Thai Honda

 

Thai Honda FC

Ground: 72nd Anniversary Stadium, Minburi

Capacity: 4,000

Club Founded: 2000

Club Dissolved: 2019

Many football clubs backed by companies outside the game have come and gone from the Thai Leagues over the years. The one sponsored by Honda Motorcycle Thailand is a prime example.

This and the next three images, 700th Anniversary Stadium, Minburi

Thai Honda Early Years

Thai Honda FC was a professional football club that played throughout their time in the Thai League at several venues in the farthest east of the city. Originally founded as Thai Honda Ladkrabang FC, they played regional football. 

A place in the second-tier Thai Division 1 League for the 2004-05 season was granted, before promotion was won to the Thai Premier League. Cheick Ismael Coulibaly top-scored before the club moved to the 72nd Anniversary Stadium in Minburi, for the 2007 campaign

                                         

The goals of Ismail Faday Kamara weren't enough to save the 'Speed Kings' from relegation. Things could have got worse a year later when they finished in the League 1 Division relegation spots.

However, Bangkok Bank withdrew from the competition, so all four relegated sides played off to retain their second-tier status. Honda defeated Raj Vithi and then Nakhon Sawan to stay up. The goals of Sutin Anukoon followed the next season.

The club moved to King Mongkut's Institute of Technology (KMITL) Stadium near Suvarnabhumi Airport in 2010, where Nana Yaw Asamoah top-scored for the team.

A year later, Honda were back at Minburi for a disastrous season in which the team finished bottom of the table, going down to the third-tier Regional League 2 Bangkok Metropolitan Region. In 2012, the divisional title was won while playing at KMITL Stadium. Dreams of promotion ended in the group stage of the playoffs. 

A couple of seasons later, Honda lifted the league title once again, winning its playoff group to secure promotion back to the second level as Rodoljub Paunović banged in the goals. Gastón González topped the charts in 2015 as Honda consolidated their status.

Ricardo Jesus fired Thai Honda Ladkrabang to the Division 1 League title in 2016 to send the club back to the top flight while playing back at the 72nd Anniversary Stadium. Thai league football was restructured for the 2017 season, with the top division being retitled Thai League 1.

Honda's promotion meant that BEC Tero-Sasana had to look for a new home. A ruling didn't permit groundsharing between teams in the highest division. Honda secured the stadium to stay in Minburi, while Tero moved to merge with Police United and play in Lak Si.

Ironically, Honda's spell at the top table lasted just one season before they were relegated to Thai League 2, where Tawin Butsombat ended as top scorer.

Worachai Surinsirirat was the head coach for the 2019 campaign, doing a fine job in leading his side to sixth place as Valdo topped the scoring charts. However, the financial costs of funding a professional football club saw the owners dissolve it.

My visit

at KMITL Stadium

Thai Honda 0 Samut Sakon 1

Thai Regional League Bangkok Area - Sunday 8th April 2012

👨‍👨‍👧‍👧 150 🎟️ 50 THB (£1.20)

Last Day of a Thai Holiday

It was the final day of one of my best-ever holidays in the Land of Smiles. I had just arrived back from Chiang Mai after a wonderful and joyous International Cricket Sixes Tournament by plane with Steve and Fah, who headed back to Minburi.

I was to meet them later that evening for my goodbye mookata meal, but in the meantime, I said my goodbyes and headed for my very budget hotel towards Suvarnabhumi Airport, where I was in a quandary as to which game to select, as there were choices of two 4pm kick-offs.

Choices Galore

I wanted to catch the majority of Bangkok United's 6pm game in Ding Daeng, close to the city centre. In the end, I plumped for Thai Honda's home game after I was given helpful advice from the guys, Thai football experts online via their Twitter accounts.

They confirmed the venue to be the KMITL (Technology) Stadium, which I'd passed on the motorway many times when heading to Pattaya. It was in the nearby Lad Krabang district, and I reasoned that it would be easy to make a quick getaway to get into the city, meaning I would miss a minimum of action.

