Football Association of Thailand (FAT) announced that Thailand would play a friendly match with China on June 2 in Bangkok.
FAT president Somyot Poompunmuang confirmed that the friendly match will be held during the break of the Thai League in early June.
In earlier March, Thailand coach Milovan Rajevac had announced his plan to take the Thai national team to Austria for a two-week training stint during the mid-season hiatus.
However, he faced backlash from high-ranking Thai League 1 team officials, who raises concerns for players’ fitness during the overseas training camp.
Speaking at the FAT general assembly on Saturday, Somyot said that FAT put away its plan to send the national team away for a training stint in Europe.
“The slot available for the national team’s training in Europe is May 28 to June 5, which is quite short. Moreover, there was re-sentment from some clubs in the domestic leagues. So we have opted to play a friendly game with a quality team instead,” Somyot said, as quoted by The Bangkok Post.
“China and India both expressed interest in playing Thailand, but we can only arrange one match in such short time.
“After taking their past records and Fifa rankings into account, we have decided to play the friendly with China on June 2.”
