World Cup qualifying diary: Bangkok yet to get excited by Thailand’s game against UAE

Bangkok is a bustling city of eight million people, but the World Cup game against UAE has generated tepid interest, but could that change, John McAuley wonders.

While Tuesday's game against Thailand may be an exciting fixture from the UAE's perspective, the Bangkok residents themselves do not seem all that excited – yet. Courtesy UAE FA

BANGKOK, THAILAND // Even come late on Monday, Bangkok did not feel particularly fussed by Thailand’s World Cup qualifier against the UAE.

It is hard to gauge the consensus in this hyper and humdrum place, a sprawling metropolis of more than eight million people, but for much of the previous days there was little in the way of billboards or bunting dedicated to the match.

Posters were dotted around the city carrying pictures of the national team, headlined by star playmaker Chanathip Songkrasin – he misses the game through injury – and some players endorse products upon the occasional giant electronic screen. Yet, other than that, Tuesday’s Group B encounter did not appear to rouse the locals.

That can be explained, apparently, by the national team’s predicament. Bottom of Group B, Thailand have already waved goodbye to a first World Cup appearance next summer, with Serbian manager Milovan Rajevac only really just in the door after Kiatisuk Senamuang’s resignation in April.

Zico, Dunga and Frank Rijkaard had been mentioned as possible replacements for the former Thai international, but in the end the Football Association of Thailand plumped for Rajevan, a slightly less glamorous choice.

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McAuley in Bangkok

■ Bauza: UAE are ready for Thailand

■ Rajevac: Thailand hope for surprise

■ Comment: 12 days not perfect but enough

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The indifference is reflected, too, in the number of players missing from the squad to take on the UAE, with some members of the Thai media suggesting niggles have been exaggerated or excuses made – all totally unfounded, of course.

As such, the encounter is far from a sellout: organisers are expecting between 25,000 and 30,000 at best, some way short of the Rajamangala Stadium’s 48,000 capacity, or the 44,000 that watched September’s qualifier with Japan.

At least at training late on Monday, at the final session before the big game, the journalists, the photographers and the TV cameras turned up en masse. Maybe there is still time. Maybe the interest will catch fire yet.

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