{"id":17315,"date":"2019-04-14T21:35:43","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T12:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=17315"},"modified":"2019-04-14T21:35:43","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T12:35:43","slug":"tribe-talk-dale-farrington-chonburi-fc-supporter-and-webmaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2019\/04\/14\/tribe-talk-dale-farrington-chonburi-fc-supporter-and-webmaster\/","title":{"rendered":"TRIBE TALK: Dale Farrington, Chonburi FC Supporter and Webmaster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chonburi FC is one of Thailand&#8217;s most recognizable clubs, and their success arguably paved the way for the creation of the modern Thai League. Today, Dale Farrington, a long time Sharks supporter, and creator of an independent Chonburi FC fan site, discusses the evolution of his team and the league over the course of his nearly 2 decades long stint supporting the club.<\/p>\n        <\/div>\n        <div id=\"tribe-slideshow-wrap-17304\" data-id=\"17304\"\n             class=\"slideshow slideshow_id_17304\">\n            <div class=\"tribe-slideshow\" id=\"slideshow17304\">\n                                <div class=\"swiper-wrapper\">\n                                                <div class=\"swiper-slide\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/04\/P5Yc9BA2-800x600.jpg\"\/>\n                                    <script>\n        var currentSite = 'asia';\n        var isMalaysiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var isIndonesiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var postId = '17315';\n    <\/script>\n                                    <div class=\"slideshow_text_content\">\n                                    <p><b>Could you please walk us through how you discovered Chonburi FC, and what the state of the club was like at the time?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, I discovered them is because I used to buy a local Thai football magazine, back when I was playing in the early 2000s, which had all the clubs listed in the back. It was when I was looking through one of these magazines that I realized there was a local team playing in the league, and that was Chonburi. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I set out one Saturday to find them, and I ended up riding all around the city. There was one ground that I suspected was the ground that they used, as it was the only one I had seen there. So I went there first, but it turned out that it wasn\u2019t that one. So I rode all around the city, I was asking people where it was - nobody knew, nobody had a clue and they were all sending me off in different directions. And then eventually, just by chance, I stumbled upon the seaside stadium as it's known, which is the municipal stadium. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As for the state of the club, it was obviously in its infancy. There wasn\u2019t much structure there - to be honest, it was just like watching a local pub team in England. The players would turn up ten minutes before kickoff in their kit on their motorbikes, the game would start, they\u2019d play, and then disappear at the end. There wasn\u2019t much organization there at all. <\/span><\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                                                        <div class=\"swiper-slide\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/04\/jxppY6PN.jpg\"\/>\n                                    <script>\n        var currentSite = 'asia';\n        var isMalaysiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var isIndonesiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var postId = '17315';\n    <\/script>\n                                    <div class=\"slideshow_text_content\">\n                                    <p><b>What initially fuelled your loyal and continued support for this club?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the time obviously, it was my local side. All my life I had gone watching football, so that was the one thing that I wanted to carry on when I came to Thailand in 1997. And back then, the league was nothing like it is now. All the teams were based in Bangkok, and they were all associated to companies, or the armed forces or the police force. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I actually found a local side, that were playing in a structured and organized league from teams all over the country, it was great. I had found what I was looking for, and I just started going along. For the first couple of seasons, it was difficult because it was so hard to get information. I mean people complain now - I don\u2019t think I ever saw a league table! In 2005, when we won the league, things got more professional and there was more information. So it moved on from there, and then they restructured in 2006 when we went up to the Premier League. <\/span><\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                                                        <div class=\"swiper-slide\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/04\/LHKsfIz2.jpg\"\/>\n                                    <script>\n        var currentSite = 'asia';\n        var isMalaysiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var isIndonesiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var postId = '17315';\n    <\/script>\n                                    <div class=\"slideshow_text_content\">\n                                    <p><strong>Where did you get the inspiration to start your website?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At that time, there was one Thai football website, which was mainly about the national team, but they would have features on the league and the clubs. And it would have a message board. I got an email - somehow, I don\u2019t know how - from someone from England that there was a couple of people chatting on the message board. So it started with a few of us just chatting about Thai football in English on this message board. I think the lack of information spurred us all on...people would ask me about new signings, or their next fixture, and I would share all this information. I was also quite friendly with the lad who did the programmes at Chonburi, and he asked me if I wanted to write some articles for the programme in English, and I was happy to. So I used to send him these articles, which sometimes they\u2019d use and sometimes they didn\u2019t, but I built a collection of articles. Then one of the lads on the message board made a website for Korat, and I looked at that thought it was brilliant. So he gave me some information and I decided \u2018right, that\u2019s what I\u2019ll do.