Boom and bust at Leicester

If Leicester’s dramatic rise under the ownership of the Srivaddhanaprabha family and their King Power business empire was meteoric, their decline over the past three and a half years is proving to be equally astonishing.

These days, they are a club facing up to the possibility of sliding into third-tier League One for only the second time in their 142-year history.

So how did it come to this?

When Leicester were relegated from the Premier League for the second time in three seasons last summer, there was some belief that they would repeat the feat of two years ago and bounce straight back up into it.

But for those who knew the true state of the club, after several seasons of posting crippling financial losses that had pushed them to the PSR edge, and the extent of rebuilding required, expectations were rather more tempered. They knew, also, what was potentially coming down the line in terms of sanctions for three charges of breaking the EFL’s PSR rules for that promotion season of 2023-24.

The reality was always that this campaign would end up about survival.

Leicester have been in a spiral of decline since the end of the 2021-22 season when then manager Brendan Rodgers first spoke about his squad needing a refresh — a statement that felt surprising considering the club’s previous achievements. It proved to be a warning of what was to come.

For the past four seasons, Leicester have been hoping they had already hit rock bottom and could start to rebuild again. Yet even now, with their fate confirmed by the independent commission, the fear is that they still could slip even further before they can start to climb back towards the elite.

At boardroom level, there is a void of leadership. After the departure of chief executive Susan Whelan, chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha (known as Khun Top) stepped in as interim CEO, but has been kept away from the club for long periods due to his commitments to King Power and the mourning period for the death of Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit in October.

Khun Top said recently that the Covid-19 pandemic had dramatically affected the club’s finances at a time when they were committed to larger contracts to chase the European dream.

Khun Top and director of football Jon Rudkin have been the focus of fan anger, which has been building over several seasons and culminated in an organised boycott of the West Bromwich Albion game at the start of January. Although the official attendance given for the King Power Stadium that day was 27,130, the figure included season-ticket holders who had chosen to stay away. In reality, there were significantly fewer than that in the stands, with large areas of empty seats.

The biggest cause of the PSR breach was the failures of previous transfer windows and the award of lucrative contracts to players who have not repaid the club’s commitment with performances. Those deals have proved to be a weight around Leicester’s neck, dragging them further into the mire.

Leicester are considering their options and may mount a legal challenge against this points deduction, although this could lead to the harsher penalty which many in football governance wanted. Yet, as a club, they are facing up to a battle on and off the pitch to avoid the most incredible boom and bust story in recent English football history.

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The Political Economy of Football V2

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