Manchester City: Frantically weaving a larger basket case
Even Thaksin Shinawatra’s ego wouldn’t go so far as to proclaim himself the Messiah, yet for a brief period he was held in such regard at Eastlands.
His takeover of the club last summer, coupled with a supposedly huge cash injection and the installation of Sven-Goran Eriksson as coach led many City fans to start dreaming of gatecrashing the big four. Early season results did little to dispel the giddy times in one part of Manchester.
Sure, the former Thai Prime Minister had a dodgy past, but to success-starved fans his £100m plus shopping spree was enough to dispel any doubts, even though he was the first Premier League owner to be subjected to the fit and proper person test.
In stark contrast to the Glazer family’s takeover of neighbours Manchester United, there were no protests, burnt effigies or breakaway clubs formed. Thaksin had assumed control with nothing more than a small murmur about his past and then the football got underway and all was forgotten.
Fast-forward a year and many of those slightly irritating Thai politicical issues that dogged Shinawatra when he first started sniffing around for a Premier League club have become major headaches for all involved. Mark Hughes, Manchester City FC, the Premier League and the fans may all be forgiven for feeling slightly hot under the collar, but it’s difficult to have sympathy for any of them.
Warning signs
The alarm bells should have started ringing at Eastlands when Shinawatra’s name was first mooted as a potential buyer for chairman John Wardle. The former Thai prime minister had already made an abortive attempt to buy Liverpool, making it clear he wanted a Premier League club, preferably a reasonably successful one, without being too fussy which one ended up under his control.
At this point a cynic may have pointed out that Thaksin was experiencing a little local difficulty back home and buying a Premier League club would be the perfect way to deflect attention from domestic problems by tapping into the almost insatiable Thai demand for English football.
Shinawatra was deposed in 2006 by the military after a series of corruption scandals that saw the then-Prime Minister and his family pocket a tidy profit from both land and telecommunication sales, much of which was used to buy Manchester City. Thaksin may have been popular with the poor in Thailand, and the coup that deposed a democratically elected leader may have been widely condemned, but his government was hardly whiter than white.
Corruption, crackdowns and torture
In 2006, a report by anti-corruption agency Transparency International noted: “Corrupt activities have become highly sophisticated, including conflicts of interest and policy-based corruption. Despite some successes, Thaksin was alleged of having absolute power, corruption, conflicts of interest, violation of human rights and using inappropriate populist policies to win the rural poor.”
Then there was the small matter of human rights abuses under his government. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have regularly condemned his regime and both wrote to the Premier League and FA during Thaksin’s takeover of Manchester City asking them to consider rejecting his bid on the basis he wasn’t a fit and proper person to run a football club.
As Human Rights Watch noted: “Our research and that of other credible organisations shows that Mr Thaksin’s time in office from 2001 to 2006 was characterized by numerous extrajudicial executions, ‘disappearances’, illegal abductions, arbitrary detentions, torture and other mistreatment of persons in detention, and attacks on media freedoms.”
That the fit and proper persons test was even mentioned at all should have been a cause for concern. So far only Denis Coleman of Rotherham has failed this because he was unfortunate enough to preside over two slides into administration, the first when he’d only been at the helm a few weeks. Compared to having large amounts of your assets frozen pending a full-blown corruption trial, not to mention having torture and state-sponsored murder attached to your name, it seems somehow insignificant.
But Shinawatra sailed through because, although pending trial for corruption, he had yet to be convicted of any crime. Despite a small pocket of resistance from some fan sites and publications, these swiftly evaporated when it looked, for a brief period, as if City might actually challenge for a Champions League squad.
Those who raised issue with Thaksin’s ownership were swiftly pointed to his huge outlay on new signings such as Martin Petrov and Elano, notwithstanding that very few of these fees were paid up front and City still owe millions in transfer money.
Suddenly the warrant for Shinawatra’s arrest and the £800m of his personal fortune that remains frozen in a Thai bank seems a lot more pressing to Manchester City fans, not to mention the very strange situation surrounding defender Vedran Corluka’s on-off move to Spurs and the uncertainty surrounding manager Mark Hughes before the Premier League 08/09 season has actually started.
