One of my favourite pastimes is watching sports (not on TV, but rather live). The first football match that I saw live in Thailand was in 2008, when Thailand lost 0-1 (if I remember well) to Japan during the World Cup 2010 Qualifiers. At that time, I was impressed by the Japanese supporters, who came to watch the match at Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok in great numbers. Actually, there were more Japanese in their assigned cheering corner than Thais!
This year, on August 1, I went to the same stadium to watch Thai Premier League All-Stars play against Atletico Madrid. It was a friendly match and I suppose a Spanish team was chosen due to their country’s recent success at the World Cup in South Africa. The official sponsor of the event was PTT – the largest energy and gas Thai company, while Yamaha and Chang Beer were among the few other sponsors that made the match possible.
The Atletico Madrid team, the reigning Europa League champions and the third most successful Spanish football club, arrived in Thailand five days before the match. They were not greeted at the airport by a crowd as big as the one that welcomed Read Madrid or Manchester United to Thailand, but we have to keep in mind that their plane landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport on a weekday, at 5 o’clock in the morning.
Tickets cost 110, 210 and 510 baht, depending on the location of the seat in the stadium: behind the goals, in the uncovered terraced seating area, and in the roofed area. If I had bought my ticket in advance, I would have paid 10 baht less, but still, the cost of tickets was more than affordable for everyone. The grounds of the Hua Mark Sports Center that surround the stadium were full of vendors selling head bands with the Thai national colours, T-shirts, caps and other paraphernalia people are more likely to buy before a big sporting event.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that, once the referee had blown his whistle and the match had started, half of the seats were full with football aficionados. The Thai players were dressed in blue T-shirts and white shorts, while the Spaniard sported red and white striped T-shirts and blue shorts. From minute one, Atletico Madrid dominated the game and, by the end of the second half, All-Stars Thailand had succeeded only a few kicks on target. Atletico scored early in the game and finished with three goals in their advantage, while the Thais were not even able to score one goal. Eduardo Salvio, Alvaro Dominguez and Siamo Sabrosa were the three Atletico footballers who secured the Spaniards’ success by scoring one goal each.
The Thai team was coached by Piyapong Pue-on, the former Thailand striker, but they hadn’t had the time to train together for long enough to secure a smooth, co-operative game. Actually, the Thais were quite erratic in their tactic, and the frequent substitutions were another reason for the team’s lack of cohesion on the pitch.
The Thai Prime Minister was supposed to join the officials in the VIP area, but, in the end, he didn’t show up. I didn’t find the PM’s absence unusual, but I was shocked by the fact that, ten minutes before the end of the second half, many of the Thais who had paid to watch the game started to walk out. I mean, weren’t they interested in watching the end of the game. Maybe the Thai footballers scored in the last minute! Another foreigner, who also found this behaviour strange, said that it had to do with ‘loss of face’ at not winning the game. I find it hard to believe and would rather favour the idea that they left early in order to avoid the crowded exists.
Watch Atletico’s first goal:
