THE TRUE POWER — UNLOCKING THAILAND’S FOOTBALL POTENTIAL
Thailand’s professional football leagues are staring into a gaping abyss, about to disappear into a void, reeling from devastating death blows and years of leadership turmoil. A massive black hole has sucked the life out of the league.
It is not too late, but the end is close. To save the league, games must begin as scheduled on August 13th, accompanied by nationwide broadcasting.
One company has the power to be the game changer, the hero to transform Thai football into a continental powerhouse of talent, if they have the vision to do so.
So how did we get to the edge of oblivion?
The beginning of the end began when broadcaster TrueVisions did not renew their arrangement with the Football Association (FAT).
Then, concurrent with the first, came the Covid19 pandemic. The 2020 season was repeatedly postponed, and when games finally resumed, most were played in hermetically sealed stadiums.
The current chaos and confusion around broadcast rights is the product of a leadership model that appears more political than practical. Despite the efforts of the good people working behind the scenes at the FAT, each time there’s a new appointee to the role of president, contracts are ripped up and the efforts of predecessors erased.
This lack of consistency is a two-steps-backwards approach, and it is costly. Just this month the courts ordered the FAT to pay Siam Sport syndicate 450 million baht in damages. This follows from 2016 when the incoming FAT president terminated the broadcasting agreement with the syndicate.
As a result of all of the above, football is happening in a void. Fans and teams have been forcibly separated. Clubs are hanging by very thin threads missing both broadcast revenue and ticket sales. Corporate sponsorships are drying up. Players, coaches, and staff have taken significant pay cuts. Some teams have folded, while FIFA has levied fines and penalties against others.
The FAT has tried to recover some of the loss. A new broadcaster was found, and a 12 billion baht, eight year contract was signed, only to be canceled when pandemic postponements continued.
TrueVisions has since been asked to resume their role, the league almost pleading for rescue. The broadcaster has turned scrooge, pointing crooked fingers at an economic downturn and a surging pandemic.
Importantly, the broadcaster also points to a lack of interest from advertisers. They are correct, from a purely economic standpoint.
This mindset, however, is another failure of leadership. Rather
than ‘TrueVision’, it’s more like TunnelVision.
The sport of football is immensely popular in Thailand, and TrueVisions should know this. Why else would the broadcaster be able to provide English league football across several channels?
The love for football is not confined to the English game. You can visit any corner of the country, and while you will definitely find someone wearing a Man-U jersey, you’ll almost certainly find someone wearing one of Buriram’s.
When the War Elephants play upwards of 60,000 fans pack the national stadium. Buriram’s Thunder Castle can seat 35,000, and stadiums in Songkhla, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chiang Rai, and others, can hold upwards of 20,000, or more.
This moment is an enormous opportunity for TrueVisions to live up to its ideal of “making life better for everyone.” The company talks about being industry pioneers, and here is a chance to put words into action.
TrueVisions is one of many companies owned by the Chearavanont family. Together with Makro, CP ALL (7–11), Chesters, and numerous other entities in real estate, agriculture, plastics, seafood, etc., these companies have created Asia’s fourth-wealthiest family with a net worth of US$36.6 billion.
At this critical time for the league and for Thailand, TrueVisions can be the hero, stepping in to provide the broadcast revenue and investing in the future.
With the tremendous resources and knowledge available to TrueVisions, the company can work with clubs, the league, and the FAT to fashion an identity for domestic football.
TrueVision would have to go all in. It requires a focused, planned, and sustained series of programs and marketing efforts to build up Thai football. As this happens fanbases expand, clubs gain revenue, the quality of the game grows, thus bringing in more fans, and the pattern repeats. It also requires FAT presidents to listen to the experts who know the game and how to grow it over time.
Remember that professional football in Thailand is still relatively young. While the sport has been played in the country for over 100 years, it wasn’t until 2009 that things really developed.
Thailand is regarded (for now) as the best footballing nation in the region, and Thai clubs are considered amongst the best across the continent.
The momentum of all this growth and success has spluttered to a shameful stop and is about to be reversed if no one has the fortitude to fill the void. TrueVisions has the resources, knowledge, and capacity to be the hero of the moment.
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