Courtesy: ESPN Star


Fink: ASEAN 2030 WC bid scuppered

ESPNSTAR.com columnist Jesse Fink says Thailand FA president Worawi Makudi is to blame for the Bangkok Futsal Arena situation and the fallout from this fiasco.

by Jesse Fink

Friday 9th November 2012

It wasn't that long ago that we were being told by officials that serious delays on the construction of the Bangkok Futsal Arena at Nong Chok were down to "heavy rains in October 2011 that crippled parts of the city and resulted in severe flooding" and the decision to switch some games to another stadium closer to the city centre for the upcoming Futsal World Cup was "taken to ensure the safety of construction workers on site".

Now this week's confirmation that in fact no World Cup games at all are actually going to be played at the BFA has seen a change in the story. The stadium is still deemed unacceptable for a World Cup. That hasn't changed.

But the blame shifting has. This time around it's all to do with the money not being coughed up in time.
Said Supachai Tantikhom, the BFA's director: "We did everything that FIFA requested, except some small issues. The reason we were unable to finish construction on time was the delay in budget approval that caused a lot of problems for us from the beginning."

Never mind the fact that the project received state funding in June 2011 but construction didn't begin on it until January this year when Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra signed the contract papers with the company enlisted to build it.

Blame the monsoon. Blame the money men. Blame the red tape. Blame anyone but the body at whose feet - in my opinion - the buck stops, irrespective of the deficiency of the organising committee, the tardiness of contractors or the caprice of the weather: the Thailand Football Association and its president, FIFA executive committee member Worawi Makudi.

Thailand did not have an unrealistic task getting ready for this World Cup. It was a World Cup of futsal, after all, not a World Cup of football. Guatemala hosted it in 2000. Taiwan in 2004. Brazil in 2008. Thailand was more than capable of staging the tournament and ensuring everything was completed in readiness for kickoff on November 1.

But the seeds for what transpired this week were sowed all the way back in July 2011 with the freezing out of former national-team manager and Thai futsal committee chairman Adisak Benjasiriwan, the sport's greatest asset in Thailand. Once he was removed from the FAT executive committee and futsal committee, allegedly for backing rival candidate Virach Charnpanich in presidential elections (Worawi himself was quoted at the time, saying: "The fact that he supported Virach in the FAT election made me feel uncomfortable to work with him"), the writing was on the wall that the tournament would not be given its best chance for success.

By squandering this wonderful opportunity to show the world what South-East Asia could do when given the privilege of hosting such a prestigious event, not only has billions of taxpayers' baht been wasted on a stadium that will most likely become a white elephant but local organisers have practically scuppered whatever chance ASEAN has of hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup.

A staggering cock-up that affects not just Thailand, but the other nine nations of ASEAN. And the real tragedy is it was all avoidable.
Enough is enough. It's time for South-East Asia, one of football's last great frontiers, to have the representation it deserves in Zurich.






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