BUMS & GUNS - THE ULTRA-IDIOTS
by Stephen Romary
The thrill you get when supporting your team at an opponent’s stadium is you never know what adventure it’s going to bring. What’s not so nice is you never know what adventure it’s going to bring.
The block of seats allocated to away team fans can, at the best of times, be on par with what can be found at the club’s home stadium, though that may not be saying much. Mostly, however, you are stuffed into the dirtiest corners, about as far from the pitch as possible without being in the parking lot, and in exchange for a seat a concrete slab with a thick layer of dust and grime as a sticky cushion.
In Buriram’s Chang Arena away supporters are crammed into a corner section that seems like an afterthought to stadium construction. “Oh yea, the away fans, do we really need a space for them?” Bangkok United’s sprawling stadium in Rangsit is about average for away-zone fans. The pitch is surrounded by a giant running track, but then behind the goal, at the away end, another 60 meters of space for high jump pits and other field events. You could probably offer javelin in that space, and maybe that was the thinking; no fans are ever going to be able to hurl water bottles at the keeper, no matter how worked up they get.
In theory the away team fans are supposed to be kept apart from everyone else. That means separate entrances, different parking lots, dedicated bathrooms, and the like. In reality it’s only the sectioning of the stadium that is consistent across the stadiums. Thus, at a match between SCG Muangthong United and Chonburi FC during the 2018 season, fans in both the red Kirin shirt and the Chonburi blue intermingled amongst the food vendors and outdoor areas before kickoff.
The nicer stadiums tend to be purpose built to football. The SCG Stadium, Port FC’s PAT Stadium, Ratchaburi’s Mitr Phol Stadium, Sukhothai’s field, and Chiang Rai’s Singha Stadium are some examples. Here the away supporters may be treated to a sideline stand that’s against the pitch surface with minimal distance to the touch line.
There’s easy access to bathrooms and parking, plus food and drink vendors are plentiful. That said, there are seats at the PAT Stadium where you cannot even see the whole pitch!
When it comes to food and drink, all clubs have something to offer, but the clubs that do this well are True Bangkok United and Port FC. Before the match there’s a variety of Thai food options available, such as grilled pork, beef, or chicken skewers, spring rolls, spicy somtum salads, and more. Normally the beer option is limited to LEO, or perhaps CHANG, sponsors of teams across several leagues. Iced coffee is usually found, as well as cheaper Thai versions of popular soft drinks (Est Cola - the Pepsi of Thailand).
Even in the lower divisions, the food and drink options are not forgotten. T3 team Bangkok FC, which also used the SCG Stadium in the 2019 season, brought in food trucks such as MAFIA BURGER to supplement the limited Thai food options available.
Pre-match activities at clubs like Port FC and Bangkok United often offer live music, games with prizes for fans, and cardboard player cutouts for the ubiquitous selfie loving crowds. Unlike games in the UK and other places, a fair number of Thai football fans are female, and though some no doubt have come for the football, a significant number are more interested in catching a glimpse of Charyl Chappuis or one of the other ‘hunks’ (I’ve been told) that play in the top league.
Suphanburi Provincial Stadium is typical of football grounds in Thailand. Essentially run by the province, it was built in 1947, but renovated several times since. Yet it wasn’t until 2018 that plastic seats were finally added atop the remaining dusty concrete slabs. It’s primary function is as a venue for provincial sporting competitions and events, primarily track & field. Thus it has a big blue eight lane running track around the pitch, and space at either end for other events. The stand along one side has a partial roof, while everywhere else fans are exposed to either the harsh sun, or torrential sheets of rain (why the Thai Leagues don’t schedule the season around the cool non-rainy months of December-January- February I’ve yet to fully understand).
I happened to be at the stadium back in April of 2015. It was SCG Muangthong United vs. Suphanburi FC, a match Suphanburi won 2-1, and there was a sizeable crowd of 25,000, including a packed away zone of die hard Kirin fans. In the match Jakkapan Porsai scored what many considered to be the goal of the season with a left footed strike. For Muangthong United, the goal came from Mario Gjurovski at the 70th minute. Mario ended up leaving the Kirin to play for Bangkok United at the end of that season, then he played for Bangkok Glass, and in 2019 was back with the Kirin! Such movement of players between clubs is not unusual in the Thai league.