Fit and proper people
The Premier League, meanwhile, will face a serious test of their credentials if Thaksin is found guilty, as it’s highly likely he would subsequently fail the fit and proper person test and be forced to sell up, assuming he isn’t already looking for a buyer for the debt-ridden cub. The Premier League’s Chief Executive Richard Scudamore may sound like he’s talking tough, but all his statements so far have been full of ifs, buts and maybes.
“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 but it is quite a complex matter and we can’t just make a judgment on the spot,” Scudamore said, ensuring he was a long distance away from whatever spot that judgment would have to be issued from, adding that Thaksin has yet to be convicted of any crime.
Should Shinawatra somehow be successful in avoiding a guilty verdict and his money were to be suddenly unfrozen it would come as a surprise to absolutely no one if the Premier League decides the matter to be a lot less complex than first thought, and one that certainly doesn’t require the fit and proper person’s test. If he’s found guilty, it’s anybody’s guess what will happen.
It’s a situation which nobody comes out of any credit with. Hughes may have been tempted by lures of riches at Eastlands but should have been intelligent enough to realise that, should Thaksin run into difficulties, the whole club would be in trouble.
Meanwhile, the former owners who sold up should have been well aware of exactly the type of person they were selling to and must bear a high level of responsibility for the current situation, while the Premier League had the opportunity to head off any problems over Thaksin’s ownership when the takeover was first going through.
And ultimately the fans must also take responsibility for rolling over, bellies collectively waiting to be tickled, at the first sign of a significant chunk of cash, no matter where it came from and any strings it may have had attached.
Modern-day football may have greatly reduced fan power but it can still be heard, from the pitches in Kingston where AFC Wimbledon currently play, to FC United of Manchester, formed in protest over a foreign takeover. Even the usually mild mannered heated seats of the Emirates have seen protests against would-be owner Alisher Usmanov.
But rather than force the issues around Shinawatra’s takeover into the public eye, the majority of Manchester City fans proved themselves to be far more concerned about the potential appointment of Eriksson and the amount of money he’d get to spend in the transfer window. To the supporters, Premier League, and City’s previous owners, money certainly talked.
Of course, Eriksson is now gone – sacked after achieving Thaksin’s target of a top-ten finish. Dr Shinawatra himself may soon follow Sven out of Eastlands, along with Hughes and many of the team’s more valuable assets. Whether the club itself also disappears in its current guise is unlucky but not entirely improbable.
And while nobody likes to utter the words ‘I told you so’, it’s a phrase Manchester City fans may become accustomed to hearing over the coming weeks.
Totally agree. What a one sided, uneducated load of red fuelled babble. Where is the journalistic balance. A lot of maybe’s and if’s. As a city fan I am worried but not to the levels this and other media would have you believe.
What about Chelsea’s owner and his past???
As usual City gets a hard ride from the Media. What is their problem?? What did somebody do to them in the past? Are they really that paranoid about us becoming a success? It may not happen, but non City fans do everything to stop it. If any of the top four had gone through what we had in the last ten years would they have had that support? No. Maybe that’s the answer.
I hope this is more balanced that the article above.
CTID
Red-fuelled? Not in the least – I have no love for Manchester United whatsoever, and generally a lot more time for Manchester City. But selling the club to a man on corruption charges with a human rights record that can be described as dubious at best – did nobody turn around and go “Hang on here guys, is this really a good idea?”
I have no problem with City – or Portsmouth, or Villa, or Everton – breaking into the top four on a regular basis. I’d positively welcome it – it would make the Premier League more exciting than the two-horse race it’s usually been.
Football, from Premier League downwards is littered with ‘interesting’ characters who I wish wouldn’t take such an interest in football. My club, Exeter, was virtually driven to the point of extinction by two criminals. Then you’ve got Luton, suffering for the sins of a past regime; Rotherham, royally shafted by their former owners; Mansfield, where the now ex-chairman took out a million pounds in loans from the club and has yet to repay them; Cardiff, who’ve had the misfortune to suffer not only Sam Hammam but also Peter Risdale in charge at the boardroom. I could go on. Yes, Ambramovich’s background is also inetresting, as is Usmanov’s at Arsenal. But neither of them currently have a warrant out for their arrest and £800m of assets frozen. Hence the article.
And yes, I’m well aware City have been through a hell of a lot over the years and I’m glad that they’re in the top flight. I also remember Francis Lee supposedly leading you to a near era only to somewhat balls it up.
