Leicester City on Sale as King Power Engages Citigroup

Leicester City, once the great disruptors of English football’s established order, are officially on the market.

BBC Sport reports that the Thai-based King Power group, headed by chairman Aiyawatt “Top” Srivaddhanaprabha, has instructed US investment bank Citigroup to oversee the sale of the club. The process is already in motion. An eight-page sales brochure, pointedly titled “Project Lineup”, is circulating among potential investors.

It is not a small package on offer. The men’s first team, the women’s side, the 32,000-seat King Power Stadium and the Seagrave training complex are all bundled in. The brochure leans heavily on those bricks-and-mortar strengths, valuing the club’s physical assets at more than £200 million, with the Seagrave site alone carrying a £121 million tag just a few years after its 2020 opening.

What it does not do is put a clear price on the squads themselves. Instead of a headline valuation for the playing staff, Citigroup pitches Leicester as “a rare opportunity to acquire a club with an excellent track record of winning promotions to higher divisions.” The message is obvious: buy into the infrastructure and the history of bouncing back.

Behind the glossy language, the numbers tell a harsher tale.

The brochure projects turnover of more than £97 million for the 2026 financial year, but recent accounts underline the scale of the damage from a turbulent spell on and off the pitch. Between 2023 and 2025, Leicester racked up losses of more than £180 million. The 2025 figures also confirmed a heavy debt load, including £103.6 million in bank loans.

Those pressures are not confined to the football side. King Power’s duty-free business in Thailand has been hit by wider economic headwinds, weakening the once-powerful synergy between the Srivaddhanaprabha empire and the club. Under Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, that partnership fuelled one of the sport’s most romantic rises. Now it feels strained, exposed by global market shifts and domestic decline.

When the family bought Leicester City from Milan Mandaric for just £35 million in 2010, they inherited a Championship club with ambition but limited reach. They leave behind a very different institution: Premier League champions, FA Cup winners, a global brand. Yet the mood around the King Power has curdled.

Back-to-back relegations have dragged Leicester into League One and dragged patience with them. Protests outside the stadium grew louder as the slide continued, culminating in angry scenes after their latest Championship exit. For a fanbase that once paraded a Premier League trophy through the city streets, the prospect of third-tier football again is a brutal reset.

The sale brochure does its best to remind buyers of what Leicester still are, not just what they have become. It points out that the Foxes are one of only five clubs to have lifted all three major English trophies – the Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup – since the turn of the millennium. That is the company they keep in the modern era, even if the league table no longer reflects it.

Another pillar of the pitch is the club’s academy and recruitment operation. Citigroup talks up a “strong talent pipeline backed by leading scouting infrastructure, active transfer management and highly developed academy system consistently producing top players.” Recent business backs that up: academy graduate Jeremy Monga moved to Manchester City for £10 million, a timely reminder that Leicester can still develop and sell elite talent.

For now, “Project Lineup” does the rounds in boardrooms and on investment calls, while reality bites on the terraces. Leicester are preparing for only the second League One campaign in their history, starting with a trip to Notts County on Saturday.

A club once sold for £35 million and crowned champions of England now waits for its next owner, its next direction, and an answer to a stark question: who will bet big on rebuilding the Foxes from the third tier up?