The Kirin fans were upset at the loss and thought that their team had been treated unfairly by the officials. They were slow to leave the stands, but eventually returned to the parking lots for the three hour drive back to Bangkok. I was working with the Kirin media team at the time, and we’d just finished up the post match press conference. Suddenly there were three distinct popping sounds from out in the parking lot.
POP-POP-POP. The staff all looked at each other, and my Thai colleague, concerned for my safety, told me to stay put because those were gunshots. I could see through the glass door out to the lot that fans were running for cover, ducking beside cars, and some took refuge inside the press room with us.
We didn’t know what was going on and no one wanted to go outside to find out. Was this fan-on-fan violence spilling over from the match? Had there been a clash between supporters that had escalated to the point that a gun was used? I knew from living in Thailand for a number of years that from time-to-time anger would lead to gun violence, and there are a lot of guns in Thailand. It’s estimated there are over 10 million of them in the country, both legal and not, equating to about 15 guns for every group of 100 people. With a crowd of 25,000, that meant we could have been looking at thousands of guns! Of course, these are averages, but I knew that it would be expected there were guns at the game.
Eventually, a security steward came to tell us what had happened. A Suphanburi fan had returned to his car, which he’d parked close to the stadium. He’d found himself boxed in by another vehicle and unable to get free. After about 30 minutes of waiting, his anger got the better of him and he sunk three slugs into the body work of a new Toyota Camry.
You can never be sure what kind of adventure awaits you when supporting your team at an opponent’s stadium.
Gunshots aside, Thai football fans are overwhelmingly fun loving and peaceful. It is common to see supporters of both teams milling about together before and after games, posing for group shoots in their different coloured jerseys, their team flags mixing in the air above their heads. Yet, as is the case around the world, there’s often a small group of fans that can wreak havoc and undermine stringent efforts by clubs and leagues to promote the game. I call them them the ultra-idiots.
During a match supporters become incensed by a turn of play, or celebrate wildly a victory while the opposing fans duck their heads and try not to look. The vast majority of fans understand that this is just a game, and some games don’t go your way and you lose to your rivals, while another day it’s their turn to suffer the agony of defeat while your team triumphs. This is especially sweet when, for a long time, your team has lost both home and away to a bitter rival. I’ll never forget the match in Buriram in 2017, when SCG Muangthong United won 3-0. It was a major upset at the time. The euphoria of that moment was only made possible by the repeated stings of having lost to Buriram many times over the past few seasons.
These feelings are not just felt by fans, but it permeates a club. Everyone in the organization, the players, training staff, caterers, equipment managers, those who look after water and ice, the media crew, the driver of the team bus, etc., all feel the pain and ecstasy of defeat and victory. Having worked closely with teams, I’ve seen first hand how players suffer with a loss, and they will tell you this is when they need their fans the most. They need to hear, “mai pben rai” (never mind, it’s okay) and then they feel their fans truly are supporters.
Thai social media channels may be brimming with virulent rants about the referee, biting comments about an opponent’s striker, or pernicious views on the coach’s future with the club. Yet despite the ubiquitous trolls, most fans have a great time at games. The joy of watching a match, and urging your team forward, and celebrating moments of success on the pitch, is a shared experience that goes to the core of what it means to be human. This is how sport can bring us together, and it’s wonderful.
Sometimes, however, the trolls win. This is when the baser elements of society are so loud they drown out all the others. A match at the Kirin home stadium a few seasons ago brought to light this problem, and also the league’s inability to deal with it.
SCG Muangthong United (the ‘Kirin’) are rivals with several clubs in the league, and within the sprawling Bangkok metropolitan area there’s no fiercer rival than Port FC. Located in the Klong Toey area of Bangkok, renown for its slums, Port FC is also the area of the city where the Chao Praya River is the farthest point upstream from the Gulf of Thailand that container ships and tankers can get. The PAT Stadium (Port Authority of Thailand) is nestled in amongst busy roads and expressways near some of the major intersections of the city.
The SCG Stadium is located near the northern edges of Bangkok. There are thirty kilometers separating the two stadiums, but with the state of Bangkok traffic an hours time is usually needed to traverse from one place to the other. The long commute has never been a deterrent to the throngs of fans. Supporter buses run between the stadiums, carrying thousands of happy and excited fans, with an anticipation of victory, but an understanding of defeat. Sometimes hiding amongst these happy fans are a small group of ultra-idiots who just don’t get it.
