Courtesy: Bangkok Post


Adisak drives futsal tourney to Thailand

18/10/2012

Thailand was selected to host the 2012 Fifa Futsal World Cup ahead of China, Iran, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic and Guatemala in a vote in 2010.

Football Association of Thailand (FAT) president Worawi Makudi apparently had a role in bringing the tournament to the kingdom.

Mr Worawi is a Fifa executive member and at that time was close to Fifa president Sepp Blatter. However, their relations have reportedly turned sour after the soccer's governing body banned former Asian football chief and ex-Fifa executive member Mohamed bin Hammam from all Fifa and football related activities for life.

Mr Worawi is believed to be close to Mr bin Hammam.

The man behind Thailand's successful bid to organise the Nov 1-18 Futsal World Cup was Adisak Benjasiriwan who made the sport popular in Thailand and was chairman of the FAT futsal development committee and manager of the national futsal team.

Mr Adisak and his team prepared about 1,000 pages of bidding papers.
``I am very happy that Thailand has been selected to host the Futsal World Cup. It is an honour for the country and myself,'' Mr Adisak said at that time.

``I have been in futsal for more than 10 years and my hard work has paid off. This is a reward for myself and Thailand.''

Mr Worawi had a long-term plan and wanted Mr Adisak and then national team coach Jose Maria Pazos Medez ``Pulpis'' to take charge of Thai futsal at least until the end of the 2012 World Cup.

Unfortunately, Mr Adisak now has no role in Thai futsal after Mr Worawi appointed Thirachai Wuthitham to replace him last year.

The move came after Mr Worawi was re-elected as FAT president. Mr Adisak was sacked following reports that he backed a candidate who challenged Worawi in the election.

Spain's ''Pulpis,'' who is close to Mr Adisak, later quit as coach of the Thai national team.

Mr Adisak was understandably sad after he was fired but now he may be a happy man without a role in the trouble-plagued preparations for the 2012 World Cup.

The Bangkok Futsal Arena in Nong Chok district is not yet complete and the national team will face two top-10 sides Ukraine and Paraguay in Group A which also features Costa Rica.

Mr Adisak on Thursday declined to comment on construction of the stadium. But he believes the national team has a strong chance of progressing to the knockout stages for the first time thanks to a new finals format.

It is the first time that the World Cup has 24 teams up from 16. At next month's finals, the top two teams from each of the six first-round groups and the four best third-placed sides advance to the next round.

``We are underdogs against Paraguay and are at the same level with Ukraine,'' Mr Adisak said.

``If we beat Costa Rica in our opening match, I think we will have a 70 percent chance of advancing to the knockout round.''






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com