To play or not to play, that is the question.
What an absolute bombshell this wretched virus has been worldwide and while it has caused misery and deaths to many families around the globe, it seems crass to write an article about its effects on a pretty insignificant football league situated within South East Asia. In a nutshell however, in veritable microcosm, this insignificant league offers the dilemma faced by many of those in office and government around the world – people or profit.
In the case of the Thai Premier League profit means, the loss or otherwise of jobs linked to the club and match days, the continuing existence of many established football teams and the returns from sponsorship and other associated enterprises. Most Thai clubs are, lets face it, strapped for cash with many relying on rich benefactors or businesses. The loss of match day revenue probably will signal the death knell of some of the poorer clubs. The financial aspects of this crisis are complicated but the people aspect is easy – it’s a potential live or die lottery defined by the decisions of relevant governments.
No one is pretending that the decisions to be made are easy ones. Do you let the public off the leash, let them mingle freely but risk the rapid spread of infections? No one, absolutely no one thinks that decisions being made are easy but I have been a pretty avid fan of Thai football for around 6 or 7 years and I am still waiting for the FAT to make a sensible decision on any footballing matter of real consequence. It always seems to me that if there is a wrong decision to make, they jump straight in and make it.
So the league had to close down due to worries over the virus. OK we can play behind closed doors, no, we can’t afford to lose revenue, let’s wait until we can restart. The FAT plucked 18th April out of thin air for the restart, strange I thought as this date roughly coincided with Songkran, which the Thai Government had just canceled due to the virus!! I personally thought that the date was a little ambitious, no, let me be frank. It wasn’t going to happen.
Of course 18th April came and went, a hopelessly ambitious plan bit the dust. Personally, I was sort of guessing that it was going to take about three months for the virus to become containable, so perhaps a league restart around about late May/early June could be achievable – perhaps behind closed doors and after a brief pre season training period. So some clever clogs sitting in a FAT meeting comes up with a bright idea, Why don’t we align ourselves with many other football associations and run our seasons from September until May?
Well the idea concerning the future configuration of the season can be debated but this of course would mean a full 6 month delay to the current season – plenty time enough for many clubs to go bust and fans to lose interest. There appears to be no reason – given present circumstances in terms of deaths and infections within Thailand, why the league should not start in June or even early July. Another own goal by the FAT has left us with a 6 month break which could easily be reduced to a 4.
I am really looking forward to the commencement of the season in September – historically one of the wettest months of the year. Luckily the team that I support has covered accommodation but for those who might be potentially sitting in the pouring rain, the lure of televised European soccer might drag them away from the Thai football scene forever. I don’t care what the configuration of the future league calendar might be, but please FAT, put off the plans for September – May football until 2021 and let’s try to get the current season going earlier than September and over and done with as little damage as possible!!
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