\u2019 So I started my own website then, this would in August 2009. So if people are now asking for information I could just redirect them to the website. Plus, I had all of these articles with no place to put them. And that was really how it started. <\/span><\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                                                        <div class=\"swiper-slide\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/04\/Vn_JIQfI-800x796.jpg\"\/>\n                                    <script>\n        var currentSite = 'asia';\n        var isMalaysiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var isIndonesiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var postId = '17315';\n    <\/script>\n                                    <div class=\"slideshow_text_content\">\n                                    <p><b>How did you go from that - having such a small club with few fans - to having ESPN interested in the club? How did that transformation happen so quickly? \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think it all comes down to success really. No matter what people say, if your club is successful, people are going to want to come and watch. And because we were different - the only other provincial club in the top division at the time was Suphanburi and they weren\u2019t doing very well - we were seen as the challenge to the old order, so we used to get fans from all over. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019d go for an away game in Bangkok, and they\u2019d be a lot of locals supporting us because they felt like they couldn\u2019t support the telephone organization or the port authority or the air force, or the police. We were the only club, and because we were doing well, it was easy for them to latch on to it. So that\u2019s really how the fan base grew. <\/span><\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                                                        <div class=\"swiper-slide\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/04\/LHKsfIz2.jpg\"\/>\n                                    <script>\n        var currentSite = 'asia';\n        var isMalaysiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var isIndonesiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var postId = '17315';\n    <\/script>\n                                    <div class=\"slideshow_text_content\">\n                                    <p><b>Given the amount of time you have spent involved with the league, you have clearly seen an evolution in Thai football media, both on the Thai language side and English language side. What do you make of this evolution? \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At first, there was very little. The Thai sports press had results and there were a couple of magazines that came out that used to publish the scores and the fixtures. But there was very little online. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Around 2009, all of us used to chat on [the English] message board and we all decided that it was time for us to work on websites. So suddenly you had about five or six dedicated club websites in English, and there was no other information out there in English, so we were the ones providing it. This was at a time when more and more people, not just foreigners but Thais as well, were getting more interested in Thai football - partly because of what Chonburi had done. This kind of gets overlooked as people who have only started watching in the past few years don\u2019t realize the part that we played in what we have now. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I mean, if it hadn\u2019t been for us and our success, I guess someone would have come along and done it, but we completely changed the face of Thai domestic football. Without a doubt. That\u2019s not my opinion, that's a fact. The fact that we were a provincial side, we were successful, we had an organic fanbase. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                                                        <div class=\"swiper-slide\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/04\/DNk8W58w.jpg\"\/>\n                                    <script>\n        var currentSite = 'asia';\n        var isMalaysiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var isIndonesiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var postId = '17315';\n    <\/script>\n                                    <div class=\"slideshow_text_content\">\n                                    <p><b>Can you name some of your favorite Chonburi players over the years? What made these players stand out in particular?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pipob On-Mo, obviously. Just brilliant, absolutely. For me he kinda epitomizes the whole club and the spirit of the club. I was so pleased with his testimonial. I have never cried at a football game but his testimonial was genuinely moving. It was no nice that the club did it, and they did it so well. They got everything absolutely spot on. The crowds came, and you could tell he was moved. It was just beautiful, and he deserved it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few more from that era. People like Adul, great player...why did we let him go? Twice! He was a great player, someone who would run through brick walls for you, very loyal and a good footballer as well. Therdsak Chaiman [was also] brilliant. He could still play now, I am convinced, and this is not me romanticizing things. He was brilliant. On some of those AFC nights, he was head and shoulders above everyone else on that pitch. Even though we got him towards the end of his career he was an absolute joy to watch. Again from that championship team, I\u2019d have to say Kosin [Sinthaweechai Hathairattanakool], who grew up with the club and experienced all that success. Thiago [Cunha], with all his faults, was brilliant. You look at his record at Chonburi and it\u2019s phenomenal. <\/span><\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                                                        <div class=\"swiper-slide\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/04\/9DmdFgCE-800x600.jpg\"\/>\n                                    <script>\n        var currentSite = 'asia';\n        var isMalaysiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var isIndonesiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var postId = '17315';\n    <\/script>\n                                    <div class=\"slideshow_text_content\">\n                                    <p><b>A lot has been said about the change in quality of Thai football over time. In your opinion, is Thai football currently the best it has ever been? If not, when was it at its best?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don\u2019t think it is currently. What has happened is that people\u2019s expectations have changed. When we used to go watch the games, even in the Premier League for the first couple of years, you knew the quality wasn\u2019t great, but it was a day out with a really nice atmosphere and it was something you enjoyed watching. But, when things changed in 2009, and when things off the field got more professional and more polished, and you had new grounds, with team replicas coming out, the coverage improving and all the rest of it, then people\u2019s expectations were raised. Because you had to buy a ticket for 150 baht, you were sitting in your seat in a stadium, you could buy a hat or a t-shirt...and it did get a lot of new fans at the time. So people coming in then were sold this as a professional league. But, on the pitch, things didn\u2019t really get better. But people\u2019s expectations were raised because of what was happening around the league.