Here's issue number 9 of our popular 'Five Asides' feature. Take five Thai football fans, share five contentious opinions with them and let them all have their say. Nice and simple. Our panel today is Rick (Muang Thong Utd), Richard (Chiang Mai FC), Tommie (Port), Obb (BG Pathum Utd), and Ben (Lamphun Warriors).
1. If the Thai league ceased to exist, none of us would really miss it.
Richard: Unfortunately how I feel about the situation at Chiang Mai with being a Bangkok Glass feeder club, knowing we will never be supported financially, I wouldn’t miss it, If/when that situation changes then I would as I would be a 25-39 game a season man again.
Tommie: It's something to do. That's really about it right now. One thing that seems kind of constant during my two decades plus tenure in thailand, if you enjoy something, you can count on it changing and many of the times not for the better. I must say I enjoyed the league more 10 years ago than I do today for countless reasons.
Obb: I’d be out of a job with the league ceased to exist. So no, I would miss it.
Ben: To be honest I probably wouldn't miss the actual football that much but I would definitely miss the day out and seeing the friends I've made over the years. Even though you need binoculars sometimes I enjoy seeing live football a lot more than sitting in the house or a bar watching it.
2. Thai league games on TV would be greatly enhanced by including an English commentary option.
Richard: This would be a very positive step and would certainly get more foreigners watching games on TV.
Tommie: Absolutely would like to see English commentary. I remember they tried this a couple of times and I quite enjoyed it.
Obb: YES! With the massive SEA slot, it makes perfect sense to provide English commentary and stream it on Youtube outside of Thailand.
Ben: As long as it was a woman only English commentary because there is nothing better than listening to someone who hasn't actually played the same game they are watching.
3. Partnership agreements between Thai clubs and Japanese clubs are of no real benefit to either party.
Richard: I can't see this being a productive partnership, its very one sided in favour of Thai clubs anyway if it does happen, as I cant see many Japanese supporters walking round in a Thai club shirt.
Tommie: I really haven't seen a whole lot of benefit. If it meant player exchange as an ongoing part of it, it might be good.
Obb: 8/10 of these deals are a waste of time and effort.
Ben: If it meant clubs selling Japanese beer on draft outside the stadiums rather than monopolized Thai slop, then I'd be all for more partnerships.
4. A two season ban on foreign players would greatly improve the standard of local talent and benefit the national team.
Rick: The league would probably die without foreign players and Thai players might get complacent to fight for a starting place. Having foreigners in the league would help Thai players improve their footballing skills. We only need 23 players in the National team so there is more than enough Thai players to choose from who plays regularly.
Richard: I disagree with that, players from around the world, eat, train, work differently and the good from all the variety can only improve the local league, look how the EPL benefitted from Arsene Wenger and his dietary regime etc,
Tommie: Totally disagree. I think every team should be able to have five foreigners of any origin on the pitch at one time. The only way for the local ads to improve is if they have to compete for their positions and playing time with players that are better than they are.
Obb: Expect to see rapid development in strikers and center-backs selection.
Ben: How else would teams cook the books, though ? For sure, it would give more playing time to Thai nationals, but the standards would probably drop off due to less quality competition. Good players will always rise to the top no matter what.
5. Most Thai clubs lack ambition and are happy just to plod along rather than put the effort in to improve in all aspects.
Rick: I think it all comes down to the financial power of each club. I would say most club aspire to be like Buriram United but they lack the money and technical know how. Some clubs in T2 or T3 invested good money and got promoted, that's ambition to me. Would be good if we can get a honest interview with a club owner on how difficult it is to run a club without much money in the league.
Richard: Agree on this, they seem to think its just Thai football. Why bother? With a few notable exceptions that would like to possibly go further in the Asian Champions League.
Tommie: That certainly seems to be the case. Buriram certainly presented the model for success in this league and other clubs spend money but refuse to incorporate the other aspects that make them successful.
Obb: Truth hurts. And amongst those with ambitions, almost all of them don’t have the football knowledge, vision, and most importantly patience to stick to a good plan.
Ben: I think it comes down to finances in the end. It's only the top teams that play in the shiny new plastic seated stadiums. The rest play in crumbling municipal government sports stadiums. The lack of funding for sports in general is poor here. Maybe some money from the national lottery could be used for sports.
Please note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of each individual and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the blog. Thank you.
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