My exclusive interview with former Thai football blogger, Malcolm Imray.
Please can you introduce yourself
My name is Malcolm Imray. I lived in Bangkok between 2002 and 2015 and I am the former writer of the Bangkok Football Blog.
How are you and what are you up to these days?
Nowadays I’m living and working in São Paulo, Brazil. I’ve been here since 2017. Similar to everywhere else, many things have changed due to the global pandemic, and I’m basically adapting to the Covid-19 dictated life that we all have to abide to these days.
How and when did you first get into Thai football?
Actually, the first Thai league game that I ever saw was at the Thephasadin in 2002. I’ve no idea which two teams were playing but the standard of football was dire and you could hear a pin drop in the stadium. The match was so bad that my mate and I left at half-time in order to hit the pub.
Between 2002 and 2009, I watched the national team a few times at Rajamangala. I remember watching a friendly against Newcastle United in 2004 and I attended a few games at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.
However, by 2009 the Thai game had evolved and my reintroduction to the Thai game was Muang Thong United versus Samut Songkhram. At that time, I had a friend who was living in Muang Thong and we decided we should check out a match. I was pleasantly surprised to see an almost full stadium with the home fans kitted out in red while there was a small pocket of Samut Songkhram fans coloured in light blue. The atmosphere was cheerful while the football on offer was better than I expected. As an avid football, I was hooked and wanted to learn more about the TPL.
When and why did you start your blog?
Once I got into Thai football, I wanted to find out more information about it. By chance after an online search, I stumbled up a Thai football forum which had a dozen or so expat contributors. Most of them had blogs and websites and I enjoyed reading about their football experiences. This was something I thought could do and I created a blog to share my own observations of Thai football.
Yours was one of the first English language blogs to cover Thai football in general rather than one specific team. Why was this?
I decided early on that I never wanted to stick to one team in Thailand. Partly because I was tired of the hurt and disappointment that football causes you when you are invested in a team and also because I’m somewhat of a ground-hopper. I love to visit new stadiums and watching Thai football enabled me to travel to many provinces/cities in the kingdom that I’d have never ventured to had it not been for football.
How long did it run for and why did you stop?
I started the blog in 2010 and continued until I left Thailand 2015. For the first couple of years, I was really into it but my enthusiasm gradually petered out from 2013 onwards.
What did you enjoy most about curating your blog?
I enjoyed the fact that I could remain anonymous while writing the blog. I’ve never been one to hunt the spotlight so writing the blog enabled me to remain in the background. Also, while writing match reports, I enjoyed meeting up with friends who supported, Thai Port, Army United and Chonburi when I attended their games. On the other hand, I was content enough sitting alone with a beer at somewhere like Air Force or the TOT Stadium whilst taking in a match.
Was there anything you didn't enjoy?
Like most people who write about football online, the repetition of writing the same stuff becomes boring. Sometimes I felt that I was constantly covering the same issues. Likewise, match reports and reviews need to be written in a timely manner otherwise they become quickly outdated and irrelevant. A few times I posted match reports after consuming several bottles of Leo at a match. Waking up sober the next morning and checking out the mistakes that I had made whilst typing the previous evening could be a little bit mortifying.
Away from your own blog, what other work did you do covering Thai football?
I wrote match reports and previews/reviews for the Thai League Football website. Back then TLF was the biggest and best site in English for all things Thai football. It was run by an Australian bloke called Nigel. Other contributors were Kevin who extensively translated headlines of Thai news articles on the site’s Twitter account while Matt interviewed many of the big names in Thai football at the time and he also helped out with match reports and other various things.
There were also Lilian and Joseph who took pitch side photos for us. Unfortunately, the website never really got the big break it deserved as Facebook and Instagram became the preferred medium for Thai football coverage. For some reason, Thai football fans preferred to pore over 140 similar photos of their favourite team eating their pre match meal or random pictures of the club big wigs doing irrelevant stuff.
In addition to TLF, I wrote several articles for the Chonburi FC website run by Dale and I penned a few match previews for Lewis and Deano on the Army United site.
What advice would you give to someone who writes a Thai football blog or website?
For new writers, the most important thing is to be patient. It takes time to build an audience so don`t expect overnight success. Another important thing is not to rely on people when they give you their word or make promises. Often these promises are broken or they never materialise. And finally, write what you enjoy. Don’t be pressured into doing things that you don’t want to do.
Which matches stand out from your time in Thailand?
The two games that stick out in my mind are the Thai League Cup final in 2010 between Thai Port versus Buriram, and Army United against Muang Thong United in 2011. I was still relatively new to Thai football at this time so that’s probably why these games were memorable for me. I remember that Buriram were strong favourites to win the League Cup Final 2010. However, Thai Port upset the odds by winning 2-1. The thing that really caught my attention was contrast of each set of fans. The Buriram fans were orderly and their choregraphed singing and dancing was led by the club owner’s wife (Karuna) who was barking out instructions on her megaphone while perched in front of them on a platform. I always remember looking over to the Buriram fans when Port scored and they never flinched while their song and dance routine continued unabated. Meanwhile, the Port fans were spontaneous in their support and there was a real emotional passion from the Khlong Toey faithful.
At the end of the 2010 season, the Royal Thai Army had been relegated but were given a reprieve when they won a hastily arranged playoff due to the expansion on the TPL. The club then rebranded into the swanky new Army United. Four new Brazilians had been added to their squad and in their first game of the season the surprisingly swept aside the recently crowned champions Muang Thong United 3-0. I remember the Brazilian striker Leandro dos Santos was unplayable on his debut but sadly for him this match was probably the high point of his time in Thailand as he eventually ended up as a dejected looking left wing back at Bangkok Glass. This game was also noteworthy as there were 15,000 fans inside the stadium and it was in stark contrast from the previous season when Army were followed by a couple of hundred diehards.
Do you still follow Thai football?
I check out the scores and the league tables from time to time, but that’s about it. I have very little interest in the off-field stuff though. I still have my Twitter account but I tend to skim through the Tweets related to Thai football. It`s a shame really because there appear to be a host of knowledgeable football writers these days covering the Thai game. As I’m living in Brazil now, my focus has naturally switched towards the football scene here. The Brazilians are far more passionate about their domestic game so I can have some good craic with them. In general, Thai football fans know more about the big European clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool and Barcelona than they do about their own local game.
How does it differ from the time when you were most involved?
It appears to me that the same old mistakes keep getting made and the rulers of the game are still subject to making decisions based on knee jerk reactions. In addition, I can imagine VAR must be a nightmare in the TPL. I can just picture swarms of players harassing the ref and linesmen to check VAR every two minutes. Handballs and fouls are still subjective for the match officials so the feelings of corrupt injustice and chants of “keegong” (if fans are inside the stadiums) must be rife every time a team suffers an unfavourable verdict. I don’t know if there are still pitch walk offs in Thailand these days but a decade or so ago, they happened fairly regularly.
What do you miss the most?
I probably miss the social scene more than anything else. It was nice to meet up with friends who supported different Thai clubs. I enjoyed going to the stadium, having a few beers and mingling with the supporters. All in all, it was a cheap day out and more fun than wandering around a shopping mall or sitting in a Thai bar listening to a band playing excruciatingly loud music.
Finally, is there anything you don't miss?
I definitely don’t miss the hi-so club owners having their nauseating photographs plastered online, in written publications and gigantic billboards around the stadiums. They made out they were doing the local community a huge favour but in reality, they were running these clubs purely to boost their own public well-being. Also, the Laurel and Hardy type of incompetence by those ruling the Thai game is something that isn’t missed by me. I remember games being postponed at short notice due to a rock concert or something similar being held at the club`s stadium. These events had been planned months in advance so why wait and postpone the game 48 hours before it was going to kick off.
No comments:
Post a Comment