One of the questions arising out of the freeze on Thaksin’s Thai bank accounts is the effect it may have on his bid for the Manchester City football club. In the UK this is an issue that some are watching with considerable interest. I received the following comments on the bid from a UK “political scientist and a supporter of the Manchester City football team.”
As to the Man City deal, right now everyone is basically waiting to see whether the deal actually goes through, I’m quite skeptical it will happen. A few years ago Thaksin did make lots of noise about trying to buy Liverpool FC but it didn’t happen and it’s not clear that he has the cash available to make the deal happen. Manchester City fans are on the whole from what I can tell somewhat open to this happening, but there is a large minority of fans who are opposed because of the human rights issues or because of worries about his continuing legal entanglements. A good summary of that point of view can be found in the Guardian.
It’s been quite fascinating following the Internet discussions among the City fans about this, especially since several Thai fans are weighing in. The way the discourse usually goes is like this:
UK based fan A: This guy is going to pump money into our club-hurray!
UK based fan B: But this guy has kind of a dodgy human rights record, right?
UK based fan C: Those are just allegations by the coup plotters.
Bangkok based fan A: No, they’re not.
UK based fan D: But I think Thaksin is popular among the poor and would win again.
Bangkok based fan B: That’s right.
Bangkok based fan A: No it’s not, he’s popularity has gone way down, he’s just a fake populist who gives crumbs to the poor to consolidate his own political control.
UK based fan E: I want to talk about football, not Thai politics.
New Mandala is happy to talk about both, and would welcome any information or thoughts on the Manchester City bid.
14 responses so far ↓
1 Grasshopper // Jun 12, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Will wearing a Manchester City shirt in Bangkok suddenly become a sign of dissent? haha.. the antithesis to the yellow shirt.
If the bid doesn’t go through, Man City will get relegated. They’ve lost Distin and Barton (although maybe that isn’t such a loss) and the spine of the team doesn’t look like being strengthened because they won’t appoint a manager in time for the new season now that Ranieiri has gone to Juventus!
I think the intention of Thaksin to buy Man City speaks volumes about the man. Just like Abramovich who bought Chelsea with questionable oil tax breaks (big fuss about that too before the purchase), Thaksin attempts to purchase Man City in a similar way! Fantastic!
2 Srithanonchai // Jun 13, 2007 at 12:01 am
Didn’t Thaksin call “football” “soccer”? Eeee…
3 Republican // Jun 13, 2007 at 2:37 am
It’s very easy to be flippant, cynical and a little condescending about Thaksin’s Manchester City bid. Given the heavy censorship the royalist-miiltary regime has imposed in Thailand now in relation to Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai’s activities it is difficult to be sure what to make of the reported bid. But given the difficulty he has been experiencing communicating with the Thai Rak Thai voter base as a result of the regime’s censorship (the ban on party campaigning was only lifted last week, TV and radio interviews have been censored and websites blocked until recently - not that many Thai Rak Thai voters use the internet - and the middle class Bangkok media hate him anyway) one would assume that the bid is designed to keep himself in the contact with Thai football fans, many of them Thai Rak Thai voters, under the most difficult of circumstances.
There are a number of graphics that I would like to post but can not due to the system on this blogsite. I’m not sure if it’s possible Andrew, but one thing we could consider doing is instead of taking too much notice of The Nation (or “The Na-chua” as it is better known these days) how about a few cartoons from Thai Rath, which is after all the daily with the biggest circulation, and, as I mentioned in an earlier email, has been taking a more anti-CNS stance since the Constitutional Tribunal’s decision on May 30. Some of the recent cartoons “say a 1000 words”, as they say. Focussing a bit more on Thai Rath may help us understand more about how the “uneducated”, “ignorant”, “immoral” masses are feeling about the regime’s treatment of Thai Rak Thai. We already know all too well how the Na-chua and the Bangkok Past feel about Thai Rak Thai and the peasants.
