Leicester chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha has dismissed calls from some supporters to sell the relegated club and promised the Foxes will soon return to the Premier League.
Despite beating West Ham 2-1 on Sunday, Leicester dropped into the Sky Bet Championship seven years after being crowned champions of England and two seasons since winning the FA Cup.
It is a remarkable fall from grace and one that Leicester chairman Srivaddhanaprabha says has led to him receiving offensive messages, some of which have been “outright abusive”.
“I have received a massive number of messages from our fans – both positive and negative,” Srivaddhanaprabha said in a statement published on the Leicester website.
“Some want me to sell the club, some using offensive and thoughtless words, and some have been outright abusive.
“But for every hurtful message I have received, I have also received messages of support, of appreciation, of unity – both remotely and from people I have met anonymously in public, who always come to say hello to me and to my family. It means a lot to us.”
Srivaddhanaprabha’s father Vichai and his family bought the club in 2010 and took Leicester into the Premier League four years later. Leicester produced possibly English football’s greatest underdog story by winning the title in 2016.
Club chairman Khun Vichai was killed in a helicopter accident at Leicester’s King Power Stadium in October 2018.
“It was the most painful experience for me and for my family, but the support and love we received from our Leicester City family made our bond even stronger,” Srivaddhanaprabha said of the accident.
“I made a commitment, as chairman, to continuing to pursue the ambition my father and I shared for the club, to ensure that the realisation of his vision for Leicester City would ultimately become his legacy.
“We want to thank you and let you know that we still have the same ambition for Leicester City that we had 13 years ago.
“The incredible support we had in our stadium yesterday, the positive messages we have received from our fans and the constructive comments we must take on-board – we will gather all this support and use it to power our recovery.
“Power to justify our fans’ belief in their club. Power to take us back to the Premier League.
“Next season is going to be tough, but it will be a year for collaboration and unity. We will come together and fight to return to the Premier League.”
Leicester finished fifth twice as well as eighth during manager Brendan Rodgers’ three full seasons in charge.
But Srivaddhanaprabha acknowledged the impact of Covid had a serious effect on the club’s finances, with summer cutbacks meaning that Rodgers was unable to significantly strengthen his squad.
The departures of long-serving goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel to Nice and defender Wesley Fofana to Chelsea also had a detrimental effect on the squad.
Rodgers left at the end of April with Leicester in the bottom three, and his replacement Dean Smith was unable to prevent relegation after taking charge for the final eight games.
Srivaddhanaprabha said: “Relegation is a consequence of 38 games and over that period, we haven’t been good enough.
“Over the coming days and weeks, we need to reflect on the processes and decisions that have brought us to this point.
“What we learn from this experience must convert into action that makes us stronger and prevents this happening to us again in the future.
“We took Leicester City into the UEFA Champions League, giving our supporters those amazing Wednesday nights, under the lights in Porto, Brugge, Copenhagen, Seville and Madrid.
“We used the fruits of that success to keep reinvesting in the club, strengthening our squad, improving the experience for our fans and starting plans for major projects like Seagrave and a stadium expansion that would give us long-term strength and growth.
“Of course, these milestones place our situation today into quite stark context, but I reference them to highlight the progress we have made as a club in the last 13 years, which gives me confidence that we will build again.
“Relegation is undeniably a significant setback, but it will not define us. Today we share the loss and the pain together. But we will be back.
“This responsibility that I continue to live is one of the greatest responsibilities in my life and I will continue to put everything into it – my passion, that of my family and the entire King Power community.”
Kane gunning for Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record
Harry Kane has his eyes set on Robert Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record after scoring twice in Bayern Munich's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, though he knows he needs "to get a move on".
Kane scored in both halves on Saturday to take his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions, also reaching the 400-goal mark at senior level for clubs and country.
The striker scored 280 of those goals for Tottenham, holding the honour of being the club's all-time leading scorer, while he is also the most prolific player in England history with 62 goals for the Three Lions.
