JibrinWhy Unite for Change Leicester City protest is calling for King Power to leave
The demonstration will witness a procession take place prior to Leicester City’s Championship showdown against Norwich City, Gary Rowett’s first home game at the helm of the club
King Power helped deliver the ultimate prize to Leicester City. But on the day of the 10th anniversary of the club’s astonishing Premier League title win, they could slip to the lowest position in their history with demotion to League One.
It has been a rapid, mistake-filled descent down the standings for City, and for some supporters, it is intolerable.
Next weekend, when City host Norwich, a faction of fans will march to the stadium demanding King Power depart the club.
Once the most celebrated ownership in English football, King Power have lost the confidence of some supporters, who see no future with Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha at the controls.
Under the banner Unite for Change, they want immediate action and believe there is no time to squander in expressing their discontent.
A similar protest last year honed in on director of football Jon Rudkin, rather than the Srivaddhanaprabha family. Calls for King Power to go were not as significant as they are now. What’s changed in the past 12 months?
Louchlainn Martin, one of the organisers on the committee behind Unite for Change, told LeicestershireLive: “Over the course of a few years there’s been frustration and unhappiness with how the club’s been run.
“Over the past 12 months, there’s been the points deduction because of the PSR breaches, there’s been what we see as sustained decline on and off the pitch, a vacuum within the leadership at the club, with the lack of a CEO and a technical director.
“Even when the technical director comes in, the guy that a lot of people thinks is partly responsible for the fall from grace, Jon Rudkin, remains at the helm.
“Now, this isn’t about an individual. There’s been a change in approach where a lot of Leicester fans no longer feel the ownership and the leadership group at the club have what it takes to turn this around.
“I know people who were staunchly in support of this ownership and chairman, because of past success and loyalty, but that is changing every week.
“There are more and more people who are deeply unhappy and deeply anxious about what could happen if things stay as they are.
“Lessons are not being learned, there’s repeated mistakes. When Brendan Rodgers was let go, we let two games and six points fly by without a manager and that led to relegation. It was three weeks and four games without a manager.
“A lot of us don’t have faith that this ownership can continue in charge. We just feel that we wanted to get our voices out there sooner rather than later and show how much we really do care for the cause.”
Calling for the owners to sell up feels like an audacious aim. The chairman made clear in his interviews last month that he had no consideration of selling, speaking of his sense of duty towards the club his family have now owned for more than 15 years.
There is a recognition among Unite for Change that one protest won’t be enough to achieve their goal, but they don’t plan to stop with just next weekend’s march.
“We acknowledge that one protest is not going to lead to change,” Martin said. “This is not a one protest thing.
“We are committed to these protests continuing for as long as it takes to force change at the club. This is no longer about individuals. This is the entire leadership and ownership of the club. There will be future action, whether that’s protests or boycotts.”
The matter of King Power’s ownership has caused a rift in the fanbase. There are supporters, perhaps those who are less vocal online, who are standing by the family.
There have already been calls to counter Unite for Change’s protest, with fans urged to get behind King Power, but most importantly the players who are tasked with keeping the club in the Championship.
“We’re forever grateful for what King Power and Vichai brought to the club and the city,” Martin said. “We agree with counter-arguments in terms of the success we’ve had in the past.
“But our mindset as a group, and many thousands agree, is that Top’s King Power and Top’s Leicester City is not the same as Vichai’s Leicester City. That is the clear distinction we think should be made.
“We are not going for anti-support or anti-club. We don’t want any hostility. The fanbase is split. I would say it’s swaying towards our way of thinking. A lot of people still have loyalty to the family.
“We don’t want to get into hostility or arguments with people who are still in support of the ownership. We’re committed as a group to all of that, we don’t want any disrespect to other fans.
“We’re focusing on a passionate but peaceful protest and getting as many people involved. If that means there are other parts of the fanbase who are unhappy, that’s a shame, but that won’t stop us fighting for what we believe in.”
It was Top’s City who twice finished fifth in the Premier League, won the FA Cup and reached a European semi-final, so it is not the case that the club’s success has exclusively been under Vichai.
But clearly there has been a dramatic fall. When it comes to transfers, managerial appointments, contracts, financial organisation, there has been obvious mismanagement at the top of the club.
There seems to have been at least some recognition of that inside City. A new technical director is coming in to work alongside Rudkin. Susan Whelan has left and a new chief executive will arrive. A new commercial director is being sought.
But, for some fans, this is too little too late. Trust that King Power can get City back on the straight and narrow has depleted severely.
Next weekend’s march will not force King Power to leave. But that at least several hundred supporters, potentially upwards of a thousand, want them to do so shows that City, right now, are a broken club.
Jibrin
