With the takeover of Leicester City Football Club, Vichai Raksriaksorn, chairman and chief executive of King Power Group, is set to turn Thailand into the Asian football-academy hub.
"We are now looking at potential locations, which may be one of my own land plots in Bangkok or near Suvarnabhumi Airport," he said.
"I also believe that by getting involved and owning a football club in England, I will be able to promote football youths in Thailand to play at the international level."
Milan Mandaric, who will stay on as chairman at Leicester City at least until the end of this year, said he shared Vichai's view that the club should expand its academy network in Thailand.
While Thailand had promising players, professional coaches were scarce. More were needed to provide the right training programmes.
"The establishment of the Leicester City club's academy in Thailand will provide local talents a chance to improve their skills to the world-class level and will also bring a reputation to Thailand," Mandaric said.
Many hundreds of millions of baht would be spent in setting up the Leicester City football academy in Thailand, he said.
Aiyawatt, a son of Vichai who recently became Leicester City's executive director, said he had long been passionate about football. After studying the extensive history of the Leicester City club, its impressive performance and the reputation of the Leicester City Academy, he was convinced that establishing the academy in Thailand would bring great benefit to local players.
"We expect to complete the establishment of the Leicester City academy in Thailand within 12 months. The club will also send its academy staff to provide training programmes to local players," he said.
Under the deal, Leicester City's football stadium will be renamed from Walkers Stadium to King Power Stadium by December.
At the press conference yesterday, Vichai promised more financial support for new buyers and the academy facilities. His challenge is to make Leicester City achieve Premiership status by next season.
The deal was wrapped up last week, sponsored by a personal-investment consortium called Asia Football Investments. The exact value of the 100-per-cent stake was not disclosed. Vichai said he would hold only 51 per cent, while the remaining 49 per cent would be opened for investors from Thailand and the region, such as Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and China.
"Football is my second-favourite sport after polo," said Vichai, 52. His duty-free group King Power about 10 years ago sponsored the Chelsea Football Club in the English Premier League for six straight years, he said.
The takeover of Leicester would fulfil his dream of owning a football club, though King Power Group has sponsored many teams in the Thai League, including Bangkok United FC and Police United. The group was a major sponsor of the Buriram PEA Football Club.
"The English Championship club Leicester City is a very interesting club. It has great potential to achieve Premiership status. The passion to reach the status will strengthen the club and enable it to move forward to the goal," he said.
"We're also impressed with the club's well-established academy. All of these are the reasons we do not feel hesitant in the least to enter this joint investment."
Seen in photo: Vichai Raksriaksorn, left, chairman and CEO of King Power Group, and his son Aiyawatt, right, executive director of the Leicester City Football Club, hold up jerseys while Milan Mandaric, chairman of the club, looks on at the briefing on the club's takeover held last week in England.