The Road To Buriram by Andy Potten: 2010

PEA v CHONBURI: COUNTDOWN TO KICK OFF

21st June, 2010 

PEA's controversial move to Buriram means that for many Chonburi fans it will be a journey into the unknown on Saturday.The long trip has already caused a great deal of excitement and the Sharks are likely to have a large following at the i-mobile Stadium. We'll be travelling by car, coach, mini-bus, motorbike and train, but what can we expect when we get there? Bangkok Glass fan, Andy Potten, recently made the trip to watch the Glass Rabbit. Here are his thoughts and memories of the adventure.

THE ROAD TO BURIRAM 

by Andy Potten 

Having promised myself I would attend every Bangkok Glass FC game this season whenever possible, I knew that however inconvenient the away trip to Buriram proved to be, I was determined to go. The match was a 5pm on Sunday so Bangkok Glass presented the fans with 2 options of going to the match.

1) 8 hours there on Sunday, watch the match and 8 hours back 

or 

2) Go there on Saturday, stay the night, take in a few sights and 8 hours back after the match. 

Given our recent poor form, I didn't fancy 14 hours of travel only interrupted by a probable loss. So the overnighter it was then, I arranged cover for my job on Saturday and off I went. 

I had no idea what to expect from the trip on so many levels. From a footballing point of view, I had heard and seen on TV so many things about Buriram PEA FC, not much of which was good. From a personal point of view, it was going to be my first time in Issan and also my debut as our mascot, BG Man. 

The trip itself was very interesting with stops at Wat Toh Phommorangsi and Phanom Rung as well as others. It was a great bonding weekend for us fans also, as we haven't had much to cheer about this season. 

My first impressions of the area were positive, very green, relatively clean and the people seemed friendly enough. The closer we got to Buriram town the stranger things seemed to get. Everyone appeared to be in orange shirts. Ok, so Buriram FC had a home game against Chaiyaphum on the Saturday. I was wondering just how well supported are they. We arrived in the town, spent the evening walking around. Everyone was pleasant, in good spirits and still in orange. I really liked the place, it had a nice feel to it. 

Sunday we left the hotel and everyone was now in dark blue. Yep, sure enough, the same people wearing orange Buriram FC shirts on Saturday were now wearing Buriram PEA shirts. Ok, so people are proud of their town I thought. We headed out on a trip to Phanom Rung. Everyone we encountered within a 50 km radius was wearing dark navy blue. Didn't matter, old, young, male, female, ladyboy, soi dog... they were all wearing the shirt. Surely not everyone could afford to buy one? Later I found out it's only 250 baht, but still. I just kept wondering how or why was everyone wearing the shirt, it seemed like they were being forced or brainwashed into wearing it. 

We arrived at the stadium with about 2 hours to spare. Again, this was a surreal experience watching Buriram PEA ans being shipped into the ground on every type of transport known to man. My initial thought was that it looked like a mass evacuation and everyone was taking safe haven in the stadium grounds. Never has the whole organised chaos that Thailand seems to run on been so apt as I witnessed here.

Parking, forget it, imaging the tents in a muddy field at Glastonbury, replace them with vehicles and you have some idea. The 'car park' was a real free for all. 

Next impressions were of the actual stadium itself. Looked ok from the outside, although I didn't see any sort of food/drink, merchandise stalls. That's not to say there wasn't any, but everything was so hectic, it was kind of hard to take anything in. Inside... nothing like it looks on TV. A real disappointment. It was one of the things I was looking forward to, but I was left very unimpressed. We were not allowed to take anything into the stadium. That included water in a bag, which is ridiculous in this heat. The away section was miles away from the pitch also. A real vicious storm whipped up during the game and blew all the dust up which got into peoples eyes and throats, with no water, it was a real problem. 

The stadium was packed with 16,000+ even with the bad weather. I must admit despite the whole dictatored nature of the Buriram PEA's fans songs and movements, it was still an impressive sight to behold. Again, like the shirts, it left me wondering how do you control that many people? The atmosphere was ok, but a lot of it was lost due to the nature of the stadium. 

One other pleasant surprise was how many Buriram locals turned out to support Bangkok Glass. We sometimes have a handful of locals who follow us from the various clubs we visit away, but this was about 200. It was nice to see some new faces, and it was the first time it hit home that we have genuine fans all around the country and even further afield. 

Bangkok Glass lost the game miserably and on the conclusion we spent nearly 90 mins trying to get out of the "car park". We headed into the town in search of some food. We found most of the Buriram PEA support around the Night Market. It turns out, that if they buy a football ticket (40 baht max) they get free transport and a free food voucher to the value of 50 baht. Good business or immorally buying fans?? Personally, I give the club the benefit of doubt. They will make themselves extremely unpopular with other clubs, but I'm sure they don't care. Are they doing anything wrong? On the surface, no they're not. The problem will lie if it all backfires, but that is an "if". 

I had an amazing time with friends and saw a beautiful part of Thailand. The people of Buriram were warm, friendly and fun. But something really really doesn"t sit well at all about the whole set up there. 

In all, I probably left Buriram with more questions than I started with.