Clean Up Sports Associations For Thailand's Good

[Lite Beer]

Clean up sports associations for country's good

By Jintana Panyaarvudh

The Nation on Sunday.

Since the popularity of sport is growing quite dramatically in Thailand, it comes as no surprise that political parties have invited sports heroes to join their parties as candidates for the upcoming general election.

Politicians see an opportunity to use them to attract more voters. Voters who are sports enthusiasts appear to be the target group for at least two political parties with ambitious platforms for the country's sporting circles.

Sports heavyweight Suwat Liptapanlop successfully drew former star striker Piyapong Piew-on, former tennis star Paradorn Srichaphan, who had peaked at No 9 on the ATP rankings, and Yaowapa Boorapolchai, who bagged a bronze medal in women's taekwondo at the 2004 Athens Olympics, to join his Chart Pattana Puea Pandin Party.

Chart Thai Pattana Party of Tourism and Sport Minister Chumpol Silapa-archa are not far behind. They introduced four former boxing champions: the 1996 Atlanta Olympic gold medallist Somluck Khamsing, former WBA world champion Khaosai Galaxy, Thai kick-boxing champ Charoenthong Kietbanchong and 2004 Athens Olympic gold medallist Manas Boonchamnong.

On the surface, it's good to see political parties pay attention to sport. Politicians such as Newin Chidchob, Banharn Silapa-archa, and Chon Buri's Khunpluem clan have sponsored provincial teams in the Thai Premier League and lower divisions in a big way in recent years. These politicians successfully helped boost the popularity of the Thai Premier League among Thai football fans.

Although the sportspersons who are eyeing a new career as politicians have excelled themselves on the sports field, they have yet to show that they can make good Members of Parliament. To be fair, they need time. Voters can judge them only after they get elected. But at least the sporting heroes present an alternative to the voters.

Apart from introducing sporting heroes to politics, the two parties have announced that they will promote sport as a platform for development.

However, they seem to pay attention only on allocating funds to athletes, spending money on building mini sports complexes, hiring foreign coaches and increasing incentives to athletes and sports officials but forgetting the most important aspect: management.

The management set up of most of our sports associations are in shambles. Take any association in the country. It is dominated by a big shot, who keeps his cronies in vital positions. Nepotism and favouritism is the name of the game and is perpetuated year after year.

The Football Association of Thailand is a recent example. Caretaker president Worawi Makudi was in the spotlight for postponing the election in the most blatant way on May 6. He put off the election because he feared losing the job and the perks that go with it.

Also, Thailand was expelled from qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games in London after fielding a suspended player during the first qualifying round. The mistake has destroyed Worawi's credibility besides FAT's reputation.

The two-term president also hit international headlines for all the wrong reasons. David Triesman, the former chairman of the English Football Association, said that Worawi and three other executive committee members of Fifa had asked for various kinds of payment in exchange for their World Cup votes. To be precise, Worawi allegedly wanted television rights for a proposed Thailand-England friendly in Bangkok this year.

The accusations not only tarnished Worawi's image but also that of the country, which presents itself as the Land of Smiles.

Sport lovers, in fact, want to see political parties clean up the sports associations when they come to power. Thai sports will never develop and Thai sportspersons will never reach the world level, if the root problems are not eradicated.

-- The Nation 2011-05-15

[housepainter]

Most popular in Thailand is the sex industry, ask anyone holidaying in Pattaya. After the Wats and waterfalls, under age sex, Trans geneder encounters and the raging gay scene is the reason the sex tourists opt for Pattaya and not a long term prison sentence back home.

Logic therefore dictates that the myriad of prostitutes that cross all genders should then be recruited to stand for political office. Somehow though I can't see it working or ever reaching the light of day. As it's the dark of night when the politicians themselves seek out the services of the sex workers and slope off quietly when on fact finding missions that result in bodily emissions.

Standing alongside a working prostitute in the Land of No Prostitutes is therefore equally not possible.

