by Jimmy
Still having a taste of it and not looking back into the sun I retired from the Bangkok Casual League (stopped going) and ventured forth looking for new football opportunities.
I’d dipped my toe into the Vets* football scene in 2017, while still playing for Yellow Team (who were on about their 6th name change due to sponsorship). I loved playing with the Vets. It was competitive, but friendly. Old, funny, bastards who were good at football. The only problem was, it was dying a slow death, and there were no teams to play with or against regularly. But fear not gentle reader, for I had a cunning plan.
As luck would have it, a friend of a friend was organising a charity football tournament and I decided it would be a great opportunity to organise a team filled with the type of players I wanted to play with. Drunks, mostly. Stickboy of Stickboy Bangkok fame offered to sponsor us and we were off!
My first team! Then Bangkok got involved. A coup or flood or something very Bangkokish happened and the event was cancelled. There I was, stuck with 12 football shirts and some sponsorship with nothing to show for it. I felt like I had no choice but to arrange a team and Stickboy FC were born in May 2018. We proceeded to get absolutely, 100%, rip your pants off and spank your bum hammered in our first international tournament, but by god, it was a laugh.
I like to think that our brand of care free, happy-to-take-part football encouraged others to join in with the vets, or maybe they just fancied their chances against us, but soon enough we had monthly tournaments with 8+ teams in the Vets League and we got happily spanked a couple of weekends a month.
For 12 custom football shirts to be printed costs about 13,000THB. The two big Veteran international tournaments in Bangkok are 19,000 THB and 16,000 THB respectively. The monthly tournaments are 4,000THB, not including the beer we drink.
This is not a cheap hobby, we needed sponsorship. Have you ever tried to convince someone to give money to a bunch of old blokes just so that they can continue to play football together? If you own a business in Bangkok there is a good chance I have emailed you. Sorry about that.
I am not sure why she did, but Laura of NEM Thailand took a punt and gave us our first proper sponsorship. In some weird crossover-collaboration, we wore the NEM shirts as Stickboy FC in the highly competitive Far East Tournament in April 2019. Managing to lose every game and only not finishing last because the team we were due to play had a plane to catch. However, we excelled off the field and all had an enjoyable weekend. We repaid Laura and NEM’s faith, if not her money, by winning the Plate in June 2019 in one of the biggest Vets tournaments in Thailand. Still not sure how we did it!
Bangkok Old Boys: 2020
With the Vets League attracting 10 teams a month into its tournaments; Bangkok Old Boys (as my team were now known) were consistent in their enjoyment, if not the results. We had a few trophy victories when everything clicked together and a few better-be-forgotten last places. Our NEM Thailand sponsorship had finished and we were looking to welcome our new sponsors of ‘The Old English Pub’ and ‘Hanoi Beer’.
Then *that* happened and here we are. All the gear and no idea when it will end.
Both international tournaments look to be cancelled for 2020 so we are all just sat at home getting fat and waiting for this to end.
I can’t fucking wait for the first tournament back.
Until then, follow us on Twitter @BangkokOldBoys or on Facebook @BangkokVets
*A ‘Vet’, in Bangkok footballing terms is a player over 35 years old
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