Our Final Indecision by Matt Riley: 2014

Matt Riley's article on the Thai FA's Seemingly random sanctions, fines and appeal process, from October, 2014

Our Final Indecision

by Matt Riley

24th October, 2014

One of the few guarantees in Thai football is a headline-grabbing Thai FA edict that turns out to be as decisive as Mario Balotelli in an opposition penalty box. When reviewing the seemingly-swingeing sanction handed down after the shocking violence at the SCG Stadium last Saturday, a comment made to me last year by Muang Thong's GM Ronnarit Suewaja when discussing his club's relationship with the FAT leaps up and bites hard : "we are the FA." 

Both teams were fined three hundred thousand Baht ($10,000) and docked nine points. This essentially stops SCG Muang Thong from playing in the AFC for the first time in four years but, more decisively, all-but-relegates a previously comfortable mid table Singhtarua. To add to the intrigue, murderer (yes, you read that right: he was caught planting the bomb that killed his boss in 2009) and Siam Sport lapdog Thanom Borikut officiated Singhtarua's next game and, just like last year when his embarrassing penalty award sent then-known-as Thai Port down, he gave another laughable decision with the game scoreless to give away team BEC Tero the upper hand.

The other ingredient to add to the mix is the conduct of Police United. To the outside world, they seemed doomed to relegation for the last month, but they blithely carried on spending money like it was already out of fashion with their future secured. Extending the contract of "Coach Tak" Attaphol Buspakom and signing the highly-talented Japanese midfielder Sho Shimoji on exactly double his current club, AFC-bound BEC Tero, offered is not Titanic behaviour. Whilst hard to believe that anyone connected to the Thai police force could be involved in dodgy dealings, there are some starting to revise their opinion now that Singhtarua have suddenly been placed below them. 

So how will the appeal process horse trading unfold? The fines will hurt Singhtarua far more than money bags Muang Thong, so they are likely to stay solid. With the points deductions, the most likely scenario is a delayed appeal process to assess how many points Muang Thong need to scrape into the AFC or send Singtharua down: miraculously a figure could be arrived at to make both events happen. if Muang Thong are too far from qualifying, they will jettison the attempt and focus all their energies on getting Singhtarua out of their league. As an outsider, it seems strange why so much energy is being expended on destroying a mid table team and reflects the way Buriram United and SCG Muang Thong United have focussed all their machinating energies on hamstringing each other and allowed Chonburi to march past unnoticed.

Of course, this could be the iron-clad and final decision of a newly-determined FAT to shed the shackles of their paymasters at Siam Sport. For those betting on that, please also put your life savings on Aston Villa to win the English Premier League and I'll see you at the collection window.