The Tap Room: January, 2021
The Tap Room was a popular feature on my old website, which now gets an occasional run out on here. Over the course of a week, I invite various fans to share their views on a topic that is in the news, until we have built up a lively debate. Here is our latest discussion:
What are you views on the latest Thai league postponements and the management's handling of the situation?
Name: Phil Williams
Team supported: Samut Prakan City
Twitter: @Ajarncom
I was so looking forward to January. Six games in 21 days including a trip to Rayong FC (a stadium I’ve not been to) and a midweek FA Cup tie away at Muangthong United. Now it’s a case of keeping fingers crossed and hoping I’ll get to see the games at some stage in the future.
As the covid situation worsened here over Christmas and the New Year, the Thai FA seemed to be going in the direction of playing games behind closed doors and we already had a taste of that with last week’s fixtures. Before today’s FA meeting, I was all in favour of closed door games because Samut Prakan are in sparkling form at the moment and it would be a shame to lose the momentum.
It’s also fair to say I’ve got used to watching Premier League games in empty stadiums, but whereas, let's say, Leeds at home to Manchester United loses virtually all of its appeal with no fans allowed in, the same can’t be said of Bangkok United at home to Trat or Suphanburi against Prachuab. There’s not that much difference in atmosphere between 4,000 fans rattling around in a great big stadium and no one there at all. Not all that much is lost. Do the players in the Thai teams feel it affects their performance to not have fans cheering and motivating them? It certainly didn’t do Samut Prakan any harm against Port last week.
Now the suits at the Thai FA have had their meeting and decided, predictably, to press the pause button on the season for January at least, and hopefully we’ll resume again in February. Frankly, when I heard the news, I wasn’t disappointed. But we’ve been here before haven’t we? How long did we have to wait last year until we got the all-clear to start playing football matches again? Six months? That was such an agonizingly long wait.
An optimist would say it won’t be a six-month break this time around but I can see the covid situation in Thailand getting worse before it gets better. I’d be overjoyed with the break being just a month long but I can’t see it. More likely two or three.
Football journalist Paul Murphy tweeted earlier today - “Thailand still can’t strike a balance between managing risk and getting on with life despite protocols being in place. Leagues all over the world carrying on but the answer here is to shut things down”
I do agree that the government here seem far too cautious, and the Thai FA are merely toeing the line, but whatever decision they made would’ve been unpopular in some quarters.
I’m trying to stay positive. I managed to survive six months without Thai football last year, I’m sure I can manage another month or two this time around.
Reply #2: 5th January, 2021
Name: Russ John
Team supported: Nakhon Ratchasima
Twitter: @russreport
I, like most other Thai football fans, share Phil’s frustration at the announcement. This decision I’m afraid was made inevitable given the recent rise in corona virus infections.
One can only hope that the ban on matches only lasts one month however the current situation bears uncanny resemblance to last year’s situation with promises of an early resumption, I suspect that the ban will continue into February, March and beyond.
Looking around the globe, one sees that other countries have managed to continue playing with innovative methods and forward planning. Talk of bubbles and games being played behind locked doors in Thailand is being banded around and is laudable, however it won't happen, as this would require some proactive preplanning from the FAT - enough said!!!
My main fears concerning the break are twofold. First the financial implications: Many clubs, who surely must be just clinging on financially, now may be at breaking point exacerbated by a potentially long break. Lack of income from gate receipts coupled with the inevitable lack of interest from sponsors must be leaving club’s coffers pretty low.
My second concern is that another break will have an adverse effect on attendances.
I have to admit that during the last break, my own personal interest and enthusiasm waned and although I have not studied relative attendance figures throughout the league, anecdotally at Korat games, which in past seasons would have attracted 11 or 12 thousand fans, now struggle to attract 4 thousand die hard supporters.
The oft used adage 'out of sight out of mind" springs to mind, the game is quietly hemorrhaging fans and I suspect that fans once lost will not return.
In conclusion, fingers crossed but the chances of a resumption in February are for me 2/10, my hopes for future successful completed season - a meagre 6/10!!
Reply #3: 6th January, 2021
Name: Grant Aitken
Team supported: Muang Thong Utd
Twitter: @GrantMTU86
I share Phil and Russ’s disappointment at the suspension of the season, and similarly, their pessimism that the season will resume again after a month’s break.
