Bangkok Glass by Andy Potten: 2009

Bangkok Glass

by Andy Potten

My first taste of live Thai football came with the Xmas games of the Suzuki Cup, the Semi vs Indonesia and the final vs Vietnam. I was impressed by the atmosphere and even the quality of play was better than I expected. Also being an Everton fan, I was eager to see how Peter Reid was coping with the job. These couple of games got me interested and I started looking into Thai club football. I had just started living in Pathum Thani and at this time there wasn’t a particualy local team (as I was unaware of the pending arrival of Bangkok Glass FC). 

This was as far as it went for a while, as the TPL season was a few months off and without a logical team to follow, I kind of forgot about Thai football. That was until the English season drew to a close in May and I decided to investigate again. I then discovered Bangkok Glass FC had brought out Krung Thai bank FC and were a new TPL team. True, it was not the real way to get into the TPL and I know it created a bit of ill feeling towards us from other clubs' fans, but I had a club right on my doorstep and that’s all that mattered to me. My first match was Navy Rayong at home and the rest is history.

What I have been impressed with most is that I have been embraced by the club and our fans. I have also had very warm, good humoured and kind receptions from other TPL teams’ fans. It’s a community spirit that is hard to get back in England, even within smaller lower division clubs. 

Yes, of course there are countless problems that need addressing in the TPL, but there are problems that need addressing at every level of football through every country. It gives us fans things to moan about and create debates and after all, isn’t that why we all love football, because it gives us so many talking points.  

I have had some of my best moments in Thailand whilst at matches. We recently lost 2-0 away to Osotspa, but you would never have guessed it, it looked and felt like we had won the league. You couldn’t pay money for the experience I had that day. As I am sure you will read elsewhere the TPL is progressing at an alarming rate, in my short time, I have seen our attendances triple, whether such rapid progress is a good thing or bad remains open to debate, but I for one am loving every minute of it.