Leicester City’s Thai
billionaire boss was among five people killed when his helicopter crashed and
burst into flames in the Premier League side’s stadium car park moments after
taking off from the pitch, the club said on Sunday.
A stream of fans already
fearing the worst had laid out flowers, football scarves and Buddhist prayers
outside the club’s King Power stadium after Saturday’s accident in tribute to
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha — the man they credit for an against-all-odds Premier
League victory in 2016.
“The world has lost a great
man,” the club said in a statement.
“Leicester City was a
family under his leadership. It is as a family that we will grieve his passing
and maintain the pursuit of a vision for the club that is now his legacy,” it
said.
A book of condolence will
be opened at the stadium from Tuesday and the team has postponed its upcoming
League Cup fixture against Southampton.
“Everyone at the Club has
been truly touched by the remarkable response of the football family, whose
thoughtful messages of support and solidarity have been deeply appreciated at
this difficult time,” the statement said.
Police named the four other
victims as Nursara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, two members of Vichai’s
staff, pilot Eric Swaffer and passenger Izabela Roza Lechowicz.
Vichai, 60, the owner of
Thailand’s King Power duty-free empire, was a regular at matches who used to
fly to and from home games.
The blue chopper took off
from the middle of the pitch once the stadium had emptied after Saturday’s 1-1
draw with West Ham.
Eyewitnesses said the
helicopter appeared to develop a mechanical problem in its rear propeller
shortly after takeoff.
Images showed orange balls
of flame engulfing the wreckage in the car park of the stadium where just two
years ago Leicester celebrated the most unlikely of Premier League title
triumphs.
“Struggling to find the
right words….but to me, you are a legend, an incredible man who had the biggest
heart, the soul of Leicester City Football Club,” Leicester striker Jamie
Vardy, one of the heroes of that success, posted on Instagram.
“Thank you for everything
you did for me, my family and our club. I will truly miss you…. may you rest in
peace… #theboss”
‘Sense of family’
Prayers and tributes poured
in from the footballing world and beyond for the jovial man many credit with
bringing glory to the central English city with the miracle-making club.
“He’s put Leicester on the
map,” supporter Cathy Dann, 55, told AFP.
“He’s made us big,” she
said, as aviation experts picked through small pieces of wreckage scattered on
the stadium’s edge.
Among the tributes was an
image of Ganesh — a Hindu god also seen in Thai Buddhist temples.
A minute’s silence was
observed before the whistle of Sunday’s Premier League matches.
“It is a family business
and they have instilled this sense of family not just throughout the club but
into the city as well,” Andrew Hulley, the team’s chaplain for the past seven
years, told AFP.
Football fans in Bangkok
said Vichai had helped develop the sport in Thailand as well, bringing the
Southeast Asian country greater recognition in the sporting world.
“He is an important person
who has raised the bar of Thai football further,” Apichart Jitratkavee, a
Leicester fan in the Thai capital, told AFP.
Chamat Uchukanokkul, 39,
said Vichai was “an inspiration to Thais… He showed that we can do anything if
we set our minds to do it”.
Vichai bought Leicester
City in 2010 and moved to chairman the following February, pouring millions
into the team and becoming a beloved figure in the club and the city — a feat
rarely achieved by the Premier League’s foreign owners.
5,000-1 odds
It was under Vichai’s
ownership that Leicester crafted one of the biggest fairy tales in English
football history by winning the 2015/16 Premier League, having started the
season as 5,000-1 outsiders for the title.
Vichai’s investments in the
club helped return them to the Premier League from the second-tier Championship
in 2014.
Languishing at the very
bottom of the table for most of the 2014/15 season, the Foxes, as the team are
nicknamed, then engineered what fans now fondly refer to as the “Great Escape”,
winning seven of their last nine matches.
They ended up finishing
14th, securing another season in Europe’s richest league in 2015/16.
But not even their most
devout fans could have imagined what happened next.
Vardy scored in 11 consecutive
matches, propelling the men in blue to a title without parallel in Premier
League history.
The impact made by
Leicester‘s remarkable rise under Vichai across the continent was reflected as
Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid both expressed their condolences.
“The club wants to show
their condolences to his family, his friends and all the Leicester fans,” said
European champions Madrid in a statement.
“Our thoughts are with the
whole @lcfc family. Rest in peace,” Barca posted on Twitter.
AFP
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