SOCCER:Sven-Goran Eriksson will decide in the next 48 hours whether to resurrect his career under Thaksin Shinawatra's multi-million-pound revolution at Manchester City. The former England manager has been offered a three-year contract worth £2 million a year, with significant bonuses, and Thaksin said last night he wanted Eriksson to make the club "as popular in Asia as Manchester United and Liverpool".

Thaksin's £81.6 million bid was accepted yesterday and the former Thai prime minister, wanted in his home country on charges of corruption, said he was not concerned by criticism of Eriksson's record with England. "I heard about his performance in the past and, yes, I can understand the criticism but nobody's perfect," he said. "He will bring good things to this club."

Thaksin confirmed his headhunters had met Eriksson twice this week. "I have met him, I said hello and touched base but my advisors have done most of the talking," he said.

Thaksin now has a controlling interest of 55.9 per cent and City have recommended to shareholders they accept his offer to take him beyond 75 per cent, where he can remove the club from the Stock Exchange. He will begin next season as chairman, with his son Panthongtae and daughter Pinthongta on a board with the current chairman, John Wardle, and chief executive, Alistair Mackintosh.

"I was interested in [ buying] a Premier League club and when I came to Manchester City I liked it immediately," said Thaksin. "It is over 100 years old, it is a big club with a great stadium and I feel I can move the club forward because the potential is there. We should not be number 14 [ in the Premiership] any more. I am ready to bring new ideas and investment and I will not disappoint the fans. We will have a new coach and new players soon, definitely."

Thaksin was deposed by a military coup last September but he said his position would not be jeopardised by criminal investigations. An anti-corruption committee has frozen nearly £1.3 billion worth of his assets but Thaksin, in exile in London, will resist orders to return to Thailand to face arrest.

"The country is under a dictatorship that is politically motivated against me. I am quite confident that when democracy returns I will have more justice and can fight my case. I am being charged with corrupting my own money but I can prove that is not the case. My lawyers are working on it. I am innocent."

Eriksson has been taking advice from Pini Zahavi, an agent named last week by Lord Stevens as having not fully co-operated with the Quest investigation into potential transfer irregularities. Zahavi, who is threatening legal action against the Premier League, confirmed he was in negotiations with Thaksin, although not as an agent. Eriksson is usually represented by Athole Still, for whom the matter has become a huge embarrassment.

Keith Harris, Thaksin's chief adviser, did not involve Still and went straight to Eriksson. The Swede, in turn, does not appear to have informed Still, who has repeatedly denied the story.

Thaksin hopes to tempt Eriksson with a transfer budget of £50 million and said the club were looking for "two strikers, two midfielders and maybe a new goalkeeper".

Guardian Service