Guest fountainhall Posted July 1, 2011 Posted July 1, 2011 I am posting this here rather than The Beer Bar because it does relate to some extent to Thaksin and Thai election promises. Some will recall that prior to Thaksin being elected Prime Minister, he made a public pledge to buy Liverpool Football Club for the nation. Given the huge interest in soccer here in Thailand and in Liverpool FC in particular, this grabbed major headlines. Once in power, he did indeed seek to make good on that promise. But not in the manner in which the promise was made. Suddenly, "I will purchase . . " became "the Thai government will purchase . . ", an audacious about-face and surely one that the English Football Association could never permit. Clearly it was an election promise that was never intended to be kept. And it was not. Once in exile, Thaksin then hit the headlines by purchasing Manchester City FC in the summer of 2007 and putting soccer's long-time has-been, Sven Goran Eriksson, in charge as manager. Eriksson did not last a full season as Thaksin fired him before the final games - just two weeks after publicly proclaiming he was satisfied with the Club's progress under the Swede. Thaksin then sold the Club a few weeks later, with the new Abu Dhabi based owners installing him as President. Even that did not last long. In February 2009, he was summarily fired. The Guardian noted at the time that - Quote the Premier League had strong objections about the involvement of a fugitive who was once described by Human Rights Watch as "a human-rights abuser of the worst kind". http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/10/manchester-city-thaksin-sacked The Football Association had for some time decided he did not to meet the Quote