So there we have it. Sports personalities as leaders. Might catch on. I can see Federer giving an account of how good his half voley was on the clay today at the same time as explaining how to rid the country of the monterary deficit incurred by high risk management in a volatile market economy. Sounds about right.

Who knows? Rooney may well have both running the channels from mid field to the six yard box as well as International trade surplusses and natural resources storage mastered and could give a merchant banker a run for our money when it comes to fiscal policies in a burgeoning market.

Anna Sharapova in charge of womens' rights. Balotelli given the International relations brief and Michael Schummacher at the Ministry of Transport.

Then again we all could be sensible, reasonable and responsible which makes us all clearly un-Thai and just stick to what we know. And that's mainly that people who hit balls for a living don't make good Politicians. And Politicians don't make good on anything.

Especially promises.

Next.

[Phatcharanan]

Most popular in Thailand is the sex industry, ask anyone holidaying in Pattaya. After the Wats and waterfalls, under age sex, Trans geneder encounters and the raging gay scene is the reason the sex tourists opt for Pattaya and not a long term prison sentence back home.

Next.

It might be helpful if you could actually come up with something new..........not the same old boring repetitive ramblings of someone who obviously has issues with themselves.

[ianf]

As a life long cyclist who has moved here to Thailand, I tried to get involved with the Thai Cycling Association in order to develop the sport and my own contacts. My correspondence with them by email resulted in a message from their President which said that Cycling was not a popular sport in Thailand. Any sports association's role should be to develop their sport as British Cycling has done in the UK with a great deal of success. They do not have a club structure or a coaching structure. They maintain power and control through an AGM which is packed with the president's non-cycling supporters. They run very few races - organisers who have tried to run events outside of their structure are asked for enormous sums of money - random amounts. Yes, in the UK if you want to run a race you pay a permit fee - you don't pay a bribe. They claim to have regional coaches. In one strong cycling region their coach is never seen by the cyclists - he is only seen in the bars he frequents. Draws his salary and drinks all day. Now this is all a huge shame because there are hundreds of good cyclists in Thailand. Given a structure and regular diet of club, regional and national races on road and track and a proper coaching structure Thailand would be able to field cyclists in the major regional games - the Asian games had no Thai male cyclists on the velodrome. Here in Chiang Mai we have a great velodrome which could beused to train athletes. It took me six months to get permission to use it. Thai Cycling Association does not even reply to my emails asking how I can get them to recognise the track and my work as a junior level coach to begin to build track cycling in this art of the world.

Sorry, like football, and no doubt some other sports, cycling administrators are not here because they love the sport, they are there for what they can get out of it. They put some retired police officer in to take charge who knows nothing about the sport ..... etc. This is the sporting reality of Thailand. It sucks.

[jimbeam1]

Most popular in Thailand is the sex industry, ask anyone holidaying in Pattaya. After the Wats and waterfalls, under age sex, Trans geneder encounters and the raging gay scene is the reason the sex tourists opt for Pattaya and not a long term prison sentence back home.

Next.

It might be helpful if you could actually come up with something new..........not the same old boring repetitive ramblings of someone who obviously has issues with themselves.

Well said.

jb1

[Shah Jahan]

The Chiang Mai FC, pays its falang players (mostly African) 10,000 baht bonus per goal they score, but the Thai players only get 1,000 baht bonus per goal.

So the Thais wont pass the ball to the falang......

that is all you will ever need to know about the Thai sports "industry"

[Bagwan]

The Chiang Mai FC, pays its falang players (mostly African) 10,000 baht bonus per goal they score, but the Thai players only get 1,000 baht bonus per goal.

So the Thais wont pass the ball to the falang......

that is all you will ever need to know about the Thai sports "industry"

Is the goalkeeper subject to fines for failing to stop the opposition scoring? Are all the outfield players forwards?

I would recommend that no Thai football team hires a katoey to play centre forward. They have a tendency to kick the ball over the bar instead of scoring. That way they get to hear all the spectators say they'd like to expletive deleted him.