Thai Premier League Preview: The Good, the Bad, and the Chidchob.
The 2011 Thai Premier League gets underway on February 12th at a time when the domestic game has never been more popular. Following the relaunch of the TPL in 2009, big-name sponsors, businessmen and politicians all jumped aboard the bandwagon bringing huge amounts of money with them. But how is this new-found wealth and popularity affecting the game? We investigate the positives and negatives in this Brave New Era, starting with the good things about the game.
Media
Live matches will be shown on Saturdays and Sundays on True Visions, NBT 11 and T-Sport. The sports newspapers, meanwhile, devote more column inches than ever before to the game. Siam Keela is particularly supportive and offers TPL pull-outs in its weekend editions. Every club in the TPL has an official website and most have several unofficial ones, too. There is even an increasing number of independent English-language sites started up by Westerners who have become devoted to the beautiful game here in the Land of Smiles.
Stadia
Stadia have been and are being improved. Chonburi, PEA, and Sriracha all play in new arenas, whilst those of Muang Thong, Thai Port, Bangkok Glass and TTM Phichit have been redeveloped beyond recognition. Sisaket’s has also been expanded, and Chiang Rai are beginning the redevelopment of their Mae Fah Luang home.
Tickets
When the TPL really took off, in 2009, there were fears that ticket prices would also rocket. By and large, those fears haven’t been realised. Five years ago ticket prices ranged from 20 to 50 baht. In 2010 ticket prices were still as low as 50 baht at many grounds, and the top clubs charged only a little more. The cheapest ticket at champions Muang Thong was 60 baht. Bangkok Glass also started at 60 baht; Chonburi’s and Thai Port’s cheapest were 80 baht while tickets for the prestigious FA Cup final were only 100 baht.
Scheduling
There are still problems, but, for the most part, matches start at a reasonable time on Saturdays or Sundays. ‘Nothing surprising there’ you may say, but it wasn’t always this way. Long-term Chonburi fan Dale Farrington tells us about the bizarre timing of matches during Chonburi’s title-winning season: “During our 2007 campaign we had a rash of Wednesday 4:00pm kick offs. Even the last round of matches – which could have seen the title decided – were all played on Tuesday at 4:00pm! Thankfully, we'd beaten Krung Thai Bank the previous Tuesday in front of 8,000. The following week there were less than 500 in the ground.” In 2011, nearly all the fixtures will be played on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
Another one of our positives that cuts both ways. Matches may now kick off at a sensible time at weekends, but there are simply far too many games. The FAT have let themselves get carried away by the success of the relaunched top flight and are now behaving with all the restraint of a child given the keys to a sweet shop. Halfway through the 2010 season, without warning, the FAT announced that there would be a brand new league cup competition. Sure enough, just a couple of weeks later, the Toyota League Cup got underway. This new tournament had to be squeezed in alongside the TPL fixtures, and the FA Cup which was already underway, and it was a two-legged competition. Sure enough, it caused fixture congestion chaos.
The TPL finished a month later than was originally scheduled, and the FA Cup final was played nearly two months late. But the FAT weren’t finished there. Just a few days before the end of the season they announced that the bottom three weren’t to be automatically relegated, as had been assumed all season. Instead, the three ‘relegated’ sides from the TPL were to take part in play-offs against the fourth, fifth and sixth placed teams from Division 1. Two of these six teams would be rewarded with places in the 2011 TPL, along with the top three from Division 1, as the FAT decided to expand the top tier from sixteen teams to eighteen. The TPL season, which had been originally scheduled to finish on September 26th, eventually drew to a close on Christmas Day. We will see the controversial League Cup again in 2011, but it is at least scheduled to start earlier. The high-stakes play-offs may also return as FAT president Worawi Makudi recently said he would like to see a 20-team TPL in 2012.
Fans
The revamped, slick, streamlined TPL is attracting fans as never before. Before 2009, only Chonburi and PEA Ayutthaya could attract attendances of over a thousand; before 2007 no clubs could. Now, attendances in the thousands are the norm. Muang Thong typically attract 10,000; double that for big games. Bangkok Glass, Thai Port and Chonburi are in the 5,000-10,000 range, and over in Buriram, Newin Chidchob’s PEA usually fill their 20,000 capacity i-Mobile Stadium. As fans fill the stadiums the media show more interest in the game and offer more coverage. As they offer more coverage more fans come to matches. It’s an upward spiral which slows little sign of slowing.
Perhaps understandably, this huge surge of popularity, coupled with the attendant increase in wealth, has brought new challenges and problems.
A positive can also be a negative. The multitudes packing stadia every week are to be welcomed. But this new era for the TPL has seen the arrival of hooliganism in Thailand. Thai Port F.C are often held up as the main offenders, but trouble has also flared at Chonburi, Navy Rayong, Pattaya, Muang Thong, Buriram PEA and throughout the Thai football pyramid, but punishments have been pretty feeble. The most serious incident occurred at Nakhon Pathom of Division 1 in late December. At the end of this crucial relegation/promotion play-off against Sisaket, fans of the home side attacked Sisaket fans on the pitch whilst members of the coaching staff went after the referee. One of the aggressors even produced a gun! On this occasion the authorities acted swiftly and very firmly: Nakhon Pathom have been banned from the league for two years. The punishment seems draconian, but it sends out a strong message to would-be offenders.
Referees
Unfortunately, the most important person on a football pitch has not been a part of the TPL cash bonanza. The referee who was threatened with a gun in the aforementioned Nakhon Pathom game received 1500 baht for his efforts – equivalent to a couple of replica shirts. The pathetic remuneration of referees clearly opens the door for corruption. Dr Vichit Yamboonreung, the TPL president, has stated that referees will receive 5,000 baht per game baht in 2011. It’s a start, but we still think it’s nowhere near enough. And there are no excuses anymore: the TPL can now easily afford to pay them far more.
Those problems are all easily solvable: hit hooligans with strong punishments; stick to the original schedule as closely as possible and don’t introduce new competitions during the season; pay referees much more. Therefore, we’re still positive about the state of the TPL in this era of unprecedented popularity: low ticket prices, new and improved stadia, great media coverage and thousands of fans flocking to games every week are all reasons to be cheerful. Your domestic league has never been in better shape so get yourself down to your local TPL club this season. You won’t regret it.
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