Thousands of football fans united across the country today to pay tribute to Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha as his seven-day funeral procession in Thailand officially began.
In Bangkok, hundreds of mourners attended a Buddhist ceremony with Thai royalty, dignitaries and sporting figures paying their finals respects to the billionaire businessman.
At Cardiff City Stadium both sets of fans observed a one minute silence while supporters carried flags, banners and t-shirts to commemorate the man whose backing spurred Leicester on to an unprecedented league title in 2016.
The Leicester squad all wore t-shirts depicting the late chairman's image during the warm up and players from both teams wore black armbands with his name.
Vichai died in a horrific fireball outside the King Power Stadium last Saturday along with four staff, just metres away from the thousands of supporters making their way home following a home fixture against West Ham United.
Kasper Schmeichel a close friend of Vichai's struggled to hold back the tears as the Leicester players lined-up for a minute's silence before kick-off.
After the emotional game the tearful Leicester City goalkeeper revealed that the club’s first match this afternoon since the horrific helicopter crash was 'mentally tough' but said it was 'nice to get a win to take to Thailand.
Kasper Schmeichel, who was one of the closest witnesses to the helicopter crash outside the stadium and had to be held back from bravely rushing to try and rescue victims from the inferno, added, 'and hopefully we did his family proud'.
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