BB-CU FC
Ground: Nonthaburi Youth Centre Stadium
Capacity: 6,000
Club Founded: 1976
Club Dissolved: 2017
Early Years
Founded as Bangtoey Football Team in 1976, the club was based at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. The university has been playing in the Chula-Thammasat Traditional football match since 1934, a game similar to the Varsity match in the UK.
The team competed in the Thailand Soccer League from 1996 before becoming a member of the Premier League a couple of years later. Relegation was avoided after defeating Bangkok Christian College in a playoff, before the competition was retitled the Thai League.
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| Nonthaburi Youth Centre Stadium |
Merger
When it was rebranded the Thailand Premier League (TPL) in 2003-04, the club had already morphed into Chulalongkorn University FC, before merging with Sinthana FC to form Chula-Sinthana FC. The team was relegated to the second-tier Thailand Division 1 League. A year later, they went down another level.
Successive promotions took the renamed Chula United back to the TPL, before they went down once more in 2009. Another name change to BB-CU followed in January 2011. They become tenants at the Army Stadium, sharing with Army United, as the TPL, which was BB-CU's aim, required all clubs to be PLCs, against the university's ethos.
Thai Premier League
The university formed Chamchuri United to represent them in the Thai League 3. Meanwhile, BB-CU's new title brought them luck, as they won promotion with Chainarong Tathong top-scoring. Rajamangala Stadium was the home venue, as the TPL didn't allow teams to share venues.
Juninho top-scored as his team was relegated to the Division 1 League, and the team returned to the Army Stadium. Bouba Abbo scored regularly a year later when BB-CU had relocated to the Nonthaburi Youth Centre Stadium, where Julius Obioh starred.
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| Nonthaburi Youth Centre Stadium |
The End
Yusuke Kato was on target to help his side to promotion in 2015 under head coach Tsuyoshi Takano. Jeong Woo-geun was the top scorer in the TPL season that ended in relegation after Jatuporn Pramualban had been put in charge of the team.
The club was dissolved and banned from any involvement for two years. Nonthaburi Youth Centre Stadium would later become the home ground of VRN Muangnont.
My visits
Stadium Visit - Wednesday 1st April 2015
It was a steaming hot day in Bangkok, with my pal Steve putting up with my hobby and being driven miles just to look at a second-tier football stadium. It’s moments like that when you know who your friends are!
We took a taxi after seeing the new base for Police United took us what seemed a long way round before taking a U-turn and heading in the right direction. As it turned out our driver was spot on.
The Rama 9 Sports Stadium was a decent enough venue as it turned out and not dissimilar to our previous venue. There were other sports facilities outside, but the main arena had a fine raised Main Stand down one side with a smaller enclosure and a temporary roof opposite. A running track surrounded the pitch with no facilities for spectators around the curves.
We had considered catching a bus into the city centre, where I needed to be for a cricket meeting at 5.30, but it was difficult to find the destinations of the local service. Instead, we hailed a cab to the underground.
The driver decided he’d treat Steve to an exhibition of his Arabic skills, which I’m not sure were totally appreciated. The first cold beer definitely was!
BBCU 2 Suphanburi 3
Thai Premier League - Sunday 24th April 2016
👨👨👧👧 1,726 🎟️ 150 THB (£3.60)
Bangkok Lunch
It was the final day of a magnificent holiday once again in the Land of Smiles, and I was looking to round off the trip in fine style.
After a long Saturday night out, I met Steve in Minburi, from where we took a taxi and the subway down to Asoke, before enjoying lunch in the Queen Victoria pub. We needed plenty of energy on board for our first expedition of the day.
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| Lucky Punters at the Races |
A Day at the Races
I had always wanted to go to the horse racing at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club. The fixtures worked out perfectly for us to go to a few races and then head north to Nonthaburi for the evening football. Within forty minutes, we were in the stands at the RBSC in the extreme heat with several thousand other locals.
