EFL heavyweights up for sale on eve of new season: report
Leicester City owners King Power have put the club up for sale on the eve of the new EFL season, according to reports.
The Thai retail group bought the East Midlands outfit in 2010, with the Foxes going on to lift the Premier League in 2016 and the FA Cup five years later, as well as playing in the Champions League.
But Leicester have experienced a dramatic decline in recent years, culminating in back-to-back relegations that will see them play in League One this term, starting with an opening-day trip to Notts County on Saturday lunchtime.
Leicester owners want more than £200m for struggling club
King Power were incredibly popular with Foxes fans throughout their first decade of ownership as the club consistently punched above their weight, most notably when they lifted the Premier League as 5,000-1 outsiders in 2016.
But a string of bad decisions led to a shock relegation in 2023, and while they won the Championship at the first attempt under Enzo Maresca the following season, Leicester went down again in 2025 before suffering the dreaded double drop last term, not helped by a six-point deduction for breaching EFL financial rules.
The Foxes are now set to start only their second-ever campaign outside the top two tiers, against a volatile backdrop in which a section of the fanbase have long called for King Power to sell the club.
And the first steps towards a potential sale are now in motion, with US investment bank Citigroup producing an eight-page sales booklet on behalf of the club, which has been seen by BBC Sport.
The brochure, titled ‘Project Lineup’, values Leicester’s physical assets at more than £200m and lists the men’s and women’s teams, the King Power Stadium, the Foxes’ £121m Seagrave training ground and Belgian sister club OH Leuven as all up for sale.
According to BBC Sport, the booklet mentions the 2016 Premier League title, 2021 FA Cup triumph and expected turnover of £97m in the 2026 financial year, but fails to note the club’s double relegation and financial troubles.
In the three seasons from 2022/23 to 2024/25 – the most recent campaigns for which the club’s accounts have been published – Leicester lost £180.2m combined.
Last season’s six-point deduction came as a result of breaching Premier League Profit and Sustainability rules during the 2023/24 campaign, when they were in the Championship. The Foxes were found to have overspent by £20.8m over a three-year period.
King Power founder Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha bought the club in 2010 but died in a helicopter crash outside Leicester’s stadium in October 2018, with his son Khun Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha taking over as chairman.
The club have had 10 different managers in less than three-and-a-half years, including caretakers, with former Southampton and Rangers boss Russell Martin appointed as head coach this summer.
