Manchester City chairman and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was told by the English Premier League on Monday that it “will not turn a blind eye” if he were deemed to have broken its ownership rules.
Instead of facing corruption charges at a hearing in his homeland, Thaksin fled to London, prompting the Supreme Court to issue an arrest warrant.
He was photographed on Monday walking with his family down a shopping street in Surrey, south of London.
PHOTO: AP
A conviction could contravene the soccer league’s “fit and proper persons” test, used to decide on suitable directors and owners of clubs, and he could be forced to sell his stake in the club.
When the purchase of Manchester City was completed in July last year, Human Rights Watch claimed Thaksin was unfit under the league’s rules because of his administration’s alleged human rights abuses.
Thaksin, who was deposed in a 2006 military coup, faces a string of court cases and investigations into alleged corruption and abuse of power during his five years in office.
“Of course, if we feel the rule has been breached, we will invoke it,” Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said on Monday. “We will not turn a blind eye to issues of a serious nature. It is quite a complex matter and we can’t just make a judgment on the spot, but clearly we have a club owner who has not yet been found guilty of any offense.”
Scudamore said the league will seek advice from Britain’s Foreign Office and Home Office on the developing matter.
“We are not experts in law in every country, so it is wise to speak with the people who are,” he said.
Thaksin had a smooth first year in charge at Man City, until removing manager Sven-Goran Eriksson in June in what he admitted was a “ruthless” action after only one season following the club’s ninth-place finish.
Despite reports last week claiming Thaksin is looking to sell his soccer club, City officials are confident this isn’t the case and that he is merely stepping back from a frontline role after being in the limelight during his debut season.
But City could face an uncertain financial future as Thaksin will be unable to access more than US$2 billion of his family’s assets that Thai authorities have frozen pending the corruption cases against him.
Thaksin and his wife, Pojaman, failed to return to Thailand after traveling to Beijing for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, but he reiterated his innocence on Monday, arguing that he would not receive a fair trial in Thailand.
On July 31, the criminal court convicted Pojaman of evading millions of dollars in taxes and sentenced her to three years in prison. She was released on bail.
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