Thaksin Sells His Manchester City Club To Abu Dhabi

[Heng]

Classic market timing. Business acumen in action.

[Plus]

It is, and now the Arab dude is going to pick up the tab.

[Heng]

I'm sure the Arab dude will be fine as long as the world is addicted to dead dinosaurs.

[mrbojangles]

By all accounts, the reporter is not alone and many supporters, along with local residents are very upset and offended, to say the least on what took place and then the selling on of the club to the present owners at such a profit.

Your'e havin a Giraffe, surely MB.

Thaksin takes over City, pumps money in, we finish higher than we ever have. He knows he can't pump any more money in and so he sells us. And now we are the richest football club in the world.

Believe me, i don't know a single supporter who is upset about this, what your'e saying is like someone who won the Lottery and is now hacked off about it because they find out Camelot make a profit

As for the local residents who aren't happy about it. They are probably Man United fans, as their club is £600m in debt

[Plus]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/...ksin-shinawatra

This article from Guardian is extensively quoted in today's Nation.

It appears Thaksin had the club pay his son for doing PR work for the Thailand tour he forced on them, and even lent the money to the club at nearly 12% interest.

There are lots of other numbers - "City lost £33m up to then under Thaksin, and their bank borrowings increased from £49m to £64m. The amount owed to all creditors ballooned from £134m to £209m."

Sounds like Thaksin, doesn't it. The same way Thai household debts doubled during his reign, and it was all about "helping the poor".

[Cayenne]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/...ksin-shinawatra

This article from Guardian is extensively quoted in today's Nation.

It appears Thaksin had the club pay his son for doing PR work for the Thailand tour he forced on them, and even lent the money to the club at nearly 12% interest.

There are lots of other numbers - "City lost £33m up to then under Thaksin, and their bank borrowings increased from £49m to £64m. The amount owed to all creditors ballooned from £134m to £209m."

Sounds like Thaksin, doesn't it. The same way Thai household debts doubled during his reign, and it was all about "helping the poor".

Yes, but in this case Man City insiders probably knew that Thaksin was milking them to death and luckily had Sheikh Mansour rescue them from their debts. Most of the poor who were "helped" by Thaksin, unfortunately, are still heavily debt and ignorant that it was through Thaksin's policies that got them this way.

[Plus]

Insiders probably knew, or maybe not, maybe they all have been taken for a ride. Majority of supporters and minor shareholders were in the dark and happily cheering for Thaksin.

If he could pull that off thousands miles away in a faraway country that is as democratic as they come, with a club that is their heart and soul, imagine how his magic works on Isanese.

It is politically incorrect to say that Isanese brains might be duped, though. They are incorruptible, as we all know. They are always right, because there are so many of them.

I'm sliding into a rant here.

[plachon]

By all accounts, the reporter is not alone and many supporters, along with local residents are very upset and offended, to say the least on what took place and then the selling on of the club to the present owners at such a profit.

Your'e havin a Giraffe, surely MB.

Thaksin takes over City, pumps money in, we finish higher than we ever have. He knows he can't pump any more money in and so he sells us. And now we are the richest football club in the world.

Believe me, i don't know a single supporter who is upset about this, what your'e saying is like someone who won the Lottery and is now hacked off about it because they find out Camelot make a profit

As for the local residents who aren't happy about it. They are probably Man United fans, as their club is £600m in debt

One word: KIPPER.

[plachon]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/...ksin-shinawatra

This article from Guardian is extensively quoted in today's Nation.

It appears Thaksin had the club pay his son for doing PR work for the Thailand tour he forced on them, and even lent the money to the club at nearly 12% interest.

There are lots of other numbers - "City lost £33m up to then under Thaksin, and their bank borrowings increased from £49m to £64m. The amount owed to all creditors ballooned from £134m to £209m."

Sounds like Thaksin, doesn't it. The same way Thai household debts doubled during his reign, and it was all about "helping the poor".

Also, note from article that Thaksin paid his own son almost 48 grand (GBP) for "PR services" during the much hyped Man City tour to Bangkok.

Wonder what kind of "services" the mighty Oak provided? I'm sure all above board and kosher between two such upstanding members of the sporting world and footballing fraternity.

Som nam na MC fan who backed Frankie Goes To Eastlands.

[plachon]

What is it about MUFC?

The news just keeps getting better for the club - from today's Grauniad:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/2...ty-torture-tape

Set fire to his testicles!!!!

[sriracha john]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/...ksin-shinawatra

This article from Guardian is extensively quoted in today's Nation.

