fled a corruption hearing back home, denying all charges and leaving behind £800m in frozen assets with no undersoil heating? Meanwhile Thaksin Shinawatra has been snapped shopping in Guildford, that notorious refuge for former Asian rulers on the run.

Before Thaksin turned up at City some of their supporters doubtless associated Thailand solely with Siamese cats and thought it was still being run by Yul Brynner. The Premier League has mumbled about waiting for the outcome of the Thaksin's trial in absentia before deciding whether he is a fit and proper person to be in charge at Eastlands. Either way, Richard Scudamore must be thanking his lucky stars that Robert Maxwell did not buy Manchester United while learning to float.

Football always did swim against the tide. As the country enters a period of financial restraint the Premier League has spent another summer tightroping it, like Blondin, across a financial Niagara Falls. Leaving aside the fanciful sums which clubs are said to be willing to pay - like the £78m Chelsea are apparently itching to spend on Kaka - the sums actually agreed still beggar belief.

Robbie Keane, for whom Liverpool have paid Tottenham £20.3m, is a proven striker but he is 28, had barely played Champions League football before Wednesday night, and will need to form an instant and prolific partnership with Fernando Torres to convince Anfield's arguing American owners that Rafael Benítez has not paid too much for too little.

Reports that Sir Alex Ferguson was considering bidding £20m to bring Thierry Henry to Manchester United from Barcelona may have been designed to gee up Dimitar Berbatov's move from Spurs. The notion of Ferguson parting with such a sum for the former Arsenal man, who will be 31 tomorrow and has had problems with sciatica, is indeed fantastic. Yet this is a world in which the English transfer record remains the £30.8m Chelsea paid Milan for Andriy Shevchenko two summers ago, since when the Ukrainian has shuttled between treatment room and bench while making only sporadic appearances in matches.

The usual noises are being made about football's extravagance at a time of economic hardship, but it was ever thus. At the beginning of the 1980s the nation was being told to tighten its belt yet Manchester City still spent £1.43m on Steve Daley and £1m on Kevin Reeves; these were then huge sums and to the majority of clubs below the top level, would be huge sums still. Garry Birtles, one of the sales of the century, moved from Nottingham Forest to Manchester United for £1.25m and came back two years later for £300,000. He cost United roughly £86,000 a goal.

Yet wages rather than transfer fees are the main drain on the modern game. Players are often accused of greed when they reject contracts which would bring them several times in a week what the average wage-earner gets in a year. But it is a bit like the world of film and pop stars, where vast sums are so regularly earned and spent that within these circles they become the norm. As footballers approach 30, moreover, they sense that their future earning power is limited so they go for as much as they can while they can. It is less a matter of greed than gut instinct.

Not that it is all about money even now. To play at the top level and win international caps players need to appear regularly in the Champions League. The likes of Berbatov and Gareth Barry know that however well they perform for Tottenham and Aston Villa, the chances of their making the Champions League while staying put are remote. Once they have reached their late 20s they have to make a move, which Barry will probably do eventually even though he cannot now play in the group stages of this season's Champions League having appeared for Villa in a Uefa Cup qualifier on Thursday.

This is what the polarisation of the Premier League has brought about. Manchester City, meanwhile, will be thinking more about a line from The King and I: 'He had a thousand dreams that won't come true . . .' And wake up in a cold sweat.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/aug/16/premierleague.manchestercity

The Premier League is facing an unprecedented trial of its fit and proper persons test after arrest warrants were issued for the Manchester City owner, Thaksin Shinawatra, in Thailand yesterday. His next step may be to apply for political asylum in Britain but, should he be convicted in Thailand in his absence, the Premier League would be prepared to reassess his suitability to own a club.

In what would be an unprecedented case the Premier League would take legal advice before making a decision that could result in Thaksin having to sell his stake in Manchester City. Whether the league would recognise a conviction in Thailand should Thaksin receive political asylum has yet to be determined. The league could yet be spared that difficulty if Thaksin elects to sell the club, although a City spokesman yesterday said the businessman has no such plans.

Under the fit and proper persons test "any director is automatically disqualified if convicted of one of a number of offences by a 'competent court' anywhere in the world". Thaksin is currently a "fit and proper" owner as he has not been convicted. He has denied the charges, claiming they were politically motivated.

Legal officials in Bangkok have confirmed the case against Thaksin will continue in his absence. The Thai authorities may also seek to extradite the billionaire and his wife unless they are granted political asylum. Two weeks ago Thaksin's wife, Pojaman, was sentenced to three years in jail for tax fraud but was granted bail.

Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, said: "If we feel the rule has been breached, we will invoke it. We will not turn a blind eye to issues of a serious nature. As always, we will take advice from the Home Office and the Foreign Office."

A court in Bangkok issued the warrants after the deposed Thai prime minister and his wife fled to Britain on Sunday rather than face corruption charges. They travelled to London from the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing . Thaksin claimed "that there is a continuation of dictatorship in Thai politics ... which is followed by interference in the justice system".

Of more concern to City fans is the club's increasingly uncertain financial future. Thaksin is unable to release an estimated £800m in assets frozen by the Thai government in June last year and was seeking new investors in the club prior to his latest exile.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/aug/12/manchestercity.premierleague1

Shinawatra fled to Britain with his wife on Sunday Manchester City's executive chairman Garry Cook says the uncertainty around owner Thaksin Shinawatra does not pose any threat to the club's stability. There is a warrant for his arrest in Thailand and the Premier League says he may take its 'fit and proper person test' to see if he can own a club. "City's future is not in jeopardy. In the short term it's business as usual," Cook told the Manchester Evening News. "He's willing to look at whatever it takes to make City a great club." An arrest warrant for the former Thai Prime Minister was issued after he failed to appear in court in Bangkok on Monday. The test was introduced to ensure that only "fit and proper people" are owners or directors of Premier League clubs. It states that "any director of a club is automatically disqualified if convicted of one of a number of offences by a 'competent court' anywhere in the world." Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: "If we feel the rule has been breached, we will invoke it. "(But) we have a club owner who has not yet been found guilty of any offence." The test was introduced to ensure that only "fit and proper people" are owners or directors of Premier League clubs. We will not turn a blind eye to issues of a serious nature Richard Scudamore Premier League chief executive Thaksin is currently facing charges of corruption and abuse of power in Thailand, which he has denied. The Thai government could ask for Britain to extradite Thaksin so he can face trial in Bangkok. The two countries have a long-standing extradition treaty and Thailand's democratic government is recognised by Britain. Scudamore added: "We will not turn a blind eye to issues of a serious nature (but) it is quite a complex matter and we can't just make a judgement on the spot." He also said the league would seek advice from the UK Home Office and Foreign Office before making any decision. Thaksin's wife, Pojaman, was sentenced to three years in jail for tax fraud two weeks ago but was granted bail. The couple fled to Britain on Sunday after watching the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing. But Cook said City fans had nothing to fear and the turmoil surrounding him would not impact on manager Mark Hughes' plans for the new season. "We don't rely on Dr Thaksin's money," he said. "When Mark Hughes makes a decision we go through the normal process, which can include banks, finance or a whole bunch of different things just like any other club." Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_city/7555512.stm

Oustanding questions over club owner and several players put Hughes' side in turmoil

By Ian Herbert
Tuesday, 12 August 2008