Sven-Goran Eriksson pays tribute to Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha

Sven-Goran Eriksson says Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was a "great man" who was passionate about Leicester.

Srivaddhanaprabha was among five people who died in a helicopter crash on Saturday night, after Leicester's game with West Ham.

The 60-year-old Thai businessman bought Leicester in 2010, and former England boss Eriksson was his first managerial hire in October 2010.

Speaking to Sky Sports News about Srivaddhanaprabha, Eriksson said: "He was a very good man, he was passionate for football, passionate for his club.

"He treated the people at the club - players, staff, myself - in an extremely good way.

Leicester players pay respects to owner

The entire Leicester City squad joined the family of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in paying their respects to the club's owner at the King Power Stadium.

"If we needed help, he always came to help us, and all his family was involved in the club, it was like a family club.

"Outside football he was extremely generous, to the people he knew - and, I am sure, to the community, to fans, he has been fantastic.

"It is tragic what has happened, very sad. He was a great man. He sacked me - and I still say he is a great man."

Leicester were in the Championship when Srivaddhanaprabha acquired the club and, having been promoted as champions in 2014, they won the Premier League title in 2016.

The man who transformed Leicester

Under Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha's ownership, Leicester claimed the most unlikely of Premier League title triumphs.

Eriksson said: "He told me one of the first times I saw him, what he wanted to do with Leicester - to bring the club to the Premier League.

"He wanted to make the club stable and a top club in the Premier League.

"During the years, that is what he has done - and Leicester won the Premier League. Incredible. He has done exactly what he wanted to do."

Srivaddhanaprabha was popular with the fans and players at his club, and Eriksson says that is no surprise.

"He really cared about Leicester," Eriksson added.

"He did not buy the club and then hire people to take care of it. He and his son, and the whole family, took care of everything.

"I remember sometimes he invited me to London for meetings and, always in these meetings, he said 'now, we go out Sven, now we go to a good shop'.

"It was clothes for men and I said, 'I don't need anything,' but he said, 'yes, you need a jacket, you need this, you need that' - and he would never let me pay!

"He didn't need to do things like that, but that is how he was."