Sisaket Stadium Shambles

Sisaket SAT Stadium

Thai football has a lot going for it, with the country's league structure looking relatively healthy as the 2026-27 season approaches. However, in a city in northeast Thailand where I watch most of my football, confusion reigns.

Promotion Celebrations

The previous season was one of unbridled joy in Sisaket Province. Rasisalai United completed a remarkable rise from the amateur non-league ranks to win the Thai League 2 title in just a few years, earning promotion to the top level of the game in the Land of Smiles.

Neighbours Sisaket United joined them in Thai League 1 after securing promotion on the final day of the season, winning in front of more than 7,000 supporters. What a season.

Fans could look forward to watching their teams take on the best opposition Thai football has to offer over the following 12 months.
And then came the chaos.

National Team Rule

In Thailand, the national team will always be more important to many supporters than individual clubs. That is despite the national side being ranked 94th in the world when this article was written and having never qualified for a World Cup finals tournament.

Each year, during one of the mandatory international breaks, the King's Cup, a four-team tournament, is staged at a different venue in Thailand.

Since returning after the pandemic, the tournament has been won by Tajikistan and hosts Thailand, with Iraq lifting the trophy twice. It rarely attracts the leading nations because they are usually involved in qualification for major tournaments elsewhere.

Cities bid to host the King's Cup, with the previous four editions staged in Chiang Mai twice, Songkhla and Kanchanaburi. Sisaket bid to host the 2026 tournament against a couple of other locations and won the right to stage it.

That is obviously a major feather in the cap for the province and its officials. Unfortunately, it has come with a sting in the tail for fans of its two professional clubs.

Sisaket United - Thai League 2 Champions 2025-26

Club Disruptions

Rasisalai play their home games at Sisaket SAT Stadium, also known as the Provincial Stadium, because they have yet to build an adequate venue in their hometown. It is also the venue chosen for the King's Cup.

Despite having been open for several years and hosting a friendly international in 2022, the stadium is badly in need of renovation. The pitch resembles a cabbage patch, several seats beneath the covered section are broken, while vast areas of the open stands have no seating at all.

As with many sporting facilities in Thailand, maintenance appears to have been allowed to slide. While it is undoubtedly good news for the city that repairs and improvements are finally being made, it isn't such good news for Rasi.

They need to find an alternative venue for their opening four league matches, as well as any home fixtures they are due to play in the two domestic cup competitions.

A Packed House Cheers Sisaket United to Promotion

An Obvious Plan B

The obvious solution would appear to be a temporary move to the Sri Nakhon Lamduan Stadium, home of Sisaket United and just a couple of kilometres away. There is, however, a problem.

Sisaket United are tenants too, with the local branch of Thailand National Sports University responsible for the venue. The club appears to have a good arrangement with its landlords, but it doesn't control what matches are played there. If the university decides to use the stadium for a school tournament or hire it out, it can do so.

The stadium itself is old and in a terrible state in places, although it can become a cauldron of noise when the locals get behind their team.

Consequently, when the fixtures for the new season were released on the league website, "TBC" – to be confirmed – appeared instead of a venue for both Sisaket and Rasi home games.

Sisaket SAT Stadium

A Lack of Communication

Communication between clubs and supporters can be extremely sketchy in Thailand, particularly when it’s bad news that needs to be delivered.

There are endless Facebook pages run by supporters of individual teams, alongside others seemingly designed primarily to generate clicks by claiming to have inside information. The problem is that much of it is guesswork.

A page may post something that is a half-truth or something they have been told, and others copy it, adding their own interpretation to the story. Players' agents can also leak information in the hope of securing better deals for their clients, knowing that enthusiastic amateurs will do the legwork of spreading it.

This time, it is rumours about the two Sisaket stadiums that are doing the rounds.
In the case of Sri Nakhon Lamduan, there have been claims that it will also be unavailable until late November because it is being upgraded to act as a training facility for the King's Cup. Other whispers suggest that the stadium simply isn't good enough. Nobody seems entirely sure.

Sri Nakhon Lamduan Stadium's Messy Facade

Lack of Urgency

We play golf every week next to the stadium, so as the uncertainty grew, we could look across at the pitch and see what was happening.

The goalposts and corner flags were still in place from the final game of the previous season. This was with just six weeks to go before the new campaign was due to begin. A couple of weeks later, the club announced that upgrade work was underway.

Among the jobs required were rebuilding the changing rooms, repairing broken floodlights, improving the entrances and carrying out maintenance on the pitch.

We have now seen signs of work commencing. What we haven't seen is an official announcement confirming whether the stadium will actually be ready for Rasi's first home game. And that, frankly, is the problem.

Work Underway at Last

Rasi Solution?

Meanwhile, according to the rumour mill, Rasi were looking at upgrading UMT Stadium in Ubon Ratchathani, around 60 kilometres from home.

At the time of writing, however, it appears they have applied to use Buriram City Stadium, also known as Khao Kradong, the secondary stadium in Buriram. That would mean a roughly three-hour journey from Rasisalai for home games.

The club has already started selling season tickets without announcing where it will be based for the first three months of the season. For supporters trying to plan their season, that is hardly ideal.

Buriram City Stadium

Remarkable Acceptance

What makes this whole fiasco particularly remarkable, at least when viewed through Western eyes, is the apparent lack of dissent or questioning online.

Thailand has a different culture when it comes to authority. Many people are accustomed to accepting decisions made by those in positions of authority rather than publicly challenging them, even when those decisions have an obvious impact on their lives.

I have asked questions on some of the supporters' pages and have been met with genuine amazement that I actually want to know what is happening so I can plan where I might be able to watch live football. For me, that is perfectly reasonable.

Both local clubs will undoubtedly find things tougher in the top tier of Thai football. Their passionate support is a massive home advantage. Without it, they are increasing their task and may live to regret it.

Why would the Football Association of Thailand award a major international tournament to a city without first ensuring that the required facilities are available, while also properly considering the impact on its premier domestic competition?

Sri Nakhon Lamduan Stadium

Lessons To Be Learned

As for the clubs, I understand that Thailand operates within a different culture and administrative system. But if Thai football wants to attract bigger crowds, increase commercial interest and bring more good players from overseas, there needs to be greater professionalism in the way clubs communicate and plan.

Employing people with the appropriate expertise would be a good start. So would having a proper plan for stadium works. If a stadium needs major renovation, why wait until just weeks before the new season to get started? The football season doesn't suddenly arrive without warning.

Instead, just days before the new campaign, supporters are still wondering where their teams will actually be playing. That isn't good enough.

Thai football has enormous potential. It just needs to stop making life unnecessarily difficult for itself.

Article written 8-8-26.