But at the end of the day, City fans were happy to look away from Thaksin’s rather dubious background and happily eye up the money. While I’ve a lot of sympathy for City’s past problems and generally have a soft spot for them, I’ve very little sympathy this time around.
That’s a little unfair all things considered. Yes, by and large we accepted the money with happiness when it was given to us, but then in the great powerplay that is Premier League ownership, we were only ever the guys in the audience. When the news articles came out that Thaksin was trying to buy the club, there were concerns but they seemed minor and so far away from this. And contrary to your statements, a lot of fans didn’t like Thaksin or the supposed source of his money, and never have. For the rest of us, what were we supposed to do? Man City is not a supporter-owned club and hasn’t been for probably about 100 years. We knew that if we came out in revolt, the previous owners, City fans though they were, would not listen to us, just like very few other club chairmen would give the fans a say in selling their stake. And unlike the present, we didn’t have a wealth of information about Thaksin to go off. As I recall, the quote about him being a “human rights abuser of the worst kind” by Amnesty International only came out after he’d bought the club and was going for the Fit and Proper Persons test. And on the day after, a flurry of web links, some fairly reliable sources, came out pointing out to City fans that Amnesty International have a long history of bias and doctoring reports to suit their political agenda – there’s even a Wikipedia page about all the times they’ve done it – and how both sides in Thailand were (and are) as corrupt as each other, and so at that point it seemed just as likely that all the charges against him were made up by Thaksin’s opponents to give them a reason to lock him up for the rest of his life so he couldn’t return to take power in Thailand again – incidentally this is what Thaksin himself is still claiming. And the man had just been deposed by the military, and there was no reason to think that he’d been faking elections. I don’t know about you, but when I think of military coups I usually think about them being the military asserting its power over the Government rather than them “impeaching” a criminal PM for the good of the country. In this time there was so much uncertainty that we didn’t know what to believe, so because we trusted Wardle and Mackintosh (the previous owners) we went along with their decision. And they – and the Premier League – gave Thaksin their support, and they were far more enlightened about the situation than us, so we assumed it was all fair and went with them.
Sure, a lot of people disagreed with our decision, but I truly believe that football rivalry and jealousy were just as big a part in that. If another club’s chairman, for example, pulled £10m out of the air, and one report came out saying he swindled it out of the Government but then numerous more came out telling you it wasn’t illegal but simply lottery winnings, or the result of a tidy investment from a few years back, would you expect his club’s fans to automatically believe the ill rumours and proclaim their chairman to be a thief? I suspect that instead, you’d find them believing the stories telling you everything was peachy, and quite possibly they’d feel like the fans of other clubs posting article after article or comment after comment about how the money isn’t legit was just insults being thrown at them by jealous fans of other clubs, too.
Before you post your next article slating a club for getting involved with dark forces – the next Tevez saga next year, perhaps, or whatever turns up, I’d beg of you that you try to consider the position of the fans when it started. We all know this thing has blown up out of all proportion now and that City fans are “reaping what we sow” for having Thaksin at the club, but a year ago when we (for the most part) welcomed him into the club, we had no way of foreseeing that the rumours about this stuff were actually true, and through the rose-tinted glasses there was actually a compelling case that it was a massive fabrication. Remember, when he took over there was no warrant for his arrest, and the £800m of frozen assets were still controlled by an illegal military government – just as dodgy to support as Thaksin. We never asked for Thaksin to come, he was given to us, and we stuck with our club as any true fan should do, and I wish you might realise that we didn’t “know this was going to happen and conveniently ignored it” as you seem to think. We simply trusted in the club and hoped for the best.
Falastur, some interesting points there and I can definitely understand where you’re coming from with a lot of them. and you’re not far wrong in some regards either.
It is difficult, as a far, to know exactly what to do and what you’re getting into with a new owner, definitely – and to the majority of fans at all clubs, all we really want to do is watch football, hopefully seeing our side win in the process. So trying to understand the political situation of Thailand isn’t something I’d envy having to do with a potential new owner.
Yes, also, I do accept that not all Man City fans welcomed Thaksin with open arms (and there have been some great pieces by City supporters David Conn and Simon Hattenstone in the Guardian on this). But, certainly on the forums I’ve seen, there’s a very large number who seem unconcerned about the source of the money or the owner as long as money is made available and the team’s doing well. And yeah, not many boards listen to the fans, other than lip-service, sadly.
