South East Asia Football Progressing!

[peace]

Finally our football players are being scouted.

3 Thai players are now on trials with Man City FC.

A few players in Vietnam and Indonesia are also said to be scouted by unknow European clubs and Singapore have her player sent to Spain for training.

These are good progress made by the South East Asia teams.

Thailand is famous for it's attacking football and in my view better than some Asia heavy weight like China.

More players should play overseas.

[mrtoad]

Sorry, but I am going to have to disagree with you about the way SE Asain football is progressing.

If my memory serves me right, there has only be one real succesful export from SEA into the European leagues, and that was Fandhi Ahmed (Singapore) back in the 80's. He played with some success in the Dutch league with Gronigen.

My own feeling is that the standard of football in SEA has pretty much stood still for a number of years. Gone are the days when Thailand were dominant in SEA, now they have been overtaken by Singapore and closely caught up by Vietnam, both countries who have fledgling professional leagues, but certainly not of a great standard. Singapore in particular are the SEA champions, but if you look closely at the team, there are a significant number of African, Brazillian and British born players who have now been naturalised as Singapore aims for its Singapore 2010 masterplan.

Currently, the ranking of the SEA teams is at an all time low;

107 Thailand

117 Vietnam

127 Indonesia

132 Singapore

151 Myanmar

154 Malaysia

163 Laos

168 Philippines

170 Cambodia

171 Brunei Darussalam

They are behind Asian countries like,

73 China PR

58 South Korea

36 Japan

Coaching methods, team organisation, aministration,realistic goal planning, tactics and youth development in Thailand are far behind other more forward thinking nations in Asia, like Japan, Korea, China, Singapore and even Vietnam. The latter two may be lower in the rankings at present, but they no longer fear playing Thailand as the dominence of the 90's has long gone. In fact, I have found Thailands tactics and attitude to be pretty second rate in the games that I have watched, and they did themselves no favours with the pathetic petulance shown in that match in S'pore.

The main leagues in SEA Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia have also been tainted with match fixing, and the slide of Malaysia from a strong footballing nation into one that looks in total disarray is quite shocking.

Several teams in SEA from Thailand and Indonesia were prevented from entering the last Asian club championship becasu8e of incompetent administration

I'd agree that there are several good players technically in SEA, but the type of game in Europe is very, very different. An example is Zico, who struggled to even get into the Huddersfield Reserve team, and they were playing in Division 3 at the time. Leesaw, also tried but again was found wanting. In the European leagues, you have to perform week in week out, against the very best players. Rain, Wind, snow or shine. It's no place for pansies

Having watched Thailand play during the Asian Cup, I'd satick my neck out and suggest that none of the players are good enough to even get into a Championship side. Further than that, I am slightly sceptical about the reason for this so calleds trial. I'd go as far to suggest that it is a PR stunt, as these players are unlikely to qualify for Work Permits in the UK. Theybhave hardly been scouted, but more like invited by MR T. I wish them well, but I can't see this leading to a contract at present.

If SEA wants to truly progress, then more co-operation between the Assocaitions would benefit it greatly. I'd suggest that the creation of a full time SEA Club football league would be the way to go, with the best teams from the various nations competeing on a weekly basis. That way, players will continue to play against better quality opponents more regulalrly, unlike they do at present.

In the end, the FIFA rankings and recent Asian Club Championshios have show SEA nations to be lagging quite some way behind. Yes, they get the odd good result, but there is no consistency. SEA, needs to get it's associations in order first, before it can really move on.

Sorry, for the long post, but I'm not one for getting carried away with ideas of fantasy.

[Amethyst]

3 of the thai players who went for trial i think only 1 would make it . Suree is good. as a right back he quick strong and very intelligent .

Indonesian have a couple of players who played in Europe before e.g Kurniawan who plays for a Swiss club few years back .

Singapore the only player who made is Big in Europe in the 80's is Fandi Ahmad who played for FC Gronnigen in 1983, Fandi did move to the Netherlands, where he played for FC Groningen from 1983 to 1985 in the Dutch football league (Eredivisie). Prior to his arrival, Groningen had qualified for European football for the first time, and Fandi helped them in a dramatic European debut season by scoring in a shock 2-0 second round, first-leg win over Italian giants Inter Milan

Fandi was offered a place at Ajax Amsterdam after a trial, but he rejected it due to his difficulties adapting to the language and lifestyle. More

To be honest the current SEA football team still have a long way to go . Unlike in the 70's and 80's we can consider Malaysia and Singapore to be the best in Asia .

P.S Mrtoad is correct Match Fixing is the main problem in S.E.A Football

[mrtoad]

3 of the thai players who went for trial i think only 1 would make it . Suree is good. as a right back he quick strong and very intelligent .

Indonesian have a couple of players who played in Europe before e.g Kurniawan who plays for a Swiss club few years back .

Singapore the only player who made is Big in Europe in the 80's is Fandi Ahmad who played for FC Gronnigen in 1983, Fandi did move to the Netherlands, where he played for FC Groningen from 1983 to 1985 in the Dutch football league (Eredivisie). Prior to his arrival, Groningen had qualified for European football for the first time, and Fandi helped them in a dramatic European debut season by scoring in a shock 2-0 second round, first-leg win over Italian giants Inter Milan

Fandi was offered a place at Ajax Amsterdam after a trial, but he rejected it due to his difficulties adapting to the language and lifestyle. More

To be honest the current SEA football team still have a long way to go . Unlike in the 70's and 80's we can consider Malaysia and Singapore to be the best in Asia .

P.S Mrtoad is correct Match Fixing is the main problem in S.E.A Football

Tytus, thanks for mentioning Kurinwan, I'd forgotten about him.

Fandhi was a tremendous player, and I am glad that I had the pleasure of watching him a few times in the MLS playing for S'pore 9before they got booted out for mnatch fixing) on his return from Europe. I always felt that Sundramoothy could have made the grade, if he had a better attitude and application. I remember watching him play against Selangor in 1991, and he was absolutley memerising with his ball skills. The only problem with him was his lack of consistency.

[Amethyst]

Mr Toad Thanks for reminding me about V.Sundramoothy he was nicknamed the Dazzler for his dribbling skills. he also has had a short stint playing European football in Switzerland with FC Basel.

Fandhi was a tremendous player, and I am glad that I had the pleasure of watching him a few times in the MLS playing for S'pore 9before they got booted out for mnatch fixing) on his return from Europe.

Those was the days when you can see Kallang & Merdeka Stadium flooded with 50 thousands fans every game when Singapore Vs Selangor... Nowadays you cant get those figures anymore

If im not mistaken Thai coach Vorawan Chitavanich all used to play in Europe in the 80's rite?

[Sunderland]

None of the current crop of Thai players are good enough to play in the Premier League.

None of the 3 Thai players can qualify for a work permit.

[martaway]

Mr.Toad has it in a nutshell (all be it a rather large one)

The 3 trialists at Man.City is purely P.R by Thaksin.

He wants Thais to think that he is doing some great favour for Thai Football.

When all the time he was P.M with his Zillions he did sweet F.A (and i don't me Football Association) for Thai Soccer.