Moments after Leicester City beat Chelsea to win the FA Cup on May 16, millions watching around the world were treated to a flourish of sporting theatre. The club’s 35-year-old Thai owner, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha — inheritor of an airport duty-free monopoly and one of the youngest billionaires in Asia — was yanked on to the pitch by the players, bear-hugged by each in turn and allowed to lift the trophy as one of the team.
Club owners in Manchester, Liverpool, Madrid, Paris and beyond, remarked one TV pundit, would be burning with jealousy.
Few would question the Leicester City owner’s status among Asia’s most devoted fans of the English game. But elsewhere the attitudes and feelings of fans of European football in Asia are much harder to pin down.