The key difference this time around was the sense of formality when restrictions were put into place by the government. The lack of support for the local game means there is little chance they would make the Thai League an exception to the rule. Once the first swimming pool and Muay Thai arenas had to shut up shop, we knew our days were numbered.
The prospect of continuing the league with players isolated within their own bubble and shepherded into some random city seems unlikely, especially with certain provinces trying to impose 14 day quarantines to cross borders.
Furthermore, I don’t think it’s fair to put that strain on the players either. The majority are not cash rich millionaires, the staff members even less so. I don’t see why they should suffer away from their families for our enjoyment.
There isn’t the budget form 87.5% of the clubs to fund such a grand operation, not right now. The FA have already cut costs at grassroots level to keep the league going, I’d dread to think what would be next.
We had a good run, enjoying a COVOIDless existence whilst the rest of the world looked on in envy. I can’t blame the government for trying to get that back. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.
I don’t expect to see Thai football back in February, but I’ll not be looking for anybody to attribute guilt towards in the meantime either. It’s out of the FA’s hands.
We’ll have to wait with bated breath for the next 2 weeks to see if cases go down but I don’t hold out much hope their either. To be quite honest the whole season is tainted. Time to put on a brave face, endure what is left of it and look forward to a time when we can put this mess behind us. I just hope all the club’s struggling for income right now can be there to see it.
Reply #4: 7th January, 2021
Name: Gian Chansrichawla
Website: www.thaileaguecentral.com
Twitter: @GianChansricha1
I largely agree with what Grant said about how a break is virtually necessary at this point. If provinces are setting up quarantines to stop the spread of the virus, players should not be exempt from it because they are not being tested frequently enough and are in nothing resembling a ‘quarantine bubble.’ I am still undecided on whether the Thai League should use this month off to try and develop that sort of system; Grant makes good points against it but it may be the only way out if the situation continues to worsen.
I also agree with Russ’ point about attendances potentially falling and club finances taking another hit from this break. However, I would like to point out that it *seems like* some clubs opted for this break instead of playing games behind closed doors. For them, I guess it was a question of lost match day income versus delayed match day income, as playing behind closed doors also represents a significant financial loss. Another thing to remember about finances is that so few clubs actually even attempt to break even; the level of spending in the Thai League is often not dependent on how much money the clubs take in, but rather the overall health of the broader economy and the willingness of club owners to spend more of their own cash.
My issue isn’t so much the fact that the league has been postponed, but more so the lack of a contingency plan and exit strategy if the situation continues to worsen. The FAT rightly pointed out that since the league was originally slated to end in March, there is plenty of time to play out the rest of the season before next campaign begins in September. However, that is little consolation as another long spell of multiple months without football would be incredibly damaging.
I have to admit that I have lost some confidence after witnessing what has happened with T3, which was called to an abrupt end and teams were quickly funnelled into the ‘champions league’ round (promotion playoffs). It is a decision that is very unfair to the teams that narrowly missed out on qualification, and effectively means that most T3 clubs won’t play competitive football until September. This is also a major hit to the young players on loan in that division from T1 clubs seeking regular first-team football - combine that with issues and stoppages in the youth league, and COVID could have a major impact on an generation of young footballers if things don’t change soon.
Right now, as has already been said, all we can do is wait and hope the situation doesn’t worsen.
Reply #5: 8th January, 2021
Name: Alec Peeples
Team supported: Chiang Rai Utd
Twitter: @abroadwithalec
My first reaction was total disappointment. After so long without Chiang Rai football I was excited for January - especially the kickoff with Port. We had matches regularly lined up, we had our new signing who looked sharp, and couldn't have been more optimistic... then the news came.
It's just complete nonsense!
This 'new wave' was always going to happen, how did they have no contingency plan in place? I understand the points made by everyone else, and agree that an immediate break of ~2 weeks was needed, but why a month? Test the players and staff and carry on. If the English Premier League can carry on with 50,000+ covid cases per day, why can't we find a way to carry on with ~500? For me, a closed-door match is far better than a postponement. I've been without Chiang Rai football for so long (due to the post-ACL quarantine) I was ready to watch them play in a hermetically sealed bubble in the mountains of Bueng Kan if necessary.
Players and staff can be held to a professional standard of self-quarantining as much as possible. This leaves travel as the only question mark. How can teams move from province to province? Private flights are out of the question, but with some creative scheduling, I believe you can have teams limit their travel and play 'clusters' of teams together. I.e. Chiang Rai travels to Bangkok and plays all the Bangkok-area squads over the course of a couple of weeks. I think Russ hit the nail on the head - there are a few seemingly easy answers and solutions that allow the league to continue but the planning required for this seems to be a big ask of the FAT.