Taxi Travel

One beauty of Bangkok is that you never have to wait long for a taxi, wherever you are. Whether the driver has a clue where he's going is another matter altogether, as I was about to find out! I saw virtually all of the city by taxi within four hours!

Anyway, even though my hotel was well up a lane away from traffic, a taxi soon appeared. I had planned well in advance and printed out a map of where I wanted to go. The driver still seemed confused until suddenly the penny dropped.

If I'd have asked for the King Mongkut's Institute of Technology rather than the stadium, he'd have sussed it a lot quicker, but I didn't realise it was on the campus. We still seemed to go an agonisingly long way round, but the city's traffic system has baffled more experienced tourists than me many times before.

The main thing was that he knew the way. We were waved through the gates of the Institute and drove around the large campus, which even had its own 7/11 shop; another guaranteed feature in the city, along with taxis. He dropped me behind the towering Main Stand.

As at every game I'd attended in Thailand, a small stall had been set up by a vendor selling drinks of all kinds, crisps, noodles and local delicacies that were cooked on a small griddle. I was glad to get some water.

I was determined to keep my alcohol content down as I'd had enough to sink a battleship over the previous ten days. It was officially the second day of mourning for the late Princess, who'd passed away six months earlier.

Her funeral parade was to be the next day. I happened to see this on live TV as I was awaiting my call to board my plane at the airport. In terms of pageantry, the Thais did it as well as anyone.

I went up to the desk and bought a ticket for admission to the stand. I was surprised at the absence of any souvenir stand, especially as some home fans were wearing replica kits. I went up the stairs to survey the scene.

The KMITL Stadium was extremely lopsided. The stand I was in was the only proper spectator accommodation. It was an absolute beauty of a cantilever structure raised above the pitch and following the contour of the field, which had a running track around it. The rest of the pitch was surrounded by a prim hedge.

Fans could stand there and watch for free, although I'm sure that it wasn't encouraged. A large scoreboard stood at the Motorway End, but the rest of the area spread out to wide expanses of the Institute's sports facilities.

Sparse Attendance

The crowd was sparse, with more away fans than Honda's and definitely more watching than the official figure. I'd have put it at around 3 to 400. The Samut Sakon supporters wore their eye-catching pink and sky blue striped shirts.

Both sets of fans who sat at either end of the stand had drums and hooters to try to create an atmosphere. One of the vocal Honda fans offered me a warm smile and welcome. I'd seen them a couple of years previously in their local derby at the team now called Customs United, which was called Suvarnabhumi Customs at the time.

Maybe he recognised me, as I don't suppose they got a lot of farangs following them? The teams came out with flag bearers at the front and stood to attention for a minute's silence, which I presumed was for the Princess.

The royal family are extremely revered in Thailand, so it was no surprise that you could have heard a pin drop during the period of reflection. The game itself was pretty poor if truth be told. It was scrappy and lacking pace, which was little surprise as they were playing in at least thirty-degree temperatures.

I was having another bottle of water and some interesting sausage meat-type delicacy on a stick, which was seasoned with chillies and onion. They were tasty and a great help to my dietary plan for the following twenty-four hours!

I was getting restless. I reckoned I'd chosen the wrong game, and my thoughts were on sneaking off at halftime to maybe catch some of R-BEC's game in Lat Phrao on the way to the Thai-Japanese Stadium for my evening fixture.

Wrong Option?

Both teams in my current game were struggling to put any real moves together or test out the goalkeepers. Just before half-time, I decided to make a move. I walked behind the goal to take some photos and went on my way with the game goalless.

I left the Institute by the back entrance and crossed the railway lines and a small canal to try and get a taxi to take me to Lat Phrao. This was not an easy task as most drivers just shook their heads until I walked to the main road at the end of the soi I was on.

I'm glad I visited a lovely stadium, but I wished for a better game. I later found out that the visitors' solitary goal was enough to take them to the top of the league. I could have found a lot worse activities on a Sunday afternoon!