An email I sent the club today

Dear sirs,

As a supporter of Muangthong United, I would like to offer a suggestion that I think fans would enjoy:give names to the stands.

As you know, many clubs in Europe name stands after famous players or managers or important victories. As a young club we may have less choice in this area but there are still options, such as the 'Kilin Stand' , 'ultra stand' or even a sponsor name e.g. 'Yamaha stand'. Perhaps supporters could have a poll for naming one stand?
It gives character and identity to the ground.

Warm regards and please take care of fans this weekend, I hear Chonburi may well bring more fans than they have tickets for.
Regards,
(my name)

The club shop

Note: Now Robbie Fowler has created a surge in interest for shirts and name prints, I've produced some updated details here.

The club shop at Muangthong United is located at the home ground. It's a small shop - similar to lower league club shops in the UK - but is packed with products and on match days, also packed with fans.

Products available at this time include - various T-shirts and polo shirts, school bags, flags, car stickers, mugs, small size footballs, DVDs , car window covers, scarves, posters, old match programmes , fans (as in, the things you wave to cool yourself down) and of course, team shirts.

Team shirts seem to be changing on a regular basis. The newest shirts are made by Adidas, They are red and white (home) and white and blue (away) and cost 750 baht for adults, about five hundred baht for kids. The older kit (still worn by the team) is five hundred and fifty baht for adults and three hundred and fifty for kids.

The team shirts are, right now, so popular that the club seem to get new stock in for every home game and are sold out again before kick off.

The shop itself is also very busy on match day. If you want a good look around, visit on a non-match day. It's open from 2pm to 7pm. At present, the club also sell advance match tickets in the club shop a few days before the match.

Link to the club shop  (the team shirts you see there are the older style)

Muangthong victorious in intense encounter

Not everyone was left standing on or off the pitch for this one. MTU took the lead after just seven minutes through Teerathep who finished neatly from a good cross.


It seemed to be a cruise as Samutsongkhram were forced to push foreward, but as play evened out, Muangthong started to look a little complacent. The inevitable happened as SS equalised through player number 31 about twenty minutes later. The game threatened to fizzle out, until shorty before half time when a forward of SS (the goalscorer) received his second yellow - an automatic red card offence - for a sneaky little toe poke at Hattaporn.

The game then, paradoxically, erupted as Samutsongkhram players spent the next fifteen minutes complaining, then walking off, then calling all the team staff onto  the pitch to complain to officials. Naturally, fans of both teams began to get riled, but they stayed well behaved. If this had happened in the UK, I'm sure home fans would have been on the pitch, offering to escort the away staff off the turf, and then you have real trouble.

  Photo credit: mooinblack on mtufc.net

As the second half began, SS players threw themselves to the ground like they had been shot by a rifle at every opportunity in an attempt to run down the clock. I began to feel anxious as Muangthong players began to waste chances. We knew Chonburi had won the previous day and  fans started to fear we would let the Premiership title slip away. Then a fantastic scored free kick that would have looked good in a World Cup match from Piyachat (I think, can anyone confirm?) sent the home fans ecstatic.

  Photo credit: mooinblack on mtufc.net

As the rain began to belt down, some fans ran for cover, but the "ultras" and true fans stood firm. The torrential rain must have made the pitch heavier, and ten-man Samutsongkhram finally started to tire and lose shape. Muangthong surged forward in wave after wave, but wasted some incredibly good chances, including a three-on one against the Samut 'keeper.

But it wasn't over, and the fans who stayed put were rewarded with another amazing strike from Piyachat (again, I think it was him but the rain made it hard to see, can anyone confirm?) sent the MTU fans home drenched, but happy.

The rain had already flooded local roads, and your blogger had a long, drenched, shivering cold journey home. But as any football fan will tell you; when your team wins , the journey is always worthwhile.

Muang Thong Utd 3 - 1 Samut Songkhram

Match report to follow when the pneumonia has worn off.

Back in the day

Thanks to Sriracha Shark on the thaifootball forum for this one.