But Thaksin’s record did briefly surface when he made eyes towards Liverpool and a quick Google will revealed the human rights, corruption and drugs allegations. Amnesty and Human Rights Watch had written to Thaksin several times and there’s several reports on their sites dating back to when he was in power. It’s worth nothing they both condemned the military coup.
I definitely take your point about the military coup – they’re certainly not good, and there’s an argument that could be made about some of the charges being politically motivated – although many of them, including the land deal and the telecoms sale that made him rich, were around a while before the coup.
That said, your analogy of the businessman is a good one, and yes, there will always be some people seeking to destabilise for their own ends (sometimes, as you point out motivated by jealousy). However, it is slightly different from Thaksin’s situation – and no matter which club it was, I’d question the wisdom of selling to somebody like Shinawatra, whose record and funds would suggest in the long term there could be troubles, like the ones that have surfaced now. You’re definitely right to say the Premier League should have done more though.
It’s a sad indictment of football from top to bottom that fans need to be clued up on potential owners and their history – and yes, for the most part you are stuck with them, which is something I wouldn’t wish on any club.
man city the next leeds united…………
Gary, interesting read. I’m curious, which side do you support?
There was a lot of buzz when Mike Ashley took control of Newcastle. People didn’t really know much about the bloke, except his business. A less complicated situation than the Citeh case for sure. In our case we already had a corrupt idiot who nearly bankrupted us.
It’s all about the Benjamins now and may get worse. I hope City gets it sorted without too much pain. The one silver lining could be that people will pay a lot more attention when a perspective buyer comes sniffing around. Many of the latest group of new owners have hardly endeared themselves to the fans of their clubs. Until the league implements somekinda salary cap though, the uber wealthy owners are really the only way forward. I’d love to see more clubs owned by the city that they’re in. At the end of the day, it’s probably a lot healthier than the current path we’re on.
Tripp, I’m an Exeter City supporter. Mostly depression punctuated by occasional bursts of pure ecstasy. There’s been a lot more of the latter recently, which has been nice.
Corrupt idiots who bankrupt football clubs are, sadly, all too common.
A salary cap would probably help things but I don’t see it ever being implemented, hence the need to find uber-wealthy owners. Randy Lerner’s probably the only one I can think of in the Premier League who seems to have come in and won the respect of fans.
It would be good to see clubs owned or part-owned by the fans, although that’s not necessarily the best way forward for every club. But the fact that Exeter, Stockport and Swansea all got promotion last season is cause for optimism.
You guys are in League 2 now, right? Best of luck this season. That’s gotta be exciting for the lads coming out of the conference.
Salary caps have done wonders in the States. But over here we don’t have international sports. Implementing a salary cap in football would require FIFA to oversee it. It could be done, but I don’t see it happening. Perhaps some sort of profit sharing. It really is silly when teams in the CL are hauling in massive amounts of money that the other teams don’t have access to.
MA has done pretty well and I think he has a good vision for the club. A lot of Geordies are frustated by the silence that sometimes surrounds the club, but then again Newcastle fans are pretty well known for their bipolar disorders. On the whole I think folks are pretty pleased. We were bloody close to pulling Leeds. MA really saved the club from what I’ve read.
Learner seems like he’s done the right thing and let MO run the club. Maybe I’m wrong, I don’t follow Villa and I don’t know anyone who does. But he’s one owner you don’t ever hear anything about in the insane British press, and that is a good thing as far as I can tell.
Thanks Tripp! It’s such a relief to be back in the league and anything that happens this season (bar relegation) will be a bonus. I think we’ll have a comfortable mid-table finish.
The salary cap is an interesting idea and one that would be nice to restore a bit of balance, but the bigger clubs would never go for it and (and I may be wrong here) I think it would contravene European laws.
Ashley’s done… ok at Newcastle. He certainly hauled the club back from financial problem, but I don’t really know much about what’s going on up there and the jury still seems to be out. Still, at least he’s a fan, which is usually a good thing.
Every Villa supporter I’ve met has sung the praises of Randy Learner – he’s done a lot to connect with the history of Villa fans and has generally let Martin O’Neill get on with it, making cash available where necessary. As a manager, it’s such a help to have a relaxed owner and you can build for the future. it makes a huge change from ‘Deadly’ Doug Ellis.