Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's dreams of acquiring a 30 percent stake in English club Liverpool lie in tatters, with analysts and observers decrying Thailand's latest schemes to revive the bid as farcical.
The goal of buying into the Premiership side was touted by the government first as a source of unifying national pride.
But in the end it has brought ridicule, a loss of face and raised eyebrows among foreign observers and investors over the administration's motives over the bid.
"The deal is not a good image for Thai people," media rights campaigner Supinya Klangnarong said of the continuing and shifting attempts to secure some form of a buy-in despite a loud chorus of opposition.
"I don't think the international community would admire us for what our government or businesses are trying to do," he said.
Supinya, who is currently being sued by Thaksin for alleging that a conglomerate he founded that is now run by his family has benefited under his tenure, said the premier at least distanced his administration from the deal when opposition reached fever pitch.
Had a deal gone through Thaksin may have broken barriers as the first Asian to have bought his way into the world's wealthiest football league.
England's Premiership enjoys massive popularity in Thailand, partly because its games are screened live here during prime viewing time.
In May, Thaksin, a billionaire-turned-politician and an avowed football fan, launched his campaign. The Thai press seized on the drama, and within days he found himself backpedaling over the bid in which at first he had been expected to use over 4 billion baht (US$100 million) of his own fortune.
From the start, two of three Thais thought a government-funded stake would be a waste of state money, according to a survey reported in The Nation newspaper. Then it got worse.
Thaksin variously announced plans to use taxpayer money, float shares on the Thai stock exchange, and eventually launch a massive US$250 million public lottery to raise the money.
But the Thai fantasy of pulling strings at the top of one of the world's most celebrated sports dynasties unravelled.
Last month he backed out altogether, handing over control of negotiations to Paiboon Damranongchaitham, chairman of Thailand's biggest entertainment company GMM Grammy.
Paiboon quickly sought the financial help of "millions" of Thais to contribute somehow to the purchase, but when vague proposals fell flat, the deal was reduced to passing the hat around Asian business leaders.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
RSS