Worawi must right the wrongs

Kitinan Sanguansak

kitinan13

@hotmail.com November 25, 2012 1:00 am

He may have a high position in a powerful international organisation such as Fifa, but Worawi Makudi's life is not as pleasant as people would think. He is, in fact, the favourite punching bag of the Thai public, which believes that he does everything wrong.

A man who wields as much power as Worawi, who is president of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) - arguably the country's biggest sports association - should not find himself in a situation like that. But Worawi, who also sits on Fifa's executive committee, has had to deal with such negative perceptions about him, even if he is actually right in a few cases.

The stadium farce that cast a huge shadow over the organisation of the recent Futsal World Cup illustrated best how Worawi has been made the scapegoat for all the wrongs, real or imagined, that dealt a serious blow to the country's reputation. One can only pity the man.

How embarrassing it was for the country when a venue built at a cost of Bt1.2 billion was deemed unfit to host the showpiece tournament. It was possibly the first time in recent history that a host country was unable to use an arena for a sporting event for which it was built. Many pointed the fingers at the FAT boss first. They merely wanted someone to take responsibility for what happened.

To be fair to Worawi, he was not the one who should have been held accountable for such a gigantic waste of money, given that his office was not responsible for the construction of the trouble-plagued Bangkok Futsal Arena. It does not, however, mean that the man, who is no stranger to controversy, could entirely run away from taking any kind of responsibility.

Worawi reiterated that the Cup had been a success when he faced the parliamentary committee, which was inquiring into the problems, on Thursday. The FAT boss even backed his claim with documents praising the country's hosting of the event from the world's soccer governing body. But he seemed to be the only man to think so since the tournament failed to capture the imagination of the fans, which reflected on the large number of empty seats in each Cup match, particularly in the group stage.

Besides the construction of the arena, which was dogged by delays, publicity was another area in which people voiced their concern during the build-up to the tournament, which ended last week with Brazil clinching their fifth title.

Many people hoped publicity would take off prior to the competition. However, one could hardly spot the tournament's advertisement boards or banners sporadically when one drove along the capital's streets even after the event got underway.

How this could happen in such a world-class tournament was a question for those involved. Was it just a matter of lack of money to promote the event? The answer is, "No". Worawi himself said his association received US$1.5 million (Bt45 million) from Fifa to organise the competition. He did not give details on how he spent the money. So where did it go?

Even though some matches featuring the Thai side, in particular, were reportedly sold out, there were many empty seats at the venue, Worawi explained that the problem was beyond his control as some tickets were allocated to sponsors. But, he could at least have tried to see a way and handled the matter better with relevant parties.

Rather than wondering why he has such a negative image among the public, it would be wiser for Worawi to spend his time trying to correct such obvious failings in his management.

Latest stories in this category

• Thailand get off to a victory


• Three-time champions Thailand got their campaign..


• Seeking some joy in sport


• Cigana has McCormack in his way

We Recommend

• Protesters injured, arrested in clashes with police


• Police Saturday morning fired teargases at..


• PM fears violence at protest


• Bangkok on rally alert

Comments conditions

Users are solely responsible for their comments.We reserve the right to remove any comment and revoke posting rights for any reason withou prior notice.

Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2012/11/26/worawi-must-right-the-wrongs/