There’s a history to this. Fan violence over a loss in 2010 at the King’s Trophy match at the Supachalasai Stadium lingered in the minds of those involved. As well, in 2014 small groups of supporters from both sides exchanged blows after a match, again outside the SCG Stadium. Then in September of 2016 it all came to a head. The Kirin drew with Port FC 2-2 in that came, and in doing so eliminated them from the League Cup competition that season.
Both clubs, as well as the league, had anticipated there might be problems. Planning meetings were held in the weeks before the match, including coordination with the local police forces. Huge numbers of police and security were brought in. Aerial drones were deployed. Security checkpoints established. Messages from the clubs and the league posted on social media.
Yet at the end of the match, problems occurred. Groups of angry Port FC supporters jeered with angry Kirin supporters, and soon enough it came to violence. In the end more than a dozen people were injured; some required hospitalization. To this day I am amazed (and deeply relieved) that no one pulled a gun.
Due to the intense presence of security, the incident happened over two kilometers away from the stadium and more than two hours after the final whistle, when peaceful fans had already left the and were back home. It seemed the ultra-idiots were determined.
The reaction of the league was intense. Both clubs were threatened with massive point reductions as had happened in 2014, they were given heavy fines, and the next five matches would have to be played behind closed doors. For the Kirin they potentially lost a chance to qualify for the AFC Champions League and capture a trophy. As well, considerable financial harm can follow as sponsors might reevaluate their support of the clubs. After throwing the book at the clubs, and despite the massive police presence, none of the instigators were charged with crimes. Only the club, and the thousands of law abiding peaceful fans were punished, and the ultra-idiots who committed their crimes away from the stadium grounds and hours after the match were never brought to justice.
There’s a clearly a debate on what’s the best way to handle these problems. Yet the league’s approach of punishing clubs and their peaceful fans, not surprisingly, doesn’t work. The violence from 2010, then in 2014, and again in 2016, continued, because it’s the same ultra-idiots who just don’t know better. The league’s approach may even be making things worse. If the ultra-idiots know that by instigating violence the opponents team will be punished. In their twisted logic this might make sense. If their team is already out of the running for silverware or an important position in the league table, but the opponent is sitting pretty and about to claim a prize, well here’s a way to knock them down. The league plays right into it.
If there’s a silver lining to this story, it’s that recent matches between the two teams have gone well. I was at the game between SCG Muangthong United vs Port FC, played at the PAT stadium in June of 2018. The Kirin won that game 3-2, but it was a tight contest and some quality football was on display. Despite Muangthong winning at the PAT stadium, Port and Kirin fans were respectful of each other and there were no problems.
In 2019 the league continued to punish clubs for the behaviour of their fans when the club has conformed to all the league’s requirements, and even gone above and beyond. This came to light in the mooning incident of February 24th. It was the season opening fixture at the SCG Stadium, and the score was 0-0, with both teams pressing for goal. A penalty shot was called against the Kirin about the midpoint of the first half. Muangthong’s new keeper, Vietnam’s national team star Dang Van Lam, did his best, but Prachuap FC’s new signing, Brazilian forward Caion, scored.
After the match a photograph added a new dimension to the penalty shot. One of the ultra-idiots, in an attempt to distract Caion, lowered his pants and mooned the penalty spot. Most fans just laughed this off, but the league did not agree. Once again, the club was forced to pay a fine. SCG Muangthong United, however, pressured the league to consider they’d done everything possible to try and prevent the ultra-idiots from rising. A compromise was reached. If the club could identify the perpetrator, then a reduced fine would be imposed. As well, the perpetrator would face prosecution himself, and a ban on attending games.
It remains to be seen if the league will continue this approach and punish the ultra-idiots as well as clubs. They’d be wise to follow the example the English FA following an incident at Birmingham City in March of 2019. An ultra-idiot was able to get onto the pitch and swing a punch at Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish. Instead of throwing fines and point reductions at the clubs, the perpetrator has been arrested and banned for life from stadiums. “We deplore the behavior of the individual who committed this act and rest assured he will be banned from St. Andrew’s for life,” the club said. “The club will also support any further punishment this individual may face in the eyes of the law.” This respects the thousands of peaceful fun loving fans at the match, while at the same time dealing with the one who was not.
Ultra-idiots are everywhere, it seems, but they don’t have to ruin the game for the thousands who understand that it’s just a game.
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