By Thai Newsroom Reporters
LEICESTER CITY have been now relegated from the Championship, the second tier of the English football echelon, after last night’s scored draw which sent the Foxes following in the footsteps of the already-relegated Sheffield Wednesday down to the third-tiered League One, noticeably with both being Thai-owned clubs.
As largely anticipated since the last few months, Leicester ended their home game playing Hull in the 2-2 draw, landing the back-to-back relegation rendering the remaining two games of the 46-game season meaningless after the Foxes had just been dropped from the Premier League last season.
Leicester owner/Thai national Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha watched the decisive game at King Power stadium, shaking his head in despair and frustration as the Foxes players helplessly failed to keep themselves up in the Championship just for a second season in a row after they had sustained a six-points deduction due to a breach to the English Football League’s Profit & Sustainability rules. Many on and around the pitch looked oblivious to the Foxes’ prime time when they snatched the Premier League champions title barely a decade earlier.
Now it will be up to anyone’s guess as to who among the Foxes’ squad under English manager Gary Rowett will be leaving for other clubs upon the end of the current season which is yet having two more games to complete a total of 46 games by early next month. The East Midlands side sitting nearly at the bottom of the Championship table could possibly make a maximum of 48 points by the end of the season but that would be just one point short of safety from relegation. Consequently, the cash-strapped Leicester will definitely get lowered revenue due to their disreputable drop next season.
The Foxes were last relegated to League One at the end of the 2008/2009 season and only spent a single season in the third tier before they came back up to the second tier whilst Sheffield Wednesday previously owned by Thai national Dejpon Chansiri were last dropped to League One at the end of the 2022/2023 season.
Having been deducted 18 points due to their breach to the EFL financial rules and sitting at the bottom of the 24-club table since the last several months, the Owls who have seen an appalling drain of their talented players from the South Yorkshire side via the January transfer window were believed to roughly have worse financial troubles than the Foxes for next season.
In another development, West Ham United could possibly become another relegated side which are in a way related to the Thais as well, albeit from the Premier League to the Championship at the end of the current season.
Given the latest EFL ban on all gambling sponsors from being seen on the front of the player’s shirt from next season, the Hammers will have the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s “Amazing Thailand” slogan emblazoned on the shirt front in place of Boylesports, one of the betting firms. But the total value of the Thai tourism agency’s sponsorship for West Ham would certainly amount to far less than 10 million pounds initially agreed upon if the London side eventually fail to stay up in top flight at the end of the current season. If the Hammers under Portuguese manager Nuno Espirito Santo were relegated, the “Amazing Thailand” ad could possibly cost as relatively low as three million pounds for next season.
Nonetheless, a couple of West Ham’s top executive officials, namely Karren Brady and Nathan Thompson, have called it quits with immediate effect as vice chair and executive director of the club respectively whilst the Hammers are yet having five games to play until the end of the season to see if they might probably stay up or go down from top flight to the second tier of the football echelon with Tottenham Hotspur not only being a fellow London side but relegation rivals.
The Hammers and Spurs are slugging it out in their relegation battle until the season’s final game scheduled for the middle of next month with the former quietly returning to the second tier after one decade and a half in the 20-club Premier League whilst the latter could possibly make sensational world news headlines if they were dropped from top flight for the first time in nearly half a century.
CAPTIONS:
Top – Leicester City’s draw against Hull City led to their League One relegation. Photo – Reuters and published by India Today
First insert – Leicester City owner Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha. Photo – BBC
Seccond insert – Leicester City’s Fatawu Issahaku reacts during the match against Hull City. Action Images/Peter Cziborra published by CNA
Front Page – Jannik Vestergaard reacts during the match against Hull City. Photo – AP and published by Yahoo!News
Also read:
Portsmouth 1-0 Leicester City: Relegation fears deepen for Foxes
Leicester playing away game to battle relegation
‘Amazing Thailand’ on West Ham shirts next season
American consortium closing in on Sheffield Wednesday takeover
