Progress expected after stagnant year
Dear FAT President, No sir, we are not calling you fat. No, I am also not alluding to the stuff which has been gathering around your waist for a year now. We are in fact referring to the FAT — the Football Association of Thailand of which you have been the president for a year now.
Sorry, we got waylaid. The purpose of this letter is to congratulate you on completing a year as the FAT chief which is probably the only thing you have accomplished in the past 365 days.
It mustn’t have been easy for you as you inherited the association in such a mess and you can have our heartfelt sympathies for that. It must have been a onerous task to revamp the whole thing without anyone else getting even a whiff of a change.
The national team was on the verge of qualifying for the final phase of Asian qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup for the only second time in their history. But we all know that, in sports, the main thing is always crossing the finish line and that was achieved under your able leadership.
The team have not fared pretty well after that but it can’t be your fault because it is a bunch of players you inherited from the previous administration and it’s the same lot which goes on the field and plays. After all you aren’t the one who is getting in the middle of anything.
And your dribbling abilities are quite well known as well. People keep aggrandising former England striker Gary Lineker for never picking up a yellow card in his entire career. Well, they probably haven’t heard about you — the man who has also maintained a clean sheet and plus has never ever been flagged for being offside as well.
This has only been made possible by your trademark ability of being a spearhead without ever moving forward. How can you ever be booked? People aren’t blind. They can all see that you have done nothing wrong. And once we know for sure that you haven’t done anything wrong, there is no point adding that you haven’t done anything right either. It won’t be very fair.
“Fair” may have become a forgotten word, but your election campaign a year ago, based on “Five Fairs”, shall remain unforgettable forever. You are fair — not farang fair, but still quite fair.
But what about the Thai League referees? Yes, we agree that not everyone can be fair. It won’t be very fair to skin whitening lotion manufacturers.
We were also deeply impressed by your handling of the issue of national coach Kiatisak Senamuang’s contract extension.
You started off by saying: “If the coach does a good job, there is no reason for me to make changes.” However, soon you were found asking the Thai football fans: “Do we want to move forward from the Asean level? If we want this, there would have to be changes.”
Then you answered the question yourself by doing what you have been doing for the past one year, and that is nothing. Kiatisak seems happy to have his job back, media worried that they have nothing to write about anymore and fans content that we would stay put as the kings of Asean football.
The big deal signed recently, the one which promises to bring in a billion baht into the association over the next 10 years, should be a great news for everyone. Well, you should be happier than anyone else now that you can hope to get back the interest-free 30 million baht that you loaned to the FAT to help the minor leagues.
Overall, it was a very interesting year in which we made so many moves but in the end proved goal-shy. The next year under your leadership promises to be probably a bit more exciting and hopefully fruitful than your first in the office, for which we are giving you the benefit of doubt due to your lack of previous experience. Stay blessed.
Yours sincerely,
A fanatic on behalf of a group of Thai fans