Manchester City have closed their Thailand operations following former owner and ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's sale of the club, ending City's ambitious plan to become "Asia's Premier League team". Jimmy Heosontaty, City's former representative in Thailand, said a plan for an academy had been abandoned and the club's merchandise shop, launched to great fanfare last year, had closed due to a lack of interest.

"We saw no point in carrying on after the [Shinawatra] family sold their share," said Heosontaty today. "City still have fans here, but there's not a lot of interest any more."

Thaksin, convicted of graft last year and a fugitive overseas, bought City in July 2007, 10 months after he was ousted in a bloodless military coup.

He hoped to make City Asia's most popular club. He also signed three barely known Thai players, a move widely dismissed as a political ploy to earn the support of football-loving Thais for a party formed by his supporters.

Amid rising discontent among City fans over his treatment of the then manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, Thaksin sold the club to a consortium from the United Arab Emirates in September and has been on the run since his British visa was revoked in November.