The Bangkok Futsal Arena was dealt another blow yesterday when officials admitted it would not be complete for Fifa's final inspection.
An artist’s impression of the Bangkok Futsal Arena; the stadium as it appeared last week; the Thai national team trains ahead of next month’s tournament; the elephant mascot for the 2012 Futsal World Cup; Bangkok governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra inspected the arena earlier this week.
The handover of the stadium to Fifa, originally scheduled for today, has been postponed to Oct 29, Bangkok governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra confirmed.
Only five days ago, the governor said construction was 90 percent complete and the stadium would be ready to be handed over to Fifa as planned.
MR Sukhumbhand claimed that the wooden floor, imported from China, could not be installed yesterday as scheduled, due to customs clearance problems of the materials in that country.
He said Fifa representatives would go ahead with their plans to inspect Nakhon Ratchasima's Chatchai Hall, one of the four venues for the Nov 1-18 Futsal World Cup. The other two venues are Bangkok's Hua Mark Indoor Stadium and Nimibutr Gymnasium.
The 12,000-seat Bangkok Futsal Arena in Nong Chok was slated as the main venue for the tournament, which would host the opening ceremony and matches from the first round.
But construction delays have forced Fifa to re-arrange the schedule. The opening ceremony will now be at Hua Mark Indoor Stadium and the Nong Chok arena will host matches from the quarter-final stage.
Although the existing Indoor Stadium, Nimibutr Gymnasium and Chatchai Hall are ready for the tournament, construction of the Bangkok Futsal Arena has missed the deadline.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is responsible for construction of the Bangkok Futsal Arena which is on the BMA's land.
Workers have been toiling around the clock for months with about 2,500 employees for the day shift and 600-700 at night.
MR Sukhumbhand even stayed overnight at a building near the construction site last week to make sure everything went smoothly. He was optimistic that the stadium would be complete in time and said it was about 90 percent ready.
"It is up to Fifa whether it wants the Bangkok Futsal Arena to be a host venue for the Futsal World Cup," he said. "What the BMA has promised is the stadium will definitely be able to be used as a venue for the tournament, although the whole project will not be complete because of several problems."
CONSTRUCTION DELAYS
Thailand was selected to host the 2012 Futsal World Cup in 2010 during the Abhisit Vejjajiva government. The Football Association of Thailand (FAT) initially wanted to use Muang Thong Thani's Impact Arena or the Indoor Stadium as the main venue.
However, Fifa rejected the plan because both are too small and each has a capacity of less than the 12,000 to 15,000 seats required by the governing body. The Impact Arena and the Indoor Stadium also do not have warm-up areas for participating teams.
The FAT then asked the BMA to help find a plot of land for construction of a 12,000-seat stadium. The BMA picked its land in Nong Chok and the then government approved the plan as well as a construction budget of 1.6 billion baht in November 2010.
Located on a 10-rai plot near Mahanakorn University of Technology, the stadium is divided into five storeys and stands at a height of 25m.
King Mongkut University of Technology was responsible for the design and construction structure of the 132m x 116m stadium. According to the design, it would be in a shady area filled with trees and a large pond.
Critics said the site might be a wrong choice, as Nong Chok is too far from the city centre and could become useless after the tournament.
They cited as an example the National Football Development Centre in the same area _ which has rarely been used as a training camp by the national team.
The start of the construction of the stadium was delayed by two incidents in 2011 _ the heavy flooding and the change of the government following a general election, in which Abhisit's Democrat Party lost to now Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's Pheu Thai Party. The new government then slashed the construction budget to 1.239 billion baht last year.
Bangkok city clerk Ninnart Chalitanon claims the sum is not enough and the BMA has to use its own budget of about 500 million baht to build parking lots and other facilities. And construction only began in January after the BMA signed a contract with constructor EMC.
Surprisingly, the contract says the construction period is from Jan 14, 2012-Apr 7, 2013 while the World Cup will take place next month.
A Fifa representative was quoted as saying after inspecting the stadium a few months ago that "it will be amazing if it is complete in time for the tournament."
Fifa finally lost its patience earlier this month when it announced on its website that the Nong Chok arena would be used for the tournament from the quarter-finals instead of from the kick-off.
POLITICAL ROWS
The Senate committee on sports, led by Naruemol Siriwat