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So you were still watching the same thing you were watching a few years earlier, but you were then surrounded with a much more professional setup. And that boom, there was no way they could sustain it because I think people kind of saw through it. We\u2019re being told its a professional game, its a top league, but the quality really isn\u2019t that great on the pitch. And I think that\u2019s why the crowds are dropping off because people can see through that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overall the standard has improved, but again I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as good as it should be. <\/span><\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                                                        <div class=\"swiper-slide\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/04\/m66hfyhe.jpg\"\/>\n                                    <script>\n        var currentSite = 'asia';\n        var isMalaysiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var isIndonesiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var postId = '17315';\n    <\/script>\n                                    <div class=\"slideshow_text_content\">\n                                    <p><b>What about your club Chonburi specifically? They have been on a slow decline for the last few years; what does the future hold in store for them?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Again, I don\u2019t really know to be honest. They\u2019re putting in a lot of hope in this academy, but from what I\u2019ve seen and what I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s not the answer to our problems at all. I really don\u2019t know what to expect. But in terms of what I\u2019d want, I\u2019d be happy with just seeing some entertaining football, players who want to play for the club, maybe a couple of good cup runs like we had last season, and a top half finish in the league. I think that is all we can expect now. The days of challenging for the top honors have done. And unless we get massive investment...the people who run the club will not want to give over control, but unless they do, and bring in someone with a bit more nous and is a bit more tuned into what\u2019s needed to turn things around, then nothing will change. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the things that I\u2019m quite proud of at our club is also one thing that also frustrates me. It\u2019s the fact that, with one or two exceptions, we are very loyal. The coach we\u2019ve got now played for the club, he\u2019s been part of the backroom staff for the past 12-14 years, and now he\u2019s the head coach. That\u2019s a commendable thing, it\u2019s like the Liverpool boot room approach. So they\u2019ve got this core of people who are very loyal, and the loyalty goes both ways. But it\u2019s also frustrating because sometimes it can also be a hindrance. Without that, without them, you wouldn\u2019t have a club. But at some point, something has to change. Because I don\u2019t think they know what they\u2019re doing in this current climate. They need someone who is going to come in, and shake things up, and put them on the right track. <\/span><\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                                                        <div class=\"swiper-slide\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/04\/73mIIvr1.jpg\"\/>\n                                    <script>\n        var currentSite = 'asia';\n        var isMalaysiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var isIndonesiaCampaign =\n            '';\n        var postId = '17315';\n    <\/script>\n                                    <div class=\"slideshow_text_content\">\n                                    <p><b>Lastly, you have spent the last few months working on a book about Thai football. Please tell us a little bit about that project, and what your motivations were in undertaking it.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, nowadays you\u2019ve got all of these people writing about Thai football. You\u2019ve got all these websites, you\u2019ve got Twitter, you\u2019ve got Facebook, you\u2019ve got independent bloggers - if you scour the internet now you can find hundreds and hundreds of articles of people watching Thai football matches. I just thought it would be nice to have a collection of stories about people\u2019s experiences watching Thai football. Everybody has come into it at a different time, people have seen it at different stages of its development and people have different experiences. I just thought it would be nice to have a collection of stories from over the years about people\u2019s experiences. Football books are quite a big business nowadays. Anthony (Sutton) was an inspiration for it, his stories and his travels around South-East Asia. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The state of it at the moment, the editing process is quite drawn out and laborious. We\u2019ve got people whose first language isn\u2019t English. But what I\u2019m trying to do is keep the essence of what they\u2019ve said, so not to change it too much. I\u2019ve got some really long, 5,000 word contributions from some people which just take very long to edit. I\u2019m trying to look for some themes as well, so I can kind of link them, even if it is a collection of unrelated stories. I\u2019m trying to look for something that\u2019s going to be running throughout the book. I\u2019ve approached a publisher and they\u2019re keen, and I\u2019m on holiday now so I hope I can get a couple of draft chapters out to them just to see if it's the kind of thing that they\u2019re looking for. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All the stuff I\u2019ve got is really good, it\u2019s been really great reading through it and it\u2019s kind of exactly what I was looking for. It captured the essence of what watching Thai football is all about and people have been very honest. <\/span><\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                                            <\/div>\n                <div class=\"row\">\n                    <div class=\"col-lg-5 col-4\">\n                        <div class=\"swiper-button-prev\">\n                        <span class=\"fas fa-chevron-left\"\n                              aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n                        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                    <div class=\"col-lg-2 col-4\">\n                        <div class=\"swiper-pagination\"><\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                    <div class=\"col-lg-5 col-4\">\n                        <div class=\"swiper-button-next\">\n                        <span class=\"fas fa-chevron-right\"\n                              aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n                        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"text-content\">\n        \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chonburi FC is one of Thailand&#8217;s most recognizable clubs, and their success arguably paved the way for the creation of the modern Thai League. Today, Dale Farrington, a long time Sharks supporter, and creator of an independent Chonburi FC fan site, discusses the evolution of his team and the league over the course of his nearly 2 decades long stint supporting the club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":17305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-southeast-asia","category-thailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}