South East Asian football often gets a poor press highlighting corruption, organisational incompetence and parochial players of limited ability in everything but the art of diving. So I went to my first Thai Premier League game with the lowest of expectations. I support an English Premier League team but, after 9 years here in Thailand I have always yearned for the match day routine. Meet friends, enjoy a beer or two before the walk to the ground and mill around whilst the stadium fills, feeling the atmosphere build. This week, finally and fantastically, I have rediscovered it. I went to watch my local team, MuangThong United, expecting to see a dozen or less fans watching third rate football. I was delightfully wrong.
The ground, whilst only having one stand, has an immaculate pitch and two other stands being built. The current stand was packed with 5000 supporters led by a large group of “Ultras.” The Ultras in European football have associations with far right, violent thugs who use football as a political platform and recruiting ground.
The leader of the MuangThong Ultras could not have been more welcoming. He proudly showed off his fellow fans, then spent the rest of the afternoon worrying whether we were enjoying ourselves enough. This is where the experience became surreal . My childhood on terraces rife with filthy language and hate was washed away.
Being brought up on rabid referee baiting fans, the start of the game felt strange. The atmosphere was excellent, but a near miss and a player felled in the first few seconds seemed to pass off unnoticed as the fans got themselves organised for a sing song. Later, when the game got heated, the 3 Ultras charged with choreographing the constant singing warned people via a loudhailer to please watch their language. Beautiful.
At the end of the game the opposition fans tried to walk through the home crowd area. This was a flashpoint I had seen so many times as a child and usually ended up in grief. But this is Thailand. A formidable old woman forced the guards to open the gates . As they started filtering through the leaders of the Ultras rushed forward to meet their enemy and led the home crown in applauding, yes applauding, them as they walked by.
This after a game where one red and umpteen yellow cards had been brandished : more than enough excuse for aggravation. My two young sons, bless them, saw this as perfectly normal, but it gave me chills. Even reading this back now does the same.
As much as I love Aston Villa, a club my family has supported for generations, there must always be a place for supporting the team where you live.
Despite all of Thailand’s suicidal tendencies politically, if the passion, respect, and pride in your team is replicated and developed, there is hope for us all yet. Slowly, surely, building a nation to be proud of can start from the football field and maybe, hopefully, one day it can be transferred to the political arena. I left the match yet again puzzled and proud in equal measure at this glorious nation and its ability to confound everyone, including itself.
เครดิต: เว็บเมืองทองยูไนเต็ด[mtutd.tv]
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