The Fairytale Premier League Champions Are Now Being Sold For £200M — And Honestly, We're Devastated 💔
Leicester City — yes, THAT Leicester City who pulled off the 5,000-1 miracle in 2016 — are officially up for sale after two consecutive relegations. The Thai owners want £200m+ and have an actual sales brochure. This is NOT the timeline we wanted.
Stop everything, because one of football's greatest fairytales just took the most heartbreaking turn.
Leicester City are officially for sale. Yes, really. The club that defied 5,000-1 odds to win the Premier League in 2016 — the team that made the entire world believe in miracles — is now sitting in League One with a "For Sale" sign slapped on it.
According to BBC Sport and Sky Sports, Thai owners King Power are looking for buyers willing to fork out more than £200 million for the Foxes. They've even got a slick eight-page sales brochure produced by investment bank Citigroup, titled "Project Lineup." (Yes, it's giving corporate PowerPoint energy, and we are NOT okay.)
The Tea ☕
- King Power bought Leicester for just £35m in 2010 and are now asking for £200m+ after 16 years
- The sale includes the men's and women's teams, the 32,000-seat King Power Stadium, the £121m Seagrave training facility, AND Belgian sister club OH Leuven
- The brochure talks up their 2016 Premier League title and 2021 FA Cup win but conveniently forgets to mention they're now in League One after back-to-back relegations
How Did We Get Here?
Let's be real: the fall has been BRUTAL.
Leicester went from Premier League champions to relegated in 2023. Then they got relegated AGAIN in 2025, dropping all the way down to League One — only the second time in the club's history they've been in the third tier.
BBC Sport reports that between all that yo-yoing between divisions, the club lost more than £180 million. The sales pitch conveniently leaves that part out, along with the £103.6m in bank loans sitting on their books.
The brochure does, however, hype up Leicester as "the sixth most successful team in English football since 2000" and a club with "an excellent track record of winning promotions to higher divisions." Which... sure, Jan. Technically true, but let's not pretend everything's rosy when you're starting a League One campaign on Saturday.
What's Actually Included?
The document, seen by both outlets, lists the club's physical assets at more than £200m:
- The King Power Stadium (with plans to expand to 40,000 capacity)
- The state-of-the-art Seagrave training facility opened in 2020 (valued at £121m alone)
- Land around the stadium purchased in 2023 for redevelopment
- Both the men's and women's teams
- OH Leuven, their Belgian sister club
Citigroup forecasts the club's turnover for the 2026 financial year at £97m. The pitch also name-drops academy success stories like Ben Chilwell, Harvey Barnes, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as profitable transfers, plus legends Gary Lineker and Emile Heskey as "notable former players."
What they DON'T mention? The years of financial chaos, the relegations, or the fact that disgruntled fans have been calling for King Power to sell for months now.
The Srivaddhanaprabha Family Legacy
King Power is run by the Srivaddhanaprabha family, with Khun Aiyawatt 'Top' Srivaddhanaprabha currently serving as chairman. His father, Khun Vichai, tragically died in a helicopter crash outside the stadium in 2018.
According to Sky Sports News, King Power have "no urgency to sell" and will continue funding the club until a credible buyer steps forward. They've even backed new head coach Russell Martin with nine summer signings ahead of Leicester's League One opener at Notts County on Saturday.
But the writing's on the wall. The King Power duty-free business in Thailand — which has been intrinsically linked to the club — has also faced financial difficulties in recent years. Just eight months ago, Khun Top publicly shouldered the blame for the club's "drastic recent demise."
From 5,000-1 To This
Here's the thing that's absolutely gutting: Leicester City IS one of only five clubs to have won all three major English trophies (Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup) since 2000. They ARE a success story. The 2016 title win remains one of the greatest sporting achievements of all time.
But the speed of the decline? The fact that we're talking about a League One club with a £200m price tag less than a decade after Claudio Ranieri lifted that trophy? It's giving "how the mighty have fallen," and honestly, football can be so cruel.
The sales process was first reported by the Financial Times in July, but the brochure now being circulated is public confirmation that King Power are serious about finding new investors.
Leicester declined to comment when contacted by both BBC Sport and Sky Sports News. (The silence is LOUD.)
Who's Going To Buy?
That's the million — sorry, £200 million — question.
As BBC Radio Leicester's Owynn Palmer-Atkin points out in his analysis, there are clear physical assets here. The stadium, the training ground, the infrastructure — it's all top-tier. But getting Leicester back to the Premier League from League One? That's going to take "a huge amount of time, effort and cash."
And let's not forget: this is a club that's lost £180m+ in recent years and is currently languishing in the third tier. Yes, the fairytale history is romantic, but potential buyers will need deep pockets and SERIOUS patience.
So here's the question: Would YOU want to buy Leicester City and try to recreate the magic? Or is this a cautionary tale about how quickly things can unravel in football? Sound off below. 👇
Sources:
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