Shorts

A good article by Matthew on the thaileaguefootball forum:

Earphones.

So the TPL is blooming and fans are flocking. That’s great for all of us and the players. I went to a pre season friendly watching Exeter play Tottenham and, as some of the players got off the coach they decided they were above signing autographs by wearing a “don’t talk to me” pair of earphones. Ironically they tended to be the players no one would want photos with. I noticed the other day here I noticed that some of the players had decided to adopt the same fashion. Let’s cut that out lads. When players come off the coach they are available and needed. Let’s make sure that earphones are for the journey on the coach, but not the walk to the stadium.

Matthew also mentions that the next issue of The Big Chilli will have a large feature on MTU.

Tickets for the next home game are on sale tomorrow (Friday)

Muangthong are not the only successful club in Nonthaburi. Rajpracha FC are in the Division 2 playoffs and any support for their next game on Saturday 3rd October (Muangthong play on Sundays, so no overlap) would be brilliant. The team play at the Nonthaburi Stadium. There is no entry charge

Getting there

Muangthong United play their home games at the Yamaha Thunderdome Stadium, next to the Impact Arena, which is well known by Thais. It's based on Nonthaburi province, just outside the north-west border of Bangkok, inside a relatively new and interesting area called Muangthong Thani (more about that here).
The stadium is not the easiest place in the world to get to but public transport in Thailand is plentiful and inexpensive.

If you're new to Thailand or you've never been to a game before, it's probably wise to get a taxi to the stadium the first time. If you're obviously a tourist (i.e you're picking up a taxi from outside a hotel or a well touristed area like Sukhumvit) make sure you are very clear with the driver about where you are going, be sure that the driver is using the meter (if he tells you it's broken or "no use meter", get another taxi) and be sure the taxi has a number printed on the inside of the back doors. A taxi from central Bangkok could cost anywhere from 150 - 300 baht.

If you're felling a bit more adventurous, you have other choices. You could get the skytrain to Victory Monument and then get the bus number 166 (get off at the Impact Arena, look for the large halls and large signs) at a cost of about fifteen baht, or a minivan from the same place (look around for the minivan drivers and tell them you want to go to Impact Arena) for about thirty baht.
The stadium itself is well served by roads from the Bangkok side but has a few bottlenecks on the opposite side.

Near kick off time, the roads can become quite congested, so it's always wise to get there early. Journey times in Bangkok are very tough to predict because of the infamous congestion problem, it would be wise to budget for a travel time of ninety minutes or more, though in reality, it's likely to be half that, or even less. The only exception to this rule is when the Impact Centre has a show or exhibition which can cause huge traffic backup near the stadium. On these occasions it may be wise to disembark from any public transport and find another way in. If you're feeling brave, a motorbike taxi could do the trick, at your own risk.

Bear in mind that it can take a while to get a free taxi after the game.
google maps link  (English)

Map in Thai for taxis: (click on the image to go to a printable page)



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Chula United 1 Muangthong United 1

It almost didn't happen. Sadly, it did!

Forty minutes before the scheduled kick off, the Chula Stadium was being ravaged by a thunderstorm that included a power cut, torrential rain, a tree directly struck down by lightening and a gale.

But this is Thailand and storms can come and go quickly. Still, if it had been any other ground the  nearly two hour storm could have rendered the pitch unplayable, but Chula United are the only team in the league to have astroturf. It probably saved the game.

In such conditions it was always going to be a scrappy first half. Chula looked marginally dangerous when attacking down the left wing. MT looked comfortable but nonthreatening. The second half opened up when Cheuichiew scored for Muangthiong with the help of a terrible goalkeeping error.


With a nervous looking keeper, Muangthong really should have kept up the pace but despite creating chances, they looked a little complacent. Chula made us pay on the eightieth minute with an equaliser. It shook us up and we got more shots on target but to no avail.

Overall a good, exciting game in the second half, but the Chonburi match in a few weeks just became even more crucial.

Photos from mtufc.net :

 ^^^^^^^^
Can you spot me?!

