Earlier today, Nigel Pearson was sacked by Leicester City despite saving the club from relegation in the 2014-15 edition of the English Premier League. Reports have emerged that the sacking had little to do with football and was due to Pearson’s son’s indiscretions in the owners’ homeland of Thailand during the club’s ‘goodwill’ tour of the country.
James Pearson, along with three other trainees, has been accused of participating in a racist sex tape while on tour. This incident reportedly stretched the relationship between Nigel Pearson and the club management beyond reprise.
At various points of the previous season, Pearson’s relationship with the board appeared fragile and strained, primarily due to some poor performances by the side. However, 22 points from the last seven games turned things around for Leicester who finished at a respectable 14th place. Thus, the sacking has shocked followers of the Premier League who believed that despite courting controversy on various occasions, Pearson deserved to continue as manager of Leicester City. As BBC’s Pat Murphy assessed, the sacking of the 51-year-old was “definitely not a football issue”.
Murphy reports: “There is no doubt that the image and the reputation of the club in their homeland of Thailand has been damaged by the behavior of, among others, the manager’s son James on the goodwill tour to Thailand.
The owners Vichai and Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha are deeply religious and observers often see Buddhist monks in and around the stadium premises as personal guests of the owners. With such strong beliefs, it is perhaps understandable how upset they must have been when the incident involving James Pearson came to light. However, after guiding Leicester City to Premier League football and leading them to 14th place in EPL whilst maintaining a win percentage of 46.7% during Pearson’s spell at the club; for solely footballing reasons, the decision to sack him has been extremely harsh.
