THAILAND: SOCCER - DELEGATION FROM ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL CLUB LIVERPOOL IN BANGKOK FOR TALKS WITH THAI PRIME MINISTER THAKSIN SHINAWATRA WHO WANTS TO BUY A THIRTY PERCENT STAKE.

Record ID: 251287

  • Title: THAILAND: SOCCER - DELEGATION FROM ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL CLUB LIVERPOOL IN BANGKOK FOR TALKS WITH THAI PRIME MINISTER THAKSIN SHINAWATRA WHO WANTS TO BUY A THIRTY PERCENT STAKE.
  • Date: 10th May 2004
  • Summary: BANGKOK, THAILAND (MAY 10, 2004) 1. EXTERIOR OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE 2. LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB CHIEF EXECUTIVE NICK PARRY WAITING FOR MEETING 3. THAI DELEGATION 4. THAI PRIME MINISTER THAKSIN SHINAWATRA ENTERING AND SHAKING HANDS WITH LIVERPOOL DELEGATION 5. PHOTOGRAPHERS 6. THAKSIN AND PARRY SHAKING HANDS AND SITT
  • Embargoed: 25th May 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BANGKOK, THAILAND
  • Country: Thailand
  • Reuters ID: LVADQ8EAXBTSAALVCM4FSUXG102Y
  • Story Text: Prime Minister of Thailand says he is close to
    buying 30 per cent share of Liverpool Football Club.



    Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on
    Monday (May 10) he is on the verge of taking a 30 per cent
    stake in English premier league soccer club Liverpool with
    an investment of more than 100 million U.S. dollars.

    The telecommunications tycoon-turned-politician met a
    Liverpool delegation led by chief executive Rick Parry at
    Government House in Bangkok on Monday -- although the deal
    is a personal one, not governmental.

    Thaksin is estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth
    around one billion U.S. dollars and his
    family controls Thailand's largest telecommunications
    group, Shin Corporation.

    Liverpool's club website would not comment on media speculation
    and Parry was quoted as saying they were
    evaluating a range of different proposals, but Thaksin said
    he expected Liverpool's board to endorse the deal this week.

    He said it would inject cash into a new stadium at
    Stanley Park, while a company formed with other Thai
    private investors to pump money into the club would get
    commercial rights to use
    the Liverpool brand. The premier league side would set up a
    soccer academy in Thailand.

    A beaming Thaksin told a throng of reporters after
    meeting Parry on Monday that it was now up to Liverpool to
    take a decision before making a joint announcement about
    the deal.

    He said he had been a fan for Liverpool for a long time
    and hoped the move would promote football in Thailand.

    "Well, (it's) a good club, has been here for so many
    years, good players, good club. And I think it will help
    Thailand leapfrog in football here. And especially I would
    like to inspire the young, generation, the young, the
    teenagers to play football."
    Liverpool were followed avidly in Thailand during the
    1970s and 1980s when they won a string of English and
    European titles. But young fans are more likely to back
    rivals Manchester United, whose manager Sir Alex Ferguson
    presented Thaksin with a shirt on his 52nd second birthday
    two years ago.

    Asked who was his favourite Liverpool player, Thaksin
    said on Monday: "Well many, Michael Owen one in particular
    but many others as well, like Kewell, Baros or Gerrard."
    The Liverpool brand would be used to promote goods
    produced under a Thai government subsidised scheme to
    inject life into the country's rural economy, Thaksin said.

    The 'one village one product' programme, which sells
    anything from wooden stools to silk cushion covers and
    spicy cashew nuts made by farming communities, is one of
    Thaksin's special projects in a populist agenda that got
    him elected in 2000.

    The next elections are due by next year.

    Thaksin hopes the Liverpool brand will help launch the
    products in the global market. His interest in buying into
    English soccer began last year, soon after Russian
    billionaire Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea.

    The Thai prime minister was linked with Fulham after he
    met club owner Mohamed Al Fayed in London in late 2003, but
    he turned his attention to Liverpool in February.

    Liverpool chairman David Moores, whose family has
    controlled the club for more than half a century, hinted in
    January he might relinquish some of his 51 percent share.

    In March, Liverpool's board turned down a proposal from
    property developer Steve Morgan to raise his five percent
    stake in the club via a rights issue. Television company
    Granada also owns 9.9 percent.


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