Alpine Football Camp Training (Bangkok)

Ground: Alpine Football Camp Training 

Capacity: 200

Opened: 2019

Club: Venue Available for Hire

Alpine Football Camp Training is a company that provides venues for football training and matches played in top-class facilities. It has centres in Lamphun and Chiang Mai, as well as Ram Intra in Bangkok, which was formerly a golf driving range.

Venue Background

In July 2022, Liverpool FC used AFTC as their training base for their friendly match in Bangkok against Manchester United, when a “Meet the Kop” friendly match was also arranged during the visit, in which Jurgen Klopp praised the facility.

The venue was also previously used as a training ground for competing teams in the AFC Champions League. AFTC is fully floodlit and available for clubs to hire for training and play matches.

My visit

TAO Dovechem 3 AES Moonlight 2

Bangkok Premier League FA Cup - Sunday 21st August 2022

👨‍👨‍👧‍👧 c20 🎟️ Free

This was what proved to be an eventful experience on a wet Sunday afternoon for my intrepid matchday mate Steve and me. Our original choice was a league fixture at CK Stadium in Minburi between PVV FC and Primera FC.

We grabbed a taxi from the bottom of Thanon Sam Wa in Minburi, eventually reaching the soi we required. We walked a mile down the narrow lane and then came across a badly flooded access road to the ground.

I suggested taking our shoes and socks off and going for it, but my pal had more common sense and mentioned the potential of snakes. He was right. It was frustrating as we could hear the referee's whistle and the players' shouts.

Chuck into the equation our Bangkok-based Aussie mate, Vaughan, who was joining us, and he had gone down the next soi, you will understand that it was a bit of a shambles. But we are resourceful chaps, and a Plan B was quickly engineered.

I had the list of fixtures from the kind league organiser via Facebook. Vaughan drove us to the magnificent Alpine Football facility, where Liverpool had recently trained before their prestigious friendly with Manchester United at Rajamangala Stadium.

My contact had forewarned me that Alpine was not a great venue for viewing, with spectator access being restricted to under cover behind one goal. Another game was being played on the second pitch, divided by netting alongside.

I’m not sure of the reason that the match was played at Alpine, but we were grateful that it was. We arrived with Dovechem 1-0 ahead, though the western partner of one of the players we asked wasn’t entirely sure.

At the break, we made use of the café to get non-alcoholic drinks and then tried to get the best view possible. Many were just there as family members and weren’t watching too closely, which helped us move to the net to see through.

The second half saw an excellent game between the two sides challenging for the Bangkok Premier League Division 3 title, in which AES equalised before TAO, the second string of FC Bangsaotong restored their lead.

Again, Moonlight pegged them back on the immaculate pitch, which helped the heavy rain without cutting up and matched the rest of the set-up before Dovechem progressed through to the next round with a winning goal. A cracker of a contest.

Vaughan waved us goodbye as Steve and I set off walking towards Fashion Island, but quickly realised that the tollway was obstructing us from reaching our destination with no footbridges. A taxi took us back to Minburi. I would be seeing AES Moonlight in action in the Thai FA Cup a few weeks later.