Leicester City Football Club also known as the Foxes created history by winning the 2015–16 Premier League, their first top-level football championship, ever.
Leicester City Football Club is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester. The club was founded in 1884 as Leicester Fosse FC, playing on a field near Fosse Road. In August 2010, following agreement on a three-year shirt sponsorship deal with duty-free retailers the King Power Group, Mandarić sold the club to Thai-led consortium Asian Football Investments (AFI) fronted by King Power Group’s Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
What amazed me as much as the entire world was the Leicester Premier League victory. A regular bunch of football players probably walked onto the ground knowing that they wouldn’t win. And no one would have questioned that thought. They were nothing outstanding… so how could they expect anything outstanding to happen?
What really awed me was HOW they won. Was it the sudden skills, motivation, new found technique in the playing or something bigger, a spiritual power that binds all energy to one place?
Six thousand kilometers away in the teeming Thai capital, saffron-robed holy men believe good karma played a part in Leicester City’s stunning fairytale victory in England’s top football league. “This is not about magic,” Phra Prommangkalachan, a monk who has regularly flown to the UK to bless Leicester’s players, told London’s Daily Telegraph. “We can only offer spiritual support. We believe that helps the players with their good health, avoiding injuries, with their focus. But they must perform well.”
Leicester’s owner, Thai billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, a Buddhist devotee, flies a dozen monks from Thailand to the UK for most of the club’s games. Their routine involves blessing players before kick-off and splashing holy water on their legs and feet.
Here – at a special shrine surrounded by Buddhist statues and hangings installed by Mr Vichai – the monks, led by Assistant Abbott Phra Prommangkalachan, offer the players what they call “spiritual support”. It’s obviously unusual for a football club owner to bring along Buddhist monks to games, but now everyone at LCFC is used to it. It seems normal.“His good deeds help generate support which becomes power for Leicester City Football Club. The club is benefitting from that good karma. “His good deeds are rewarded with the good performances of Leicester City. He is also a very wise man and knows how to manage the club, bring together the team and coaches and make sure their approach is united. The result…… is their success.
Yes skill, technique, fitness etc is important to winning… maybe Sri Lanka needs to look within themselves to develop this positivism, eliminate the negative energy around. Maybe add the divine element to our sports teams, eliminate the evil in the players, among the players and around the players. By around the players I mean the cheating, lying, deception and evil of the authorities.
Being a Buddhist country it is sad that we have not looked at this before, maybe it’s time to try this new strategy; a strategy that is so unexpected by our international competitors, a strategy that will permanently put SL sports on the world map.
Like it helped Leicester City with good health, avoiding injuries, and their focus, couldn’t it help us? Of course we must still perform well, but spiritual support will always turn good performances to the exceptional level.
