LEICESTER CITY’S new season could be thrown into turmoil because the owners wanted to bless the steel used to construct their new training ground.
And 348 crested newts made the projects even more complicated — because of tight regulations around re-homing the species.
Leicester City’s new training ground to the north of the city is built on the site of a former golf course
The £95million project is hoped to be completed for the start of next season
Chairman Top Srivaddhanaprabha is a big golf fan and the Foxes chief even called on nine holes of the old course to be retained for use by players and staff.
According to Construction News, the site of a golf club in the borough Charnwood, north of Leicester, is facing a race against time to be ready for the start of the 2020-21 season.
Developers McLaren’s director Martin Burge said: “Perhaps with a different client and a different structure you’d say ‘we need a bit more time’, but here it wasn’t within the client’s gift – they have a hard and fast holding point.
“The Premier League season starts when it starts and we have to be ready for that.”
Leicester’s owners reportedly also had a blessing ceremony on the site, where the main building was anointed by Buddhist monks.
The ceremony resulted in a two-week delay to construction.
But the colourful ceremony saw the steel tied with ribbons, showered with flowers and coins.
It shows the close ties the club has with Buddhism, as they did during the 2016 title-winning season and after Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s tragic death.
Burge added: “Buddhism is very spiritual.
“They said it had to be done on a certain day, as some days are luckier than others and in that building it had to be a certain [element of the] steel [structure], as certain areas of the building are lucky and others aren’t.
“It went to and fro for weeks about what the date was going to be and then we had to make a compromise in the end because we knew where we wanted to make a start in the steelwork.”
Leicester owner ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha wanted touches as a reminder of his father’s Buddhist beliefs but is also a huge golf fanCredit: Getty – Contributor
As for the newts, 4,000 trees had to be re-planted and the 348 amphibians relocated during a specific time of the year — when the temperature is above 5C — and only after a thumbs-up from Natural England.
They have also made improvements to the exit ramp at the adjacent A46, but excess rain in Leicestershire has hampered the progress of the project.
348 crested newts had to be relocated on the site as well as 4,000 treesCredit: Getty – Contributor
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
