My interview with Thai football writer/blogger, Paul Murphy, from August, 2018.
My name’s Paul Murphy, I’m 45 years old and come from Glasgow. At the moment, I am part teacher and part football writer.
Q - Please can you tell us a bit about your journalistic background, and how you got into journaism, before coming to Thailand.
I first lived in Thailand from 2000-2005 and it was during this period that I had my first article published. It related to the ‘social order’ campaign and nightlife zoning in Bangkok and was published in the Big Issue.
When I returned to Scotland, I needed something to supplement what was initially an irregular teaching income. On the advice of some friends in the business, I got into sub-editing sports pages after taking a couple of short courses. The daily newspapers used to require a lot of casual staff and if you were good enough, they would invite you back.
At this time, there were more redundancies than jobs in journalism, so it was never going to be a stable full-time position so I kept it as a sideline while progressing my academic career.
I combined sub-editing with working in education for several years, sometimes doing double shifts, mostly in the Express and the Metro.
Q - What first got you interested in Thai football?
I have lived and worked in several countries and take an interest in football wherever I go. My first experience of watching football in Thailand was the 2000 AFF (Tiger) Cup. I went to several games, including the final of that tournament.
During my first five years here, most games I went to see were with the national side as it was before the league went nationwide. However, I did go to a few league matches and AFC Champions League games, including the second leg of the final featuring BEC Tero Sasana in 2003.
When I returned to Thailand in 2013, things had completely changed in the domestic game and this was very exciting for me
Q - What do you enjoy most about Thai football?
I think the social culture among the fans is great. Supporters congregate outside grounds several hours before a game for food and drinks and this is a great way to combine sport with social life.
I also like that relative lack of ego among players as they are generally very approachable to fans and very good with their time. This plays a key - and possibly underestimated - role in building fan loyalty.
Q - And why do you enjoy writing about it?
To be honest, I like writing about any kind of football, so it is difficult to specify what I like about Thai football in particular.
Q - Why did you decide to start writing about it?
My old friend Matt Riley was producing content for the Thai League Football website when I came back to Thailand and I got in touch with him and offered to help out.
I mainly wrote match reports for Army United games as they were my local team and were going well in the top tier at the time. I also did a few interviews, including one with Mano Polking, who I have go to know well since then.
It started off as a hobby and going to the games was also a very social experience. I sat with friends and scribbled notes before writing up the report at home.
Q - In which other publications and websites have you written about Thai football?
In addition to Thai League Football, the list is quite long.
I wrote for ESPN FC’s Southeast Asia blog for three years until the page closed at the beginning of this year. I have also written about Thai football for AFC.com, Hat-trick Magazine, FourFourTwo, These Football Times, Backpage Football and Thai Goals.
And, of course, I have also contributed to some discussions on this site.
Q - What is, or was, your remit when writing for these organisations?
With ESPN, the core duty was to provide reviews of each weekend of Thai League action, featuring five key points. I also covered the national side, usually through previews, news pieces, match reports and reaction pieces. In addition, I wrote many news pieces about transfer activity and any other stories that were likely to interest readers. There were also occasional interview features.
For the AFC.com, there has been more focus on AFC Champions League and the Thai national team and my main role has been to interview players and coaches to preview big games. I also write occasional match reports.
For Hattrick, I write a monthly column on an issue of my choice. Many of the ideas come from the Twitter discussions among foreign fans.
For other publications, it is more a labour of love and tends to come from my desire to write freely about a particular topic and to run it by the editor before getting to work on it. It is good to give wider exposure to Thai football on sites which encourage diverse contributions.
Q - Why do you think there is so much interest in Thai football throughout Asia now?
Within Southeast Asia, it has had the highest standard for several years now and this will always bring interest as other countries aspire to reach the same levels. We have also seen some eye-catching signings over the years, though there have been fewer in the past couple of seasons.
Beyond Southeast Asia, Thailand has begun to develop a reputation as a source of talent and, as we have seen with the success of the three high profile Thai players in the J League and Kawin Thamsatchanan in Belgium, the reputation is justified.
Another factor is that Thailand has such a good strategic position as a transport hub and a lifestyle that is suited to people from all cultures so it is more likely to get visitors than some other countries in the region
Q- You've recently started your own Thai football website - Thai Footie. Please can you tell us a bit about it and why you started it?
Time permitting, I hope to provide wider English language coverage of Thai football than is currently available. With the exception of Fox Sports, no major media organisations focus much on Thailand.
The aim is to have regular Thai League previews and reviews, along with occasional blogs and interviews.
I want to be able to tell some stories of individuals and teams in Thai football that perhaps go under the radar.
With ESPN’s Southeast Asia blog closing, I haven’t had the opportunity to provide regular coverage on a media platform so I thought it was important to keep it up. I have built a decent following on Twitter and hope that they can form some of my core readership.
I also wanted to have the freedom to write some less commercial content that a media organisation would be unlikely to publish due to concern over the potential readership.
Q - What plans do you have for the future of your site?
I don’t have any long-term goals at the moment. I will try and develop the site in the off-season and provide content as regularly as possible. The future will be dictated by the time I can commit to it and the interest it generates.
Q - What advice would you give the people who run the game in this country to help improve
(a) the league?
b) the national teams?
I could offer a lot of suggestions here but I will focus on the two things that I think are most damaging.
(a) The scheduling is farcical. I really don’t understand how we have the same problems every year and it is impossible to create a schedule for league and cups in a timely manner and without breaks for U23 tournaments. So, better scheduling is the priority for the sake of fans and the integrity of the competitions.
The quality of the pitches is also a major issue. We still see too many teams training on the surface they play on and games are often played on horrible pitches, which inevitably affects the quality of play. There must be more focus given to ensuring clubs are working harder to keep their playing surfaces in better condition.
(b) The senior national team was on an upward trajectory for a few years under Zico but ultimately their weaknesses in defence cost him his job. Milovan Rajevac seems to have helped tighten things up but at the expense of some of their attacking strength.
I think they have to build the team around Chanathip and Theerathon as they will remain key players for the next few years. They also really need to encourage more bravery in front of goal as too many players are shot-shy.
The U23 side’s recent performances suggest the players are not good enough and that they have been poorly coached. There is no way a team full of Thai League regulars should fail to beat Bangladesh. It looked like the players were told to stick rigidly to certain positions and not to take any risks. This was counter intuitive to a lot of the players and resulted in very poor performances. Zico showed how to get the best out of the U23 players by forging a bond with them and trusting their attacking instincts. This is what they gave to get back to.
Q - How would you attract more fans to Thai league matches?
It’s tricky because there are so many push factors that cannot be easily resolved. The frequent rainstorms and locations of some stadia aren’t going to change so we have to look at other factors.
The Thai League have worked hard to advertise the league and you can see it all over public transport in Bangkok, including the BTS. However, there remains a lack of awareness among fans, both local and foreign.
I would encourage the Thai League to tap into patriotism and mount a campaign which encourages people to shun the foreign leagues and get behind their own country’s football.
For foreign fans, the Thai League is making slow progress but still needs to do much more to ensure there is more English language information available to enable people to have access to all the information they need to get to games, ticket prices, etc.
While sites such as this one do excellent work, the first point of contact for foreign fans will generally be the Thai League website and they are way behind, for example, the J League. There seems to be a lack of appreciation of how powerful a good website can be.
Q - What would you say to any foreigners who currently have no interest in the local game to get them to attend?
Going to a Thai League match is a much more enjoyable social activity than sitting in a pub. There really is no better way to spend an evening in Thailand.
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