Major scandal puts Thai football at crossroads 

Match-fixing rumours have always plagued the Thai Premier League, so it was no big surprise when another scandal erupted a few days ago. Police in cooperation with the Football Association, now headed by a former police chief, have named 12 persons, including five players, a referee, an assistant referee (linesman), a club executive and four alleged brokers/financiers in the biggest infamy to have rocked the top flight of Thai football.
The scandal comes at a time of steady decline in overall attendance at matches. Top teams have seen their average attendance plunge by the thousands compared to last year’s numbers, which had dropped from the year before. Hooliganism is being blamed, and so is more-frequent TV broadcasts tempting fans to stay home. But another reason is that watching certain games left spectators suspicious that things weren’t quite right.
According to the police, who provided the dates and times of suspect matches, online gambling was behind the alleged wrongdoing. The suspects are accused of conspiring to ensure a minimum number of goals or of fixing half-time results. In every case of suspected match-fixing, hundreds of thousands of baht were paid to each of the players or the referee and linesman.
What is not clear is whether the alleged racketeering is just the tip of the iceberg. Complaints or accusations of referee bias are common, and they have involved more than one referee. Results that raise eyebrows have been frequent, although they’ve often been dismissed as part of the sport’s endearing uncertainty. One thing is certain, however: Watching the Thai Premier League will never feel quite the same.
In an era when gambling, like everything else, is deriving huge benefits from modern technology, Thai football is one of the most vulnerable victims. Both legitimate and underground bookies have intentionally or unintentionally corrupted various sports, but Thai football has to be ranked as one of the most susceptible.
Many legitimate bookies ask gamblers to bet on, say, whether a football match will feature a penalty, a red card or more or fewer than a given number of yellow cards. It’s fairly easy for unscrupulous players, referees and linesmen to produce the desired outcomes. Gambling on sport has evolved far beyond the simple practice of guessing the winner. The most popular bets revolve around margins of victory, which offers players and referees greater temptation to fix the results for personal gain.
The current scandal has placed another dark cloud over the already trouble-plagued Thai Premier League. A couple of years ago, two giant League teams lodged a joint complaint against the leader of the referees association, accusing him of showing bias towards another big club. The development highlighted several weak points in the country’s sport management – detrimental nepotism and unhealthy politics. The complaint also coincided with the alleged involvement of Thailand’s highest football authority in a major bribery scandal rocking world football’s governing body.
It is reported that the current crackdown will be extended. There is no need to demand a thorough, unprejudiced investigation into what looks like extensive racketeering. Football fandom will move on, but what will suffer as a consequence of domestic decline is the development of talent. The popularity of the Thai Premier League has inspired countless young Thai players, supported by their parents. But they all could be turned off by scandals like this one. Combined with the falling attendances, the signs are ominous.