 Players and staff check the pitch towards the end of the storm.

 Yaya takes on a Chula midfielder.

 Muangthong's Belgian manager, Robert Procureur , confronts Chula players after a nasty challenge on Yaya.

Big crowd for Saturday

It's expected that Muangthong will take 3000-5000 away fans to Chula United on Saturday. For many MT fans, the distance to Chula is not much further than a home match.
At least Chula will be able to cope with the demand, since the stadium holds 20,000+.
It's not been a good season for the boys in pink, and the large crowd will be unusual to the home fans

Thai football culture Vs English football culture

Pubs near the ground? Singing and chanting? Yobs? Service stations charging obscene amounts for a cheese sandwich? Just how similar is a game of premier league footie in Thailand compared to back home?

As any ex-pat will tell you, the Thais have their own way of doing things. Even when it involves foreign ideas or fashions that find their way to the country,the locals love to put their own spin on things. Football is no different, but the good news is that most of the differences are positive.

For football fans in the UK and most of Europe, a game of top flight football can be the focus of a whole day or even a whole weekend. For younger supporters, the day can involve travel (long distance travel for away games) , time lost at service stations, time drinking and eating before the game, a lot of shouting and singing and, sadly, the threat of violence. Luckily, that threat is far lower than it used to be, though a general culture of tribal hostility still exists, especially between local rival teams.

So just how similar is a day at the football in Thailand? Well, in all the important ways, it's very similar. When travelling to a Thai Premier League game - especially if it involves Muangthong United - you'll be in no doubt that there's a big match atmosphere. Thais love to take sides. This habit starts early at school sports days, where the wearing of team colours and yells of support takes far greater presidence than the actual sports themselves. It's a similar affair in the football, and you'll notice the ratio of fans wearing team colours is far higher than back home.

Likewise, you'll be in no doubt of the passion involved. Every team has noisy supporters, every team has its own song and every team has a unique badge and nickname. Though attendances in the TPL are around the same as the English League One, the fans are capable of generating a whole lot of noise when they want to. Admittedly, this is often done with the use of horns and drums, which are more welcome here than amongst most fans in the UK.

With so much partisan noise and displaying of colours, is there a threat of trouble? After all, only this year, the world witnessed scenes of red shirts and yellow shirts fighting over politics in the streets of Bangkok.

Well, here's the good news: Thai football fans must rank as some of the friendliest, if not the friendliest, in the world. The psyche of tribal violence that plagued English football in the seventies and still lingers in some places simply does not exist here. Away fans are treated as visiting friends and often exchange food, drink and conversation with the home supporters. It is customary for the visiting team to approach the home supporters and salute them at the end of a game, for which they receive applause. Imagine Manchester United doing this at Anfield!

EDIT: The paragraph you just read was, of course, typed before the dreadful events at Supalachasalai. The fallout from this event has been handled reasonably well and it seems likely that incident was a 'one off' rather than a change of culture. Time will tell. 


Although very recent TPL rules state away fans must be segregated, it is still common to see visiting fans wearing their shirt whilst standing in the home end. Of course, any event involving thousand of people getting worked up cannot be said to have zero danger of trouble,but this is probably the closest you can get. Behave, join in the fun and you will be as safe as houses. Some fans might ask as I did at first: won't the friendliness of the fans might take a little bit of the intensity and passion away from the fans or the teams? The answer is no. One game should be enough to lay any doubts to rest.

There's more good news. Any followers of the English game will be all too familiar with the argument that the working class English fan is being "priced out of the matches". A family of four, going to a game in the EPL can easily, easily spend well over one hundred pounds on transport, food, parking, matchday programmes and of course the tickets. At Chelsea, the ticket prices alone can reach treble figures. Compare that to Thailand, where every TPL team charges......wait for this.....fifty baht (just under one pound) for adults and twenty baht for kids!

