Do Thais believe the host will win the men's football gold medal?

TPO - The 33rd SEA Games has begun, so what do the people of the host country, Thailand, think about the event and what do they expect from Thai sports?

U22 Thailand in the opening match of SEA Games 33.

Ahead of the 33rd SEA Games, Kasembundit University (Thailand) in collaboration with the Institute of Sports Organization Management conducted a large-scale survey with the theme "SEA Games 2025 and Expectations". The data showed that the majority of Thai people are interested in the Southeast Asian sports festival and expect high results from the host team.

According to the survey results, nearly half of the respondents (46.02%) knew about the congress, while 39.66% had heard of it and only 14.32% did not know. In addition, up to 72.10% were interested in following the competitions and very few people showed no interest (3.87%).

With Thailand hosting the SEA Games for the first time in 8 years, 24.05% expect that this time will help improve the ability to organize sporting events according to international standards, 23.19% hope to help improve the level of athletes, 15.39% think it will improve the image of Thailand.

On the sporting front, Thais are completely confident in the abilities of their athletes. The number of people who believe that the Thai sports team has a high to very high chance of topping the medal table is up to 82.15%, while only 8.28% are pessimistic, saying that the chances are low or very low.

Among sports, men's football is the most trusted to win gold, with 89.20%. Next is women's volleyball (86.80%), badminton (78.60%), futsal (75.30%), taekwondo (72.90%), sepak takraw (70.10%), while Muay Thai is only ranked 7th with 69.00%.

Confidence in men’s football is likely to be even higher after the resounding 6-1 victory of Thailand U22 in the opening match. According to coach Thawatchai Damrong-Ongtrakul, his team will be even better in the next matches, including the semi-finals and finals.

To boost the players' morale, right after the opening match, Madam Pang Nualphan Lamsam, President of the Football Association of Thailand, went into the locker room and gave the players a bonus of 500,000 baht.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/nguoi-thai-co-tin-chu-nha-se-gianh-huy-chuong-vang-bong-da-nam-post1801878.tpo