Thai Football

Thailand to the AFC Championship
For the first time in Thailand, the team wanted to qualify for the 1968 Asian Cup. At that time, it was only second in the qualifying group behind Hong Kong and retired. Four years later the team made the leap into the final round, which was also held in the Thai capital Bangkok.

In the first game of the tournament, the hosts defeated Kuwait 0-2. There followed a 1-1 draw against Iraq, and a 2-3 defeat against Iran. The team in that game led 2-0 until the eightieth minute. Despite this defeat, the Thais were second in their group and reached the semi-finals, where they lost to South Korea with 1-2 on penalties, after it had been 1-1 after extra time. In the bronze medal match Thailand again won in a penalty shootout against Cambodia, with a 5-3 victory.

Most of the team’s games to be held in Thailand are played at Rajamangala National Stadium, which can accommodate 60,000 spectators. Built for the 1998 Asian Games, it serves as a homestead. Like almost all stages in Thailand, it has a tartan track.

The stadium is located in Bangkok's Bang Kapi district, and is not connected to the public transport lines. In the summer of 2000, Bayern Munich played against the Thai national team in this stadium. In 2004, the German national football team performed for the first and last time in the Rajamangala Stadium. Before the construction of the Rajamangala National Stadium, the Suphachalasai stadium, built in 1935, was used as a national stadium.

Traditionally, the Thai national team has always played in red and blue jerseys. Red is used for home games, blue for away games. The colors are borrowed from the national colors of the country.

Following this success, Thailand missed the part in the next four finals. It was not until twenty years later that the Thai team was able to qualify again for the Asian Cup. In qualifying for the Asian Championship in 1992, South Korea was eliminated. In the final competition in Japan, however, the team earned only two draws (1-1 against Qatar, and 0-0 against China), before she was defeated by 0-4 by Saudi Arabia and was thus eliminated in the preliminary round.

In the 1996 Asia Championship in the United Arab Emirates, Thailand started with a 0-6 defeat against Saudi Arabia in the tournament. Also, the games against Iran (1-3) and Iraq (1-4) were lost, so the team completed the preliminary round in last place. The finals of the Asia Cup four years later, for Thailand, also ended without a victory, after the Thais had lost 0-2 against Iraq, and played to a 1-1 draw against both Iran and Lebanon. In 2004, the team was defeated in all of the Asian Cup qualifying matches - against Iran, 0-3, against Japan 1-4, and against Oman 0-2. Thailand ended the tournament as early as 1996 as the worst team.

Even in the final round of 2007, when Thailand was one of four hosts, the team left early. In the preliminary group A, they first had a 1-1 draw against Iraq before moving on to a 2-0 victory over Oman. This was the Thai team’s first victory in the regular season in a final round. It was not enough for advancement however, as Thailand lost 0-4 against Australia.

The Thai national football team is a representative sample, representing Thailand in football. Subordinate to the Football Association of Thailand (FAT), it is currently coached by the Englishman Peter Reid. Kiatisuk Senamuang, also known as Zico, is a record player, who is known in Thailand. Piyapong Piew-on holds the record of top scorer. In the years 1981 to 1997, he scored a total of 103 international goals for the Thai national team.

History of the national team

The first Thai team was formed in 1917, though the first official international match is said to have taken place in 1956 against South Vietnam. The game ended in a 3-1 win for the Thais.

According to FIFA, however, the Olympic preliminary round match against Britain's amateur team was the first official international match. At that time, Thailand had participated in the Summer Olympics in 1956 in Melbourne, where they suffered a 0-9 defeat by Britain in the first round and thus suffered the greatest defeat in history.

Under the German coach Gunther Glomb, the team coach from 1968 to 1985, the team succeeded in re-qualifying for the 1968 Olympic Games. At the Olympic soccer tournament in Mexico City, Thailand resigned after three defeats in the preliminary round.

Thailand at the FIFA World Cup

Although the Thai Football Association joined FIFA on June 25, 1925, it was nearly fifty years before qualifying to attend the FIFA World Cup. Their first qualification was for the 1974 FIFA World Cup in Germany. The first World Cup qualifying match was on May 16, 1973 in the South Korean capital of Seoul. Here the Thais lost 0-1 against South Vietnam.

After further defeats against Israel, South Korea and Malaysia, the team departed from the rounds, without scoring a single point. The other qualifying rounds were also unsuccessful.

The Thais then came in 2002, and managed to eliminate the team from Lebanon in the first round, and qualify for the final round in Asia. There they met with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iraq. The Thai team failed to win a game, but did manage to reach a draw with the teams from Bahrain, Iran and Iraq. In the qualification for the 2006 World Cup they failed to North Korea and the UAE.

As part of the qualification for World Cup 2010, Thailand met with Japan, Oman and Bahrain. There the team again could not win a game; in the end they were able to book only a draw against Bahrain. Due to the poor performance during qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, the teams’ standing was at number 111^th in the world. After this failure occurred, Coach Charnwit Polcheewin resigned. The Englishman Peter Reid was announced as his successor in August 2008.

Since November 2008, the first team plays in yellow shirts, with light blue. Yellow is the color of King Bhumibol, because there is a fixed allocation of weekdays and colors. Yellow is assigned to Monday, the day on which the monarch was born.

The equipment supplier Nike also joined the association. This was the first time the teams had a contract with a foreign firm. Previously, the national sporting goods manufacturer Grand Sport and FBT had been outfitter of the national teams. The contract with Nike was finalized in 2007, and it is valid for five years. It is estimated that it starts from an elementary contract value of 150 million baht.