Thai Football

Thailand to the AFC Championship

For the first time in Thailand, the team wanted toqualify for the 1968 Asian Cup.  At thattime, it was only second in the qualifying group behind Hong Kong and retired.  Four years later the team made the leap into the finalround, which was also held in the Thai capital Bangkok.

In the first game of the tournament, the hosts defeated Kuwait0-2.  There followed a 1-1 draw againstIraq, and a 2-3 defeat against Iran.  Theteam in that game led 2-0 until the eightieth minute.

Despite this defeat, the Thais were second intheir group and reached the semi-finals, where they lost to South Korea with1-2 on penalties, after it had been 1-1 after extra time.

In the bronze medal match Thailand again wonin a penalty shootout against Cambodia, with a 5-3 victory. Most of the team’s gamesto be held in Thailand are played at Rajamangala National Stadium, which canaccommodate 60,000 spectators.  Built forthe 1998 Asian Games, it serves as a homestead.

Like almost all stages in Thailand, it has a tartantrack.  The stadium is located in Bangkok’s Bang Kapi district, and is notconnected to the public transport lines. In the summer of 2000, Bayern Munichplayed against the Thai national team in this stadium.

In 2004, the German national football teamperformed for the first and last time in the Rajamangala Stadium.

Before the construction of the RajamangalaNational Stadium, the Suphachalasai stadium, built in 1935, was used as anational stadium.
Traditionally, the Thai national team has alwaysplayed in red and blue jerseys.  Red isused for home games, blue for away games.

The colors are borrowed from thenational colors of the country. Following this success, Thailand missedthe part in the next four finals.  It wasnot until twenty years later that the Thai team was able to qualify again forthe Asian Cup.

In qualifying for theAsian Championship in 1992, South Korea was eliminated.

In the final competition in Japan, however, theteam earned only two draws (1-1 against Qatar, and 0-0 against China), beforeshe was defeated by 0-4 by Saudi Arabia and was thus eliminated in thepreliminary round.
In the 1996 Asia Championship in the United ArabEmirates, Thailand started with a 0-6 defeat against Saudi Arabia in thetournament.

Also, the games against Iran(1-3) and Iraq (1-4) were lost, so the team completed the preliminary round inlast place.

The finals of the Asia Cupfour years later, for Thailand, also ended without a victory, after the Thaishad lost 0-2 against Iraq, and played to a 1-1 draw against both Iran andLebanon.

In 2004, the team was defeated in all of the Asian Cup qualifyingmatches – against Iran, 0-3, against Japan 1-4, and against Oman 0-2.  Thailand ended the tournament as early as1996 as the worst team.
Even in the final round of 2007, when Thailand wasone of four hosts, the team left early.

In the preliminary group A, they firsthad 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 theregular season in a final round.  It wasnot enough for advancement however, as Thailand lost 0-4 against Australia.

Thai Football

The Thai national footballteam is a representative sample,representing Thailand in football. Subordinate to the Football Association of Thailand (FAT), it iscurrently coached by the Englishman Peter Reid.

Kiatisuk Senamuang, also known as Zico, is arecord player, who is known in Thailand. Piyapong Piew-on holds the record of top scorer.  In the years 1981 to 1997, he scored a totalof 103 international goals for the Thai national team.

History of the national team

The first Thai team was formed in 1917, though thefirst 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 Olympicpreliminary round match against Britain’samateur team was the first official international match.

At that time, Thailand had participated inthe Summer Olympics in 1956 in Melbourne, where they suffered a 0-9 defeat byBritain in the first round and thus suffered the greatest defeat in history.
Under the German coach Gunther Glomb, the teamcoach from 1968 to 1985, the team succeeded in re-qualifying for the 1968Olympic Games. At the Olympic soccer tournament in Mexico City, Thailandresigned after three defeats in the preliminary round.

Thailand atthe FIFA World Cup

Although the Thai Football Association joined FIFAon June 25, 1925, it was nearly fifty years before qualifying to attend theFIFA World Cup.  Their firstqualification was for the 1974 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

The first World Cup qualifying match was onMay 16, 1973 in the South Korean capital of Seoul.  Here the Thais lost 0-1 against SouthVietnam. After further defeats against Israel, South Korea and Malaysia, the team departed from the rounds, without scoring asingle point.  The other qualifyingrounds were also unsuccessful.
The Thais then came in 2002, and managed toeliminate the team from Lebanon in the first round, and qualify for the finalround in Asia.  There they met with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iraq.

The Thaiteam failed to win a game, but did manage to reach a draw with the teams fromBahrain, Iran and Iraq.  In thequalification 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 tobook only a draw against Bahrain.

Due tothe poor performance during qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, the teams’standing was at number 111th in the world.  After this failure occurred, Coach CharnwitPolcheewin resigned.

The EnglishmanPeter Reid was announced as his successor in August 2008. Since November 2008, the first team playsin 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 onwhich the monarch was born.

The equipment supplier Nike also joinedthe association.  This was the first timethe 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 fiveyears.  It is estimated that it startsfrom an elementary contract value of 150 million baht.