Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Thai Memories
The face of Thai football has changed immeasurably over the years and mostly it's for the better. I first moved to the country in the early 90s and while I would often read the results in the local paper and I often promised myself I would get to a game I never did.
In them times Thai Farmers' Bank were the best team, they won an Asian club competition and they even had a club shop in Siam Square selling shirts and pennants and so on.
Then there was the dream team that impressed during the Asian Games in 1994 I think it was. featuring players like Kiatisuk, who had a spell with Huddersfield Town, and Tawan who did well in later years in Singapore.
1996 saw the start of the Johnnie Walker Thailand League, a first attempt to organise a proper national league and this is the final league table for that inaugural season.
Some familar names there including TOT, Rajpracha, Sinthana (later to become Chula Sinthana, Chula United and now BBCU United), RTAF (Air Force United), RTA (Army United), Royal Thai Navy (Siam Navy), Police (United), PAT (Thai Port), Singha Tero Sasana (BEC Tero), Tobacco Monopoly (TTM Phichit), Osotspa (now play in Saraburi) and KTB who were taken over by Bangkok Glass.
A far cry from what we have today in the Thai Premier League! Fair to say nobody could have envisioned crowds of 15,000 + and former England internationals playing in the country.
The table below and indeed the results from that season can be found on the excellent RSSSF website.
1.Thai Farmers Bank 34 18 10 6 56-25 64 [TFB]
2.Telephone Organization of Thailand 34 17 11 6 61-35 62 [TOT]
3.Bangkok Bank 34 17 11 6 54-34 62 [BBL]
4.Stock Exchange of Thailand 34 17 9 8 59-31 60 [SET]
5.UCOM-Rajpracha 34 16 12 6 62-36 60
6.Sinthana 34 17 6 11 45-45 57
7.Royal Thai Air Force 34 14 12 8 60-50 54
8.Royal Thai Army 34 14 12 8 60-50 54
9.Royal Thai Navy 34 13 12 9 44-29 51
10.Police 34 13 11 10 53-39 50
11.Port Authority of Thailand 34 9 14 11 44-39 41
12.Singha Tero Sasana 34 9 14 11 37-44 41
13.Thailand Tobacco Monopoly 34 7 14 13 37-44 35
14.Osotspa 34 8 10 16 41-73 34
15.Bangkok Bank of Commerce 34 7 11 16 34-47 32
16.Rajvithi-Agfatech 34 8 8 18 43-71 32
17.Krung Thai Bank 34 5 9 20 32-54 24
18.Singha-Thamrongthai 34 1 6 27 26-111 9
# posted by Me @ 9:10 AM 
