Thailand is increasingly disappointing in popular sports - Photo: FAT
Thailand is in decline in all sports.
Ball sports, that is the general name for the group of football, volleyball and basketball - the trio of competitive, team sports, rich in popular as well as professional love.
This is the group of sports that represents the pinnacle of a sport, and for decades, Thailand has always maintained its position as the leader in Southeast Asia through the group of football sports.
But since the COVID-19 pandemic, Thailand has been on a general decline in all three sports. The decline is most evident in football. Starting from the Hangzhou Asian Games, taking place in September 2023, the Thai men's football team was eliminated from the group stage. They experienced an Asian Games that was considered the worst in history.
Since that milestone, Thailand has gone through two years of continuous failure, continuously at all team levels. With the national team, they failed early in the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign. They lost the ASEAN Cup title to Vietnam (late 2024), then lost shockingly to Turkmenistan in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifying round.
At the youth football level, Thailand was eliminated from the group stage of the 2024 U23 Asian Cup, 2025 U20 Asian Cup... These failures are not too bad, but the continuous losses from youth football levels to the national team show that Thai football is facing the risk of running out of talent.
Even in women's football, Thailand is not doing much better, with the most recent failure being losing a ticket to the 2026 Asian Championship.
Pain for the regional 'big brother'
Compared to football, Thai volleyball has developed in the wrong direction. And the problem has long been pointed out by domestic media.
Thai men's volleyball team (red shirt) is too weak in the women's category - Photo: AVC
Thai men's volleyball team has completely lost its leading position in the region. From dominating the SEA Games, the Thai men's volleyball team has failed in 3 consecutive SEA Games.
Not only did Thailand lose the gold medal to Indonesia, it also failed to reach the men's volleyball finals from the 2019 SEA Games until 2023.
On the contrary, Thai women's volleyball has reached the continental level since 2 decades ago. And in the period 2018-2022, they are considered to be approaching world class.
But in this year's FIVB Nations League (VNL), Thailand is on a steep decline. This is an annual tournament organized by the International Volleyball Federation, including a group of powerful women's volleyball teams.
In the past, VNL had no relegation, and Thailand had an average performance of about 10/16 participating teams. But from this season, the tournament has expanded to 18 teams, and the bottom team will be eliminated from the tournament next year.
This is almost the worst season for the Thai women's team since joining VNL from 2018 until now. The Thai girls only won against France (3-1), made an impression against Japan (lost 2-3), and lost 9/10 matches in the tournament. As a result, they fell to 17/18 position, facing the risk of relegation.
Even in basketball, Thailand's efforts to become professional have so far shown no signs of success.
Thailand still cannot bring basketball to the professional level - Photo: BKT
The Thailand Basketball League has been operating for over a decade, with naturalized players and professional clubs.
The team's international results have not improved significantly. On Thai basketball forums and specialized articles of Bangkok Post, it is said that "the tournament is still young and has not created a foundation to compete on the continent".
At the SEA Games, there was a period when Thailand was the region’s leader in women’s basketball. But in the past 10 years, they have completely fallen behind the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. In men’s basketball, Thailand cannot compete with the Philippines.
In general, Thai people are in a terrible decline in football, and this is truly a pain for the sports village of the golden pagoda country.
They are still holding the position of "big brother" in the regional sports scene, still developing Olympic sports, up to the professional sports system. But in the playgrounds that attract the most fans, the Thais are falling behind.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguyen-nhan-thai-lan-sa-sut-o-tat-ca-cac-mon-bong-20250712072916032.htm
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