Is Inter’s Thohir swapping Serie A for Oxford and a crack at the English leagues?

September 25 – Former Inter Milan president Erik Thohir looks to be back in club acquisition mode but on a smaller scale to his last club buy.

The 31% shareholder of Inter has been linked with an acquisition of English league 1 club Oxford United who tonight face Manchester City in the Leaguer Cup – a competition Oxford United won in 1986.

Thohir sold the bulk of his shares to Chinese group Suning in June 2016, and is expected to complete the sale of the rest of his stake following a shareholders meeting in October.

Thohir has previously owned MLS side DC United in the US and is not afraid of tackling big challenges.

Oxford, who play in the 12,500 capacity Kassam Stadium, are on the painful path back to the top of the English league structure having last been in the top tier in 1988 but becoming the only winners of a major English trophy to have been relegated from the Football League to the Conference.

The club returned to League Two in 2010 via the playoffs, and six seasons later achieved promotion to League One.

In February Sumrith ‘Tiger’ Thanakarnjanasuth became the majority shareholder and chairman of the club, taking over from chairman Darryl Eales as the club struggled financially.

Thanakarnjanasuth, generally known as ‘Tiger’, has previously owned Championship club Reading before selling a 75% majority ownership to Chinese brother and sister Dai Yongge and Dai Xiu Li. He retains a position in the club as part of hiss family-based consortium that retained 25% in the club.

It is not clear if the acquisition, if it happened, by Indonesian businessman Thohir would be of the whole club or a smaller shareholding but giving him a say in the running of the club. Either way it is an intriguing proposition at this stage of Oxford United’s development and for the fans who have suffered since the heady Division 1 days of the 1908s.

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