Leicester City footballers in Bangkok to pay respects to Vichai

BANGKOK: Players and staff from Leicester City were arrived in Bangkok Sunday to attend a mourning rite for the club’s chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, whose death last week in a helicopter crash stunned the Premier League club.

Sunday marks the second day of a week-long ceremony held at Wat Thepsirin, one of Bangkok’s most famous temples which typically serves as the site for funerals of very important Thais.

Over the coming days Thailand’s business and political elites are expected to visit the temple to pay their respects, while monks will chant Buddhist verses over the duty-free mogul’s body.

Vichai, 60, died last week, along with four others, when his helicopter crashed and burst into flames moments after taking off from Leicester’s pitch following a match. His death sent shockwaves through Leicester, where the charismatic Vichai had become a beloved figure in the club and the city -- a feat rarely achieved by the Premier League’s foreign owners.