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Thaksin makes formal bid for Man City

By BangkokPost.com from Agencies

Officials at the Premier League club insist they remain in talks with "a number" of different parties, but Thaksin Shinawatra's lawyer Noppadon Pattama claims the former prime minister has made a formal bid to take over the City of Manchester club.

"What I can say now is we have tendered a bid for the team," Mr Noppadon said.

"The bid was made a few days ago but we still don't know the final outcome of the deal."

Several Thai-language newspapers reported on Saturday that a 100-million pound (7 billion baht or $198 million) deal had already been reached, but Mr Noppadon said this was premature.

"The deal is not formally or legally concluded yet," he said.

Local media have become obsessed over how Mr Thaksin intends to pay for Manchester City if he wins the bid. Any withdrawal from Thailand banks of more than $50 million would require the approval of the central bank.

The wealth of the former premier has been estimated by Forbes magazine and others at around $3 billion, including at least some in the name of his wife and children.

Mr Thaksin on Wednesday told a Thai community radio station that if he went ahead with the football club purchase, it would be for the good of the nation.

"If a Thai person becomes the owner of a European football club, this will raise the profile of Thailand and the Thai football teams," Mr Noppadon said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"It will be good for sports development in Thailand, for instance we might be able to send Thai kids to a football academy in the UK in the future," Mr Noppadon added.

Mr Noppadon added that Mr Thaksin and advisers had to be silent because they had to follow stock regulations in buying a listed company.

The reports said Mr Thaksin would become club chairman and that he wanted to bring former Chelsea coach Claudio Ranieri to replace sacked manager Stuart Pearce.