The afternoon went well, and we hung around for the big race, the Chakri Cup. Our plan was to each put 100 THB (£2) on a horse in each race and then share any returns. It had gone superbly well, with three out of eight horses winning. The proceeds didn’t add up to too much, but we were happy enough.
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| Racing at RBSC |
It was extremely hot in the areas for general patrons, where the locals got their gambling fix in the only legal place in town. I overdressed in jeans, trying to look the part and paid the penalty.
The Cup had a late start when the pre-race ceremony ran over, and then a horse refused to enter the stalls. Eventually, the race was run, and we had another winning slip. After waiting to make sure that all horses had weighed in, Steve got paid out, and we headed to the Siam BTS station.
Travel Issues
My idea was to head to Mo Chit station and then take a taxi to the stadium. Then, for some reason, I got it into my head that alighting at Victory Monument was a better idea. I got completely mixed up, much to little surprise from my mate.
Despite having a piece of paper with the address written in Thai, several taxi drivers either didn’t know or considered it too far to travel. After four or five attempts, we found a willing driver. Sure enough, we drove past Mo Chit station!
Finally Made It
It was quite a distance as it turned out. Eventually, we saw the towering floodlights and turned left at Samakkhi Road, then went down a small soi directly behind one end, where we alighted. The game had already begun.
Perhaps the confusion was from the fact that the stadium had two different names? Some called it the Ratchakumari Youth Centre Stadium. Others called it King Rama 9 Sports Stadium. Anyway, Steve went for tickets, which were expensive by Thai standards, while I got us a Coke each. There were no programmes on sale.
The Match
We went upstairs into the stands into familiar surroundings as we’d visited the stadium to take photos just over a year earlier. A decent crowd had turned up. The rest of the stadium benefited from the addition of temporary open seating on either side of the permanent stand on the far side. The seats to the right accommodated the away fans.
Amazingly enough, the score was already 1-1! I went to plenty of Thai games where goals were at a premium, but as soon as I turned up a few minutes late, I missed two. I later discovered that Carmelo had put Suphanburi ahead before Geun-jeong Woo equalised in seven minutes.
The weather was still very warm as we found seats in the stand amongst passionate home supporters. As ever, most were on the younger side, with a mix of male and female. One young lady, along with her fella, wasn’t short on offering her feedback, much to the amusement of many others.
The visitors were backed by a decent following of around 600 fans, and they were rewarded when Carmelo put them back ahead. The goal was the fault of home keeper Teerapong Putthasuka, who flapped at a cross, feigned injury, and then got up as the ball returned and was tapped in before he fell over again in apparent agony.
Fortunately, referee Anuwat Feemuechang was not fooled, and he awarded the goal. BB-CU tried to get back into the game up until the interval. Play saw action in both halves, but it was the visitors who went in 2-1 ahead. I decided to try to find someone selling a programme, and have a look at the meagre souvenir stall at half-time. Nothing really caught my eye.
Big Bang’s Japanese coach Kôichi Sugiyama looked to have had words with his charges during the break, in what turned out to be one of his final games in charge of the club. They came out with far more attacking intent.
Nigerian winger Julius Oiboh began to look dangerous, and it was through his fine work that the team in pink drew level as Korean forward Geun-jeong Woo netted his second of the night. His team continued to push forward.
It wasn’t to be as the Suphanburi forwards broke forward with a clever pass from Carmelo, beating the offside trap for the Brazilian substitute Dellatorre to score with the shot rolling in off the post with fifteen minutes remaining. That would prove to be the winning goal.
Sunday Night in Minburi
Steve and I wandered to the main drag and got a taxi within five minutes to our favourite bar in Minburi, Sudtong Club. We enjoyed a massive feast of chicken in rice, pork pieces, and amazing pork dumplings washed down with three half-litre bottles of Leo beer for the princely sum of THB Baht (£13).
A couple of local musicians entertained us while we watched Sunderland v Arsenal on TV. It had been the perfect day I was looking for to end my holiday, with a great experience at the races, a good game of football, and great company.
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