4 nganadeeleg // Jun 13, 2007 at 8:45 am
“one would assume that the bid is designed to keep himself in the contact with Thai football fans, many of them Thai Rak Thai voters, under the most difficult of circumstances.”
But I thought he was finished with politics - he has said it so many times, and it would be nice to be able to believe it.
I wonder what the fans think about that as a reason to buy the club?
Personally, I think the ASC should only have frozen the suspect portion of his funds, and not given him an easy excuse to pull out of the Manchester deal.
5 patiwat // Jun 13, 2007 at 10:56 am
Let’s not forget that Thaksin was a billionare long before he became Prime Minister.
Yet the AEC is freezing every single satang of his assets - not just the increase in his wealth that accumulated after he became Premier. Justice indeed!
6 nganadeeleg // Jun 13, 2007 at 11:31 am
Patiwat: It’s interesting how a policeman can become a billionaire.
Investigating how policemen (& generals) became so wealthy would be a big job (& probably dangerous).
I’m not opposed to a freeze, and was really surprised that it did not happen as soon as Thaksin was removed. They are still earning interest on the accounts, and at this stage nothing has been confiscated, so what’s the big deal?
It looks like they got spooked after 21 billion disappeared.
7 Republican // Jun 13, 2007 at 4:52 pm
As I said above, right now we need to try to guess how the “ignorant peasants” - many of whom voted Thai Rak Thai - are thinking about the regime. For those who can’t or don’t have time to read the Thai Rath news columns the cartoon is an interesting, quick ( though not always accurate) way to gauge the newspapers’ stance, and the newspaper’s own conclusion about which direction politics is heading in. To access Thai Rath cartoons here’s the link: http://www.thairath.co.th/showcartoon.php?cat=463
8 Lleij Samuel Schwartz // Jun 13, 2007 at 8:54 pm
I wonder what will become of Thaksin’s frozen assests. They’ll probably be confiscated and used to “help the country”.
9 patiwat // Jun 14, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Well, Thaksin did resign from the police force when he started getting serious about business. Although it was a bit premature - most of his early investments were failures. It was several years after he left the police that he got his big break by getting into the mobile phone business.
Compare him to Surayud, a military officer for his entire career (and the son of a military officer who died penniless in Beijing). Yet somehow, Surayud drove a Porsche and has assets of nearly a hundred million baht.
10 Andrew Walker // Jun 14, 2007 at 5:25 pm
The latest from the Guardian:
Thaksin Shinawatra’s proposed £90m takeover of Manchester City faces another obstacle after it emerged that the Premier League would implement fit-and-proper-persons regulations if he were convicted of fraud in his homeland. The bulk of the former Thai prime minister’s assets have been frozen, pending possible corruption charges, and City have reluctantly started to plan for life without him. City’s chief executive, Alistair Mackintosh, has embarked on a two-day trip to mainland Europe to speak to managerial candidates. With Mackintosh hoping to meet the Sevilla coach, Juande Ramos, and possibly going against Thaksin’s wishes by approaching Sven-Goran Eriksson, sources close to Thaksin admitted the deal was “on the ropes”. The billionaire was said to be determined to press ahead with his takeover but the Premier League’s intervention might prevent him taking any role in the top division even if he were still in a financial position to proceed.
11 A THAI DUDE // Jun 21, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Oh…why don’t you just trace his past back to see how he becomes like this??? very simple…
12 Grasshopper // Jun 22, 2007 at 12:58 am
He has officially bid for Man City with an offer of £81.6 million.
13 Grasshopper // Jun 23, 2007 at 10:38 am
Here is an image of Thaksin holding up a Manchester United shirt with Alex Ferguson. It’s not going down too well in the blue third of Manchester…
http://www.teamtalk.com//Images/120057.jpg
14 New Mandala » Thaksin's football passion? // Jul 3, 2007 at 12:13 pm
[...] of the more intriguing features of Thaksin’s post-coup career has been his, now successful, bid for ownership of Manchester City football club. New Mandala is pleased to provide this detailed analysis of the [...]
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