15th April, 2016
How much of an impact has Leicester City's incredible season had on football fans in Thailand?
Certainly not as much as I would have expected. There are a number of possible reasons for this. The “incident” during the club’s pre season tour last summer hasn’t been forgotten and a lot of the locals were very upset by it. In addition, the success of the Thai national team has been the big football story over here this year. The Thais are very patriotic and having Thailand performing so well on the world stage - or at least in Asia - has really overshadowed everything else. Maybe if they hadn’t been as successful, we would have seen fans gravitate towards Leicester for their glory hunting fix.
In addition, and contrary to some opinions, the Thai fans who support foreign clubs tend to stick with them. Most of the people I know are still Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea fans - and in one case Lincoln City! - and have been for a long time. However, one area where Leicester’s profile has increased is in the local Thai sports papers. They get a lot of coverage in Siam Sport now - which is the main daily newspaper for football stories. They carry regular columns and match reports from the King Power Stadium.
Are they proud of the country's connection with the club?
Generally speaking, I think they are, but the reaction hasn’t been anywhere near as dramatic as when Thaksin Shinawatra took over at Man City. I’m slightly contradicting what I said in answer to your previous question here, but a large number of City shirts appeared in the Kingdom overnight when he bought the Blues. I’m aware that a lot of people were probably also making a political statement, but there was more a sense of Thai pride during that period than there is now with Leicester.
Are you now seeing kids in Leicester City shirts walking around Bangkok?
I don’t actually live in Bangkok. I live in a town called SriRacha, which is approximately 70 miles south of the capital. I can honestly say I haven’t seen anybody wearing Leicester City shirts down here. There are still plenty of Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City, Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund ones, along with those of Buriram Utd, who are currently the biggest team in the country. This is slightly worrying, as our local team is Chonburi, and we had a monopoly, until we were usurped by - surprise, surprise - a more successful club 250 miles away! However, I did see a few people in Leicester shirts during a recent trip to Ampawa Floating Market - a popular tourist attraction for Thais and foreigners alike. And I’m sure there will be others in towns and cities up and down the country.
Do you think Leicester's success, and the fact the club has Thai connections, means it has the potential to be the Premier League club in Thailand?
I don’t think so. Certainly not in the foreseeable future. I’m sure if they can maintain their success over a period of time, we will inevitably see more Leicester fans in the kingdom, but until then, it will remain a battle between Liverpool and Man Utd - with Chelsea, City and Arsenal in their slipstream - for the honour of top dogs. As I mentioned earlier, European clubs like Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund are also very popular here (can you see the connection?) so they have some very stiff competition.
Do you also see the club's popularity spreading to other countries in the region? Particularly given Okazaki's presence in the side too.
I can’t really speak for the Japanese fans, but I am aware that there are a number of Leicester City fan clubs over there, and this is mostly down to Okazaki’s part in their fantastic run this season. So, if they can keep hold of him, I’m sure their popularity will grow in Japan. You’ve also raised an interesting point with this question. While Leicester’s Thai ownership connections haven’t really caught the imagination of the public, if anyone in the EPL were to sign a Thai player (red tape issues aside), then you really would see a surge of interest in that club. There’s absolutely no doubt about that.
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