Fresh challenges for Thai football

The relatively smooth road of Thai football showed bumps and cracks last week. Two giant Thai Premier League teams joined hands to lodge a complaint against the leader of the referees’ association, accusing him of bias in favour of another big club. Suddenly a spotlight was illuminating several weak points in the way the country’s favourite sport is managed, not least detrimental nepotism and unhealthy politics. 

There is also the ugly allegation that some of the Thai game’s highest authorities are involved in a scandal rocking world football’s governing body.

Buriram United and Chonburi football clubs claimed that the head of the referees’ association acted suspiciously in at least 10 recent incidents, many of them involving another big club, Muangthong United. In short, refereeing decisions against Muangthong were punished, in some cases heavily. 

The complaining clubs and Muangthong are basically Thailand’s biggest teams in terms of performance, fan base and financial strength. The three have played a big part in the Thai league’s surge in popularity. Struggling for recognition just a few years ago, the league is now offering high-standard matches, drawing ever-growing commercial interests, more supporters and bigger television audiences. Foreign players are flooding the clubs, and gambling is booming, though it’s relatively low-profile.

Problems in the league have revolved around unruly fans and suspect referee calls. Fans getting overheated in their passion for the game are one thing, but there have been referees’ decisions that were plainly wrong. When stadium crowds were sparse and TV broadcasts rare, fan-referee clashes could be easily contained. Now that Thai Premier League commands widespread attention, the problem can no longer be brushed aside, and it has to be tackled in a serious, fair and transparent manner.

Fixing the outcome of sporting events is not uncommon in Thailand, where corruption pervades virtually all sectors of society. In some cases, the players were guilty. Referees were believed to play roles in other irregularities. But scandalous results can easily get out of control if not reined in immediately.

It’s easy to see how the problem could undo all the hard work that has brought Thai football to the threshold of international success. Corruption can sap the motivation of great players and it can lure them over to the dark side. Proper management and talent development could give way to a routine of sweeping scandals under the carpet and all that hard-won popularity could be lost.

Plenty of youngsters are attending Premier League matches, wearing their team jerseys, painting their faces in their team colours and cheering as passionately as the adults. This is one outcome of Thai football attaining high standards, offering genuine excitement week in and week out. Unfortunately, the circumstances now under scrutiny indicate that evil has been bred along with popularity, and those kids are witnesses.

So the current complaint is a major cause for concern. Even if its basis turns out to be largely unfounded, it’s the smoke that warns of a fire, a signal that something is indeed wrong within what is fast becoming the most popular sport industry of the Kingdom. Whether it comes down to unhealthy rivalry or wayward referees or both, it’s a problem that cannot be left unaddressed. 

To ignore the problem or brush it aside might chase those trusting kids from the stadiums and TV sets. And when children lose their enthusiasm, it’s because the object of their enthusiasm is dying.