Thai Premier set to invest in Liverpool

LIVERPOOL Football Club could become the latest Premiership team to benefit from an influx of foreign cash as billionaire Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra appears set to plough £65m into the team.

Thaksin has stoked speculation that the Merseyside giants could announce a deal for a 30% stake, saying at the weekend: 'Next week there will be bigger news. There will be a lot more details and then I will tell you about it.'

The tie-up could be announced as soon as today, reports in Thailand have suggested. But Thaksin and Liverpool have declined to confirm the potential signing.

Football is big business in Asia, and top-flight clubs assiduously court their fast-growing eastern fan base with regular promotional tours in the summer off-season.

Thaksin, a hard-line but populist leader who made a fortune in telecoms before switching to politics, is a canny manipulator of media coverage. He has been flirting with a British football deal since Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea last year.

He first looked at buying into Fulham but his approaches were rebuffed. He was linked with Liverpool - currently lying fourth in the table - in February. It is understood that, in exchange for his 30% stake in the club, Liverpool would set up a football academy in Thailand to scour the region for talent that could be channelled to Merseyside. Manchester United already have a similar arrangement in Australia.

Thaksin is certainly wealthy enough to afford the stake on offer, with his net worth estimated by Forbes magazine to be £560m.

However, the Thai magnate may also include other wealthy compatriots in the deal, with speculation centring on drinks billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi. He holds a major stake in Thai Beverages, which makes a range of top-selling beers and whiskies in the kingdom.