With 35 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances this season, Kane now has his eyes set on another piece of history.
Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the most goals scored in a single Bundesliga campaign, netting 41 times in 2020-21.
Asked about the possibility of breaking that record with just three games remaining in Bayern's league campaign, Kane said: "It's possible, but obviously I have to get a move on!
"I've got to maybe score a few goals next week. It's there, it's in touching distance.
"It depends on the last few games of course, but it was nice to add to it today and score a couple of goals to help the team."
Bayern next host Real Madrid in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday, before travelling to face Stuttgart on Saturday.
Pochettino says VAR 'damaging' English football as Chelsea denied Villa win
Mauricio Pochettino claimed VAR is "damaging" English football after Chelsea saw a potential winning goal chalked off at the end of their 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa.
Despite a bright performance, Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on Saturday with Marc Cucurella putting through his own net before Morgan Rogers added Villa's second.
Goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher dragged Chelsea level as they penned Villa back after the break, but the Blues were enraged in stoppage time when Axel Disasi saw a potential winner ruled out.
Disasi headed home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to spark wild celebrations among the visiting Chelsea fans, only for referee Craig Pawson to disallow the goal following a pitchside VAR review, ruling Benoit Badiashile pushed Diego Carlos in the build-up.
With that incident coming just one week after Chelsea were denied a penalty in their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City despite Jack Grealish appearing to handle Cole Palmer's free-kick, Pochettino has had enough.
"Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. The referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal after going to the VAR to confirm," he told TNT Sports.
"The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous. It is difficult to accept these types of things. In the semi-final it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee didn't check it.
"It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.
"They said it was a foul and if you see the challenge… if we go into every single challenge like this and it is going to be a foul, we wouldn't finish the game with 11 players.
"We can talk about the performance or the decision – it is damaging the game."
Pochettino had no complaints about Chelsea's performance, though, as they avoided defeat for just the fourth time in 51 Premier League games when trailing by two or more goals at half-time.
The Blues previously achieved that feat in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, a memorable 2-2 draw with Tottenham in 2016 and another 3-3 draw with West Brom in 2020.
Chelsea racked up 21 shots to Villa's nine and put up 1.57 expected goals (xG) to the hosts' 1.1, with Nicolas Jackson and Palmer spurning glorious chances in either half.
"The performance was very good," Pochettino said. "We played really well and it is true in the first half we conceded too easily.
"To play Villa, who are fighting for the top four, I am pleased with the team. Now, we have to move on and the headlines will be about the disallowed goal."
New England Revolution 1-4 Inter Miami: Messi at the double as Herons run riot
Lionel Messi scored twice and laid on a goal for Luis Suarez as Inter Miami retained their three-point lead at the Eastern Conference summit with a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution.
A franchise-record crowd of 65,612 people witnessed a flying start from the Revs as they took the lead within just 37 seconds at Gillette Stadium. Carles Gil pounced on some sloppy play from Miami to tee up Tomas Chancalay, who lobbed Drake Callender for the opener.
However, Miami roared back with Messi leading from the front. They had a deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark, Messi slotting home after latching onto Robert Taylor's throughball.
Messi had his second after 67 minutes, producing another composed finish after former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets split the New England backline.
Messi was involved in another two goals as Miami added some gloss to the scoreline late on; his first-time shot was saved by Henrich Ravas but Benjamin Cremaschi was on hand to score on the rebound after 83 minutes, then the Argentine teed up Suarez for a curled finish five minutes later.
Miami stay three points clear of Supporters' Shield holders FC Cincinnati at the top of the East, with the Orange and Blue keeping pace by beating the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Messi rolls back the years
Ahead of Saturday's game, some feared Miami boss Gerardo Martino would opt to rest Messi after speaking of the risks of fielding the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner on New England's artificial pitch.
However, Messi came through 90 minutes with another mesmerising performance. He has now recorded a goal involvement in 10 straight club matches for the seventh time in his glittering career, last doing so for Barcelona between September and December in 2018.
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