Man City deal puts Thaksin back on centre spot

By Ed Cropley

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Whatever his motives in buying the Manchester City soccer club, deposed Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has scored back home, kicking the army's allegations of corruption against him off Friday's front pages.

"Maewchester City!" the English-language Nation newspaper screamed in a banner headline playing on the exiled Thaksin's nickname.

Thai-language papers, which have rounded on Thaksin since his removal in a September military coup, carried front-page photos of his lawyer holding up a light-blue Manchester City shirt.

By contrast, the lodging of formal corruption charges against Thaksin and his wife -- only hours before the English Premier League club's board gave his bid the green light -- was relegated to minor inserts or the inside pages.

In statements accompanying the deal, Thaksin insisted he merely wanted to "take the club back to its rightful place at the highest level of competition" and dismissed speculation the deal was a ploy to curry favour with a soccer-mad Thai public.

"I've already declared that I have retired from politics," he told Sky Sports. "I can assure you I'm not going to bring football to politics or bring politics to football."

But few in Thailand believe him.

"One certain thing is that from a public relations point of view, having a football club is probably better than having an election rally," Bangkok-based business consultant Christopher Bruton said.