Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha statue: Leicester City to build memorial for owner outside King Power Stadium

Leicester City have announced a memorial statue of former owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha will be commissioned at the King Power Stadium.

The club was struck by tragedy on October 27 as a helicopter crash outside the King Power cost the lives of five people on board, including Foxes chairman Srivaddhanaprabha, 60.

Foxes vice-chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, son of the club's late chairman, confirmed in a souvenir programme ahead of Leicester's clash with Burnley on Saturday that a special memorial will be built to commemorate his father.

He wrote: "We will never be able to repay what he did for us - for me as his son, us as his family, everyone connected to Leicester City and beyond - but we are committed to honouring his memory and upholding his legacy.

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"Our continued growth as a club, our state-of-the-art new training ground and our planned stadium expansion will help realise his vision for Leicester City.

"I plan to commission a statue of my father, for outside King Power Stadium, as a permanent and fitting tribute to the man that made it all possible. He will forever be in our hearts. He will never be forgotten."

Meanwhile, Leicester have started the difficult task of moving tributes to Srivaddhanaprabha at the stadium, as fans raise almost £20,000 for the club's newly named foundation.

Flowers, shirts and poems have been painstakingly moved by the club and volunteers from outside the North Stand ahead of Saturday's Premier League visit of Burnley, the first home game since the tragedy.

They have been taken to a designated memorial area close to the accident site on the other side of the stadium.

Some will be kept for a pitchside display for Saturday's match while others will be collected and preserved with the intention to incorporate them into the planned redevelopment and expansion of King Power Stadium.

Players and staff flew to Bangkok after Saturday's 1-0 win at Cardiff to attend Srivaddhanaprabha's funeral and returned on Tuesday.