Rip It Up and Start Again? by Matt Riley: 2014

Rip It Up and Start Again?

by Matt Riley

3rd August, 2014

Newin Chidchop's threat to take his club Buriram United out of the Thai Premier League and start his own shows you can take the man out of politics, but you can never take politics out of the man. The former banned MP is playing a clever game against arch enemy Worawi Makudi and the club he founded, bitter rivals SCG Muang Thong United. With Siam Sport's control of the league through their stacking of the Thai FA, they will deliver a return on their investment as long as their club remain successful. But Buriram United's recent dominance has badly damaged their dividend; and Newin knows it. 

His club, as the current champions and league leaders, have a strong hand. Taking them out of the TPL would materially weaken it and Siam Sport fear more who Newin might take with him. The SS don't know who will join Buriram in a splinter league, and it is this fear of the unknown that fuels their desperation  as they see their grip on the Thai football landscape continue to diminish. Clubs that have been on the wrong end of pre-Emerald Buddha decisions no longer fear the hand that feeds them. Newin can bring huge funds and profile to the table, but would it be a Brave New World, or manipulation using different hands?

 

The decision by Siam Sport to hand Buriram United's Spanish linchpin Carmelo Gonzalez an indefinite suspension for two acts of petulance that deserve a maximum of three matches makes two fundamental errors. The first is that it galvanises the rest of the team and gives them a martyr to fight even harder for. This was very clear yesterday when the four goals they scored against Suphanburi were followed by the players producing his shirt and bowing down to him while he watched from the stands. The second error showed desperation and naivety. 

If they had handed down a harsh but not outlandish sanction of five games, they could have gained a tactical advantage and Buriram may have swallowed it. This insane sanction for two yellow cards and a hissy fit when PTT's Kirati received a single game ban for a grotesque head high assault is a litmus test for where Newin goes next. He is certainly preparing the ground for a split and he is not a man for finessing or brinkmanship. He says something, he does something and that is it. He started with the delivery system of any league: the officials:

 

"Losing Carmelo to suspension isn't a problem for us. We can call upon other players in the team. But, the real problem is the quality and decisions of the referees."

 

The outside world seeing split top leagues will automatically compare Thailand to the mess in Indonesia. FIFA are, rightly, very skittish about fractured FAs. But the threat of doing it gives Newin strong leverage, especially with powerful regional TPL clubs who feel that, whilst their profile and big crowds have helped drive the league forward, they are largely ignored by the FAT. Losing them would materially weaken the claims of the Thai Premier League to represent the whole Kingdom, but Newin's cunning comments suggest he knows  this would only be a Pyrrhic victory for him. With the opening of ASEAN, Thai football would be in a weak position to develop its already strong profile in the second tier countries of South East Asia. The threat is all...

 

"It should not be long before it [the breakaway] happens. I'm always praying it would not come to that point. But, right now, there're more than half teams in the league, who felt the same as us."