Manchester City may have started their season well on the pitch, but they were given cause for worry off it yesterday when a court in Bangkok issued a warrant for the arrest of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai Prime Minister and the club’s owner, on charges of corruption.

The ruling, the first in a series of legal proceedings against Thaksin and his family, could result in his extradition from Britain and his disqualification as a person permitted to own an English football club.

Thailand’s Supreme Court issued the arrest warrants for Thaksin and his wife, Potjaman, after they failed to appear to answer charges of abuse of power over a 772 million baht (about £12 million) land deal.

His lawyers had argued that it was not safe for the couple to travel from their self-imposed exile in London to Thailand, where Thaksin was deposed in a military coup last September.

“The two suspects acknowledged the charge and received an official summons but failed to appear before court,” Tonglor Chomngarm, head of a nine-strong panel of judges, said. “The court has approved arrest warrants against the two suspects.”

The military junta that forced out Thaksin confirmed that it will seek his extradition. “The attorney general will seek the court’s permission to issue the arrest warrant and seek cooperation from England to send them back to face trial,” Patchara Yuthithamdam-rong, a spokesman for the attorney general’s department, said. Such a move could put the British Government in an uncomfortable position.

Britain frequently extradites its own offenders, including paedophiles, from Thailand, and is vigorously seeking the extradition of the alleged killer of Alexander Litvinenko from Russia. On the other hand, Thailand’s present government is self-appointed and came to power by using force to depose the most popular prime minister in the country’s history.

Thaksin is a former police officer who became a billionaire as head of the Shin Corporation, a mobile phone and media conglomerate. His party came to power in 2001; in 2005, it was reelected with a 61 per cent majority.

The charges in the case heard yesterday concern the purchase by Thaksin’s wife in 2003 of land in Bangkok, allegedly for a price well below its market value.

The prosecution contends that Thaksin used his position as prime minister to influence the sale of the land by a government agency. If convicted, he and his wife face up to 13 years in prison and fines of 200,000 baht. It would also jeopardise his ownership of Manchester City – Premier League rules state that only “fit and proper persons” may own English clubs, although Thaksin’s lawyers would no doubt argue that the judgments of courts run under a military dictatorship cannot be taken seriously.

Thaksin passed the Premier League’s “fit and proper persons test” but Richard Scudamore, the organisation’s chief executive, has said that it will review the case in the event that the Thai Government rules that Thaksin is not a “suitable” club owner.

A spokesman for Thaksin claimed that the move was politically motivated. “No doubt this latest publicity stunt by the military Government has nothing to do with the referendum on the constitution taking place later this week,” he said.

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