Monday, August 13, 2012
You're Gonna Get Your Bottom Line Kicked In
I was immensely tickled to read about some disturbances at a
recent Thailand Premier League game between TOT and Bangkok Glass. Tickled
because these are two of the corporate clubs that litter the football landscape
in the country and, for me at least, I find it hard to get excited about a club
that is just an extension of a corporate entity.
The plastic water bottle throwing at the weekend, always the
water bottles, excited me though. If fans of corporate clubs can get excited
enough to lob bits of plastic at each other what else can they do? For most
fans of real football clubs we have to make do with 90 minutes abuse, a walk
through the back streets to the station after the game and a bit of banter at
work in the Monday.
But the corporate clubs? Imagine, for example, a fan of TOT
who has a successful business. He may decide, if he loathed Bangkok Glass
enough, to have the windows at his office smashed in then call Bangkok Glass
for a quote. Not give them the work of course but just string them along, costing
them time, effort and money with no hope of a return.
Of course a Bangkok Glass fan could do similar. He could
decide such was his visceral loathing for TOT football club he wants to find a
new telecommunications provider.
The options are endless in Thailand. If you get annoyed at
BEC Tero then stop watching the TV channel that owns them. Fed up with the ref
giving Muang Thong United all the 50/50s? Then stop using their cement! Pattaya
United get a last minute winner against you? Visit Phuket next vacation.
Unhappy with the antics of Police United players? Secretly video the next
shakedown and post it on You Tube. Buriram United come from 7-0 down with two
minutes on the clock to win 14-7? Move your factory and your friends’ factories
to the north east and instruct your staff to vote for the other lot. Hate the
hotel you have to stay in Chiang Mai when playing TTM? Stop smoking!
# posted by Me @ 5:13 PM 
