Fifa chief hails Leicester ‘fairytale’

Fifa President Gianni Infantino yesterday hailed Leicester City’s “fairytale” rise to the top of the Premier League as an example of football’s ability to delight with “beautiful stories”.

Visiting Thailand, where he met with the kingdom’s new Football Association chief, he said the Foxes’ improbable table-topping feats proves cash is not always king.

“That’s why we all love football, it’s the magic of football. And fairytales like the fairytale of Leicester are exactly showing us that football is unpredictable,” he told reporters.

“Football brings us every year, everywhere in the world, these kind of beautiful stories,” he said.

He was speaking in the King Power Pullman hotel, part of a downtown complex including a mall owned by Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the Thai duty-free billionaire backing the once unfashionable midlands’ outfit.

Leicester are one win away from securing the league title, defying 5000-1 odds. The Fifa boss is on a charm offensive to restore the battered organisation’s reputation after it was engulfed last year by a massive corruption scandal.

He said he was in favour of co-hosted World Cups, opening the door for smaller countries without massive infrastructure to hold the event.

Thai football has been mired in division and controversy.   —AFP