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By Tony Jimenez
LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Manchester City's executive chairman Garry Cook moved to ease fears over the Premier League club's future on Tuesday after owner Thaksin Shinawatra decided to skip bail in Thailand.
"City's future is not in jeopardy," Cook told the Manchester Evening News. "In the short term it is business as usual.
"We don't rely on Dr Thaksin's money. When (manager) Mark Hughes makes a decision we go through the normal process, which can include banks, finance or a whole bunch of different things just like any other club."
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin went into exile on Monday, accusing potential enemies who removed him in a 2006 coup of meddling in the courts to "finish off" him and his family.
The Supreme Court issued arrest warrants for Thaksin and his wife, Potjaman, and seized 13 million baht ($332,100) in bail bonds after he failed to appear in a corruption case.
Cook, who said Thaksin denied all charges against him, said City's owner may look to gain extra investment in the Premier League club through "partnership" deals.
"He is willing to look at whatever it takes to make City a great football club," said Cook. "This is a guy who loves City."
THAKSIN APOLOGY
In a hand-written statement faxed to news outlets from his refuge in London, the 59-year-old telecommunications billionaire apologised to the court on Monday for failing to appear in the case.
"I must apologise again for deciding to come to live in England. If I am fortunate enough I will return and die on Thai soil, just like other Thais," he said after deciding to flee rather than fight a slew of charges lodged since the coup.
The court's action in issuing the arrest warrants and seizing the bonds suggests Thaksin and Potjaman may find it hard to recover more than $2 billion frozen in Thai banks since the coup.
Thaksin had been due to return to Bangkok from the Beijing Olympics with his wife on Sunday evening but quietly took a plane to London instead the previous day, an aide said.
The Premier League could now reconsider whether Thaksin is fit to be City's owner.
"We have to establish the status of his return to England and where that leaves him as regards to the legal process in Thailand," the league's chief executive Richard Scudamore told Tuesday's Daily Telegraph.
"We need to make sure if he is guilty of anything we will deal with it."
According to league regulations, a club director can be disqualified if found guilty of corruption offences "by a competent court having jurisdiction outside England and Wales".