It's not just the tickets that are reasonably priced however. Replica shirts - made by the usual big name brands - are also notably cheaper. For most teams, the shirt is about six hundred baht. And with Thailand being an inexpensive country in general, you won't need a second mortgage to get to the stadium. Back home in Southampton, a taxi to St Mary's Stadium from my home would cost me about twenty pounds for a journey of about eight miles. Here in Siam, the journey from home to stadium is about the same distance, and costs me about one hundred and seventy baht, or about three pounds fifty in British money. Matchday programmes weigh in at twenty baht, snacks and drinks (the same stuff that's priced at five quid back home) cost less than fifty baht. In summary, you can enjoy a day out at the football without even making a dent in your wallet.

Once you arrive at the stadium, pre-match build ups are very similar, though they can vary depending on where you are. Teams with bigger support (like Muangthong) have a lot of local amenities such as fast food joints, shops, places to buy drinks, and areas to simply wait around picking the next England or Thailand squad with your friends. Don't expect to find 'The Red Lion' on the street corner though. Although alcohol is available outside most grounds, the beer guzzling culture is not so popular in Thailand. Smaller clubs will be more likely to provide local food stalls selling Thai food next to plastic chairs and tables rather than greasy burgers.

Other differences between the two football cultures also exist. I'd say that the ratio of families and female supporters is slightly higher in Thailand, though that's based purely on observation and I welcome other opinions on this.

Thais seem to enjoy cheerleaders and 'cute' female guests as well as Thai style comedy for pre, half time and post-match entertainment. This is not to my personal taste and perhaps other foreigners will feel likewise, but of course this is not a negative point, it is simply different culture. The local teams play on Sunday, for reasons readers can probably take a stab at. They often kick off at five o'clock. Again, I'm sure readers can work out the reasons for that.

Are there any downsides to the Thai football culture? The one obvious drawback is the standard of football. I will expand on this in other articles but anyone going to a match expecting to see world class football will be left disappointed. I would estimate the standard of football in the TPL to be somewhere between League Two and Blue Square Premier standard in the UK. One side effect of this problem is frequent stoppages of the game and low standards of referring, both of which can be frustrating. But that's not to say there are no moments of skill or excitement, there can be plenty of both.


Other than this, and the aforementioned tendency for cheerleaders and local style comedy (which is my problem) it's hard to point out any drawbacks for fans. Perhaps some of this is down to my own personal feelings though. As a dedicated Southampton FC fan, it's just sheer relief for me to have a local team not plagued by successive relegations and boardroom negativity. As an ex-pat, it's nice to follow one of my home pastimes while enjoying local life.

Of course, many of the points I've raised here could change in the next few years, and I think some of them probably will. It's important to be aware that Thai football has recently seen an explosion of popularity, triggered by large sponsorship deals and reforms by the Thai FA. That explosion is still in its early days, and the biggest struggle for Thai football remains one of recognition. Many locals are blissfully unaware that they even have a local team, let alone the chance to go to a match. However, if current trends continue, support will soon become widespread.

That new interest will create changes. Most notably, more money is likely to pour into the leagues. That expectation is obvious from the check list of major businesses that have recently become sponsors of the TPL - Yamaha, Chang and Coca Cola to name but three - who will obviously expect returns on their investments. Now, Thailand is known to have problems with corruption and I fear that increased turnovers could attract interest from various unwelcome sources. Moreover, it is almost certain to cause a large increase in ticket and merchandising costs. When the league has attracted as many fans as possible, I fear it will then attempt to bleed them dry.

But those challenges lay in the future. For now, it's fun to be part of - and hopefully promote - a place where football is still affordable and fun. If you're an ex-pat in the land of smiles, get along and support your local team. If you're a tourist looking for an interesting aspect of Thai culture that is off the tourist trail, go along to see a match. Enjoy the game, and please remember not to spoil the friendly, welcoming atmosphere of Thai football.


Further reading: TLF's A-Z of Thai football.

To do:

Articles on:

• getting there
• a very brief history of MTU (or a link)
• Warnings (demand for tickets, traffic, going home in the dark, etc.)
• differences to English football culture
• more on football in thailand
• personal views of MTU and Thai football

build up some links and blog chains