Thailand national football team

The Thailand national football team (Thai: ฟุตบอลทีมชาติไทย) represents Thailand in international football competition and is governed by the Football Association of Thailand. The team has a history of success in Southeast Asian competition, with three ASEAN Football Championship titles and nine senior-level Southeast Asian Games titles. Thailand also finished third in the 1972 Asian Cup and have competed twice in the Summer Olympics and four times in the Asian Games.

History

1915-1995

The team was founded in 1915 as the Siam national football team and played its first unofficial match (against a team of Europeans) at the Royal Bangkok Sport Club Stadium on December 20 of that year. On April 25, 1916, King Vajiravudh established the Football Association of Siam. The team played its first international match in 1930 against the Indochina national team, which included both South Vietnamese and French players. Both the Siam team and its governing association were renamed in 1949 when Siam became Thailand.

Thailand appeared in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, where they lost to Great Britain by a score of 0–9 (the largest defeat in team history) and failed to advance to the quarterfinals. In 1965, Thailand won the gold medal in the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games (now called the Southeast Asian Games) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As of 2010, Thailand have won the biennial competition twelve times.

The team made another appearance at the Summer Olympics in 1968, losing to Bulgaria 0–7, Guatemala 1–4, and Czechoslovakia 0–8 en route to a first-round exit. This was the Thailand football team's last appearance in the Olympics as of 2010.

Thailand qualified automatically for the 1972 AFC Asian Cup as the hosts and went on to place third after defeating Cambodia 5–3 on penalties after a 2–2 draw in the third-place game. Thailand have qualified for the tournament a total of six times. The team won the first of its 13 King's Cup trophies in 1976, sharing the title with Malaysia after a 1–1 draw in the final match.

1996-2008

In 1996, Thailand defeated Malaysia 1–0 to win the ASEAN Football Championship (then called the Tiger Cup) for the first time. Three-time champions Thailand will be going all out to reach the pinnacle of Southeast Asian once again after slipping on the final ascent at the last two editions of the ASEAN Football Championship.

Winners in 1996, 2000 and 2002, Thailand were favourites to regain the crown in 2007 and 2008 only to lose tight finals to Singapore and Vietnam respectively.

Thailand football team has competed triple times in the Asian Games, making the semifinals in 1990, 1998, and 2002.

The Asian Football Confederation's 2007 AFC Asian Cup finals were held from July 7 to July 29, 2007. For the first time in its history, the competition was co-hosted by four nations: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The 1998 Tiger Cup controversy

The regional 1998 ASEAN Football Championship tournament was perhaps infamous in respect to Thailand football history. In what was supposedly a sporting event, the group stage match between Thailand and Indonesia was marred with an unsportsmanlike attempt. At the time both teams had already qualified for semi-finals, but with knowledge that winners would have to face hosts Vietnam, while the losing team would play the supposedly weaker Singapore. There was also technical incentive that facing Vietnam would mean moving training bases from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi – which none of the teams would wish to do.

The first half saw very little action as both teams barely making attempt to score. During the second half both teams managed to score, partly thanks to half-hearted defending, resulting in a 2–2 tie after 90 minutes. However the real infamy didn't take place until extra time, in which Indonesian defender deliberately kicked the ball into his own goal, despite the Thais' attempts to stop him doing so. FIFA fined both teams $40,000 for "violating the spirit of the game".

Ironically in the semi-finals, Thailand lost to Vietnam, and Indonesia also lost to Singapore, pitting the teams together once again for the third-place playoff. Indonesia eventually won by penalty shootout, as in the final, unfancied Singapore made one of the competition's biggest shocks by defeating Vietnam.

2009-2010

On 23 September 2009, Bryan Robson agreed to become coach of Thailand national team in his first foray into international football management.^[2] He was contracted to manage the team through to the 2014 World Cup. On 14 November 2009, Robson celebrated his first competitive match in charge of the team with a 3–1 away victory against Singapore in a 2011 Asian Cup qualifying group match.^[3] On 18 November 2009, Robson then suffered his first loss – a 1–0 defeat against Singapore on home soil. In January 2010, this was followed by two goalless draws with Jordan and Iran during 2011 Asian Cup qualifying. On 3 March 2010, Robson's Thailand suffered a 1–0 defeat by the hands of Iran in Tehran in their final Group E game, effectively ending their hopes of qualifying for 2011 Asian Cup. On 11 August 2010, Robson led Thailand to another victory against Singapore with a score of 1–0 on home soil. In September 2010, Robson overcame Bob Houghton's India in a friendly with a score of 2–1 away from home. In December 2010, Robson failed to bring Thailand past the Group A of the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup after managing only 2 draws against Laos and Malaysia and losing to Indonesia. He resigned as manager on 8 June 2011.^[4]

2011-present

Rumours had been rife that the 61 years old Winfried Schäfer was favourite to succeed Bryan Robson, who ended his ill-fated two year tenure earlier this month, citing health problems as the reason for his resignation.

Home stadium

The Thai national team plays most of its home matches in Rajamangala National Stadium in the Bang Kapi district of Bangkok. Built for the 1998 Asian Games, the stadium is the largest sporting facility in Thailand with a capacity of 65,000. Matches are also occasionally played at Suphachalasai Stadium, 700th Anniversary Stadium, 5th December Stadium, Surakul Stadium, Yamaha Stadium, and Thunder Castle Stadium.

Kits

The team's traditional home kit consists of a red jersey, red shorts, and red socks. Since October 2007, Thailand have used an all-yellow home kit in honour of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 80th birthday. The away kit consists of a blue jersey, blue shorts, and blue socks.nike football Brand

Recent matches

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

Olympic Games

(Under-23 Team Since 1992)

AFC Asian Cup

Asian Games

(Under-23 Team Since 2002)

ASEAN Football Championship

This competition was formerly known as the Tiger Cup