The son of Thaksin Shinawatra, Manchester City's controversial owner, says Sven-Goran Eriksson will lead the team on the end of season tour of Asia.

Eriksson had been expected to take charge of his final game away to Middlesbrough in the Barclays Premier League on Sunday week, after Thaksin told the former England manager he was not the man to take the club forward. However, Panthongtae Shinawatra, Thaksin's son, now claims Eriksson is to remain in charge for the club's tour of Asia in May.

"He will lead the squad to Thailand," Panthongtae said.

Manchester City are scheduled to arrive in Thailand on May 14 to open a club shop and hold a clinic. They are then due to play Thailand Premier All-Stars on May.17, before playing two further matches in Hong Kong.

The process of attempting to find a “big-name” replacement for Eriksson will take place amid an expected backlash from fans and the LMA have now added their weight to calls for Thaksin to reconsider his decision. Richard Bevan, chief executive of the LMA, insists Thaksin should honour Eriksson's contract.

"Success for Manchester City is getting into the top 10, Sven has delivered that," Bevan said. "He has got two games to go and he is focusing on those two games to go, and we implore Dr Shinawatra to rethink his strategy and to keep Sven on for the three-year period. And I'm sure Sven will deliver, not only for the players, the club and the owners, but most importantly the fans.

"Just look across the way to Manchester United, one manager in almost 22 years, look what they have won and look what Manchester City have won in the last 20 years."

He added: I think we have to remember that every time a manager gets sacked so do approximately two coaches. The public in Manchester want somebody looking after their club. Manchester City has been around for about a century, Dr Shinawatra has been around for about four months."