It appears Thaksin had the club pay his son for doing PR work for the Thailand tour he forced on them, and even lent the money to the club at nearly 12% interest.

There are lots of other numbers - "City lost £33m up to then under Thaksin, and their bank borrowings increased from £49m to £64m. The amount owed to all creditors ballooned from £134m to £209m."

Sounds like Thaksin, doesn't it. The same way Thai household debts doubled during his reign, and it was all about "helping the poor".

Also, note from article that Thaksin paid his own son almost 48 grand (GBP) for "PR services" during the much hyped Man City tour to Bangkok.

Wonder what kind of "services" the mighty Oak provided? I'm sure all above board and kosher between two such upstanding members of the sporting world and footballing fraternity.

Som nam na MC fan who backed Frankie Goes To Eastlands.

What are they going to pay Oak in no-doubt-next-up-Togo for?

PR services for the Inaugural Greater Togo Shinawatra Ant Hill Racing Rally?

Let these Shinawatras' pull some of these stunts in some of these Western African nations and they'll become tomorrow's soup.

[Plus]

But he gives them the money!

Does anything else matter? It's for their club.

Maybe they should seriously consider fan ownership, like Barcelona or Hamburg. I mean all English clubs, ManC was just unfortunate to run into a batch of spoiled owners but it's a perfect example how money corrupts the game, and without any results, I might add.

[sriracha john]

Sven-Goran Eriksson and Thaksin Shinawatra, who'd have guessed it wouldn't last?

The Guardian

Thaksin's Thai buffet

When Manchester City's directors made up their minds to sell the club to former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the spring of 2007, they rejected any suggestion that he might not be quite the ideal owner for Manchester's self-styled community club.

This tended to fly in the face of the evidence. The charge sheet against Thaksin included the awkward detail of his having been labelled "a human rights abuser of the worst kind" by Human Rights Watch after 2,500 people were allegedly killed by the Thai police during Thaksin's declared "war on drugs" in the country.

Thaksin always denied that his rhetoric, blood-curdling as it could be, ever tipped over into ordering extra-judicial murders. In November 2006, he was ousted as PM by the Thai military while he was out of the country. The coup came shortly after Thaksin had sold the family company, Shin Corp, for £1.2 Billion, on which he was reported to have paid no tax – news that brought crowds of protestors on to the Bangkok streets.

A simple Google search would have informed City's directors that the new military government had set up an assets examination committee to investigate how Thaksin made his considerable fortune while in office. In short, he was under investigation for corruption offences when City's directors decided that he was the perfect character to launch their club into a bright blue future.

They sold to him for £21.6 Million, and the largest shareholders, John Wardle and David Makin, were repaid a large part of their £20 Million loans by Thaksin. His arrival brought the former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson to City and a string of new players. He threw a party in Manchester's Albert Square, with a free Thai buffet, which thousands of City's fans lapped up.

The Thaksin era unravelled only a year later, when he was convicted on corruption charges and he and his wife, Potjaman, skipped bail and fled Thailand. Then, with the club apparently on the brink of disaster, he found somebody willing to buy City: Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi, the richest backer of any football club in the world.

Late last year, Thaksin was refused entry to the UK. "My briefing quite rightly said he has been charged with fraud," said the Immigration Minister Phil Woolas. "He is not a desirable person."

City's directors, when they accepted more than £40 Million from Thaksin, had not, for some reason, been blessed with the same clarity of vision.

- The Guardian (UK) / 2009-05-16

Edited May 16, 2009 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

Late last year, Thaksin was refused entry to the UK. "My briefing quite rightly said he has been charged with fraud," said the Immigration Minister Phil Woolas. "He is not a desirable person."

The Immigration Ministers in Hong Kong, UAE, Nicaragua, Liberia, Montenegro, ad infinitum could learn a lot from the British one.

[jayboy]

Late last year, Thaksin was refused entry to the UK. "My briefing quite rightly said he has been charged with fraud," said the Immigration Minister Phil Woolas. "He is not a desirable person."

The Immigration Ministers in Hong Kong, UAE, Nicaragua, Liberia, Montenegro, ad infinitum could learn a lot from the British one.

Do you mean making fraudulent expense claims for nail polish and womens shoes?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...ail-polish.html

[Cayenne]

Do you mean making fraudulent expense claims for nail polish and womens shoes?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...ail-polish.html

Ha, good one! Looks while he was looking at Mr. T's history he learned that he can now make "innocent mistakes" while trying to conceal assets.