I'll also echo Russ' sentiment of worry over the wellbeing of the clubs (and the league as a whole). With the big broadcast change just happening, plus several clubs losing sponsors during the first shutdown, I wonder what state the clubs and owners are in at the end of a transfer window with this sudden and unexpected loss. Furthermore, it is going to be tough to gauge how much interest will remain after yet another shutdown. I am sure many of the diehards will still be there. The drumbeaters and the drinkers. But what about the fairweather fans? How fast will they return after yet another extended break? Maybe there won't be much of a change in enthusiasm, but I am always one for pessimism.
I'm glad Gian mentioned the impact on youth and development. Shutting down T3 so abruptly was painful. My brother-in-law had just won over the starting keeper spot at a T3 club by taking them from the bottom of the middle to a few straight wins and steadily climbing. He, and many other young players, were gutted to have their season taken away like this. How will the T3 clubs that didn't get into the promotion spots carry on? What of the players that are expecting salaries? These clubs already existed in fairly precarious positions, and I hope the best for all of them.
Reply #6: 9th January, 2021
Name: Jamie Pinder
Team supported: Buriram Utd
Twitter: @nangronginfo
As you and I know the start and stop nature of the league is nothing new. But in this case it was something that could and should have been planned for. A long time ago when I was studying for business we did a project on crisis management and how any good company prepares for a crisis. Last year we had the start of the pandemic and we saw how the Thai football Association handled it. Then,it was inevitable that games would stop and once we re-started with no fans, a few fans, getting back to half capacity, action should have been taken to prepare in the case of a new wave coming. It’s absolutely appalling nothing nothing was done, as far as we know, and nobody thought about a possible future scenario.
I fully understand that health comes first and player a safety should be part of the plan but if other countries can do it why can’t we?
You all know where my loyalties stand and I’ve stated it a few times that a club such as ours could quite easily host a month of the season in the same way that the NBA moved to Orlando at the end of last year. We have plenty of hotels, plenty of training pictures, and two Premier league standard football pictures where games could be played out on a daily basis and we wouldn’t get behind the schedule. Players could share hotels maybe two teams per hotel and could be transferred to the pitches for practice and for games. I’m sure the hotels would love to make up for lost business from last year.
Most of us love watching on football here, we love the ups and downs of the game and we love being able to go out and meet other people and have some banter similar to being back home. It’s not my whole life but it’s a big part of my life here and I miss it very much. It’s especially bad for one or two teams who were on a roll and looking to push further up the table but we all give up something when we come to live here and in this case it’s the ability of the powers that be to have half a brain.
The best we can hope for is that it’s not a long delay and we’re back on the way as soon as possible meaning that the season finishes just a little bit late. It’s now time for the Thai FA to get their thinking hats on and start putting a marketing plan together to get fans interested again in the game once we restart and get them coming back through the turnstiles. Go full on advertising, shared by all the teams and generate some excitement for when we finally do restart.
The Final Word: 10th January, 2021
Name: Phil Williams
Team supported: Samut Prakan City
Twitter: @Ajarncom
Reading the excellent contributions from the other expat fans, one of the biggest concerns seems to be how will clubs survive financially if the break becomes too long. Frankly, I don't know how half the clubs manage to survive anyway, so I have no real opinion on this. I just keep fingers crossed that all the league clubs make it through these hard times.
On a more positive note, I'm getting more and more confident that we will see a league restart before let's say, the end of February (hopefully sooner) Although the covid numbers aren't coming down that much, they're not surging alarmingly either. I could go on about this and ask why for example, Trat is a red zone and has had just one local transmission in three days, but I won't go there.
Once we are up and running again, I echo Jamie's thoughts that we'll see even more fairweather fans drift away from the game. They are going to be very hard to coax back. Thai football's in a dark place at the moment but then what aspect of the world isn't?
Name: Benjamin Tan
Position: TPL Deputy CEO and Director of Club Licensing
Twitter: @footballbentan
Hi Dale, thanks for the invite and it’s interesting to hear different views.
I won’t be able to comment on an official stance but can share we are already working on scenario planning including those ideas that have been mentioned by your participants including the the clustering, bubbles etc.
This planning has to be worked in tandem with the government agencies, with the latest covid situation in order to resume the games. Safety is definitely our paramount priority.
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