Thailand does not take SEA Games seriously?

Three months before the 33rd SEA Games, Thailand announced it would earn a profit of more than 200 million USD from hosting the 2025 World Volleyball Championship.

Thailand is capable of hosting events bigger than the SEA Games - Photo: FIVB

Thailand is capable of hosting events bigger than the SEA Games.

That is truly a dream number for any country, any major sporting event (except football events like the World Cup). Thailand is famous for its ability to host sporting events larger than the SEA Games.

The Women's Volleyball World Cup is just one example of Thailand's ability to host events, alongside their impressive depth in a number of sports.

From the World Volleyball Championship to One Championship (MMA), from top badminton tournaments like the Thailand Open to the Asiad..., Thais have long been familiar with hosting, or even creating, top events.

The 2025 Women's Volleyball World Championship was successfully hosted by Thailand - Photo: FIVB

With 4 times of organization, Thailand is still the country that has hosted the Asiad (Asian Games) the most times in history.

They even stepped in to “rescue” the Asian Games when a host country cancelled its hosting. Typical examples were the 1970 Asian Games (originally hosted by South Korea) or the 1978 Asian Games (originally hosted by Singapore). In those times, Thailand stepped in at the last minute to take on the responsibility.

But with the SEA Games, this is the first time they have hosted a regional sports event after 18 years. And in fact, the Thais are only hosting out of obligation.

Mistaken national flags of many countries

SEA Games 33 opened with a series of mistakes, confusion, and chaos in the organization.

On the official website, Thailand mistakenly placed the national flag, from Indonesia to Laos, from Thailand to... Vietnam's flag.

In the opening men's football match between Vietnam and Laos on the afternoon of December 3, the organizers did not play the national anthems of the two teams.

To the media, the Thais were slow right from the card issuance stage, then made strange announcements like banning the use of the SEA Games logo, then canceling the announcement.

And the mess was evident everywhere, like at the Rajamangala National Stadium itself, where the lights were broken and there were no spares.

What is happening to Thailand? When the country that is the leader in Southeast Asia, even reaching the world level in terms of event organization capacity, is strangely indifferent to the SEA Games.

We also need to sympathize with Thailand, as they have faced many difficulties in recent times, from the loss of the Royal Family to the historic floods.

Queen Sirikit, mother of King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand, passed away last month. Thais have always had a deep respect for the royal family, and the year-long mourning period has had some impact on the organization of sports and entertainment events in the land of golden temples.

Meanwhile, the floods in November, lasting until December, forced Thailand to cancel plans to host the SEA Games in Songkhla province. Many alternative venues in Bangkok were forced into a passive, hasty position.

Thailand still stages very beautiful landscapes to prepare for SEA Games 33 - Photo: MATICHON

But that is not the reason why the Thai people did not play the Vietnamese national anthem at the opening match of the SEA Games, at the Rajamangala National Stadium.

That's also no excuse for Thailand to make a mistake about the national flag on its official website - something they had a whole year to prepare.

The Thais opened the SEA Games in a chaotic manner due to their own carelessness, which can only be explained by the fact that they took the regional sports event too lightly. And that is a general trend.

Two years ago, right after the 2023 SEA Games ended in Cambodia, the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) held a press conference to announce the 33rd SEA Games as “Thailand 2025 – Bangkok, Chonburi and Songkhla”.

A long-winded name, going against the international Olympic movement. Paris 2024, Tokyo 2020, or Hangzhou 2022 are the correct names for a sports event, that is, named after the host city, not the country.

But since 2019, the SEA Games have gone against this trend. From the Philippines to Vietnam, Cambodia and now Thailand, hosting the regional sports event has been spread out to many places.

The reason? Cost savings. In preparation for the 2025 SEA Games, Thailand has barely built any new stadiums.

They only renovated a few rare venues like Tinsulanon Stadium in Songkhla (renovated in 2019, not really for the SEA Games). And 90% of the stadiums Thailand used at the SEA Games are decades old.

Thai sports have undergone two "big construction" periods, the first in the 1950s and 1960s, and the second in the 1990s. Since then, they have stopped building giant stadiums and gymnasiums, in line with the anti-waste spirit of the sports world in other countries.

The SEA Games organizing committee is facing a lot of criticism - Photo: SAT

But that is still not the reason for Thailand to organize the SEA Games so carelessly. Thailand may lack investment, may no longer take the SEA Games seriously, but what has been happening in Bangkok in recent days is an attitude of disrespect for the sports world.

Indonesian newspaper Olret Vivo commented: "Let's pray that this SEA Games does not become a disaster", summarizing the angry comments of local newspapers.

From Thairath, Siam Sports to Matichon, major Thai newspapers have expressed their frustration with the organization of the tournament from their own people. More than a month ago, Thailand had to send a delegation to Vietnam to apologize for the mistake of the national flag during the futsal draw. At the 33rd SEA Games, a series of such incidents appeared.

Although Thai sports are increasingly reaching professional and world-class levels in many sports, a SEA Games - existing in the Olympic movement, with elements of national pride and colors, cannot be a place for careless and sloppy organization.

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HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/thai-lan-khong-coi-trong-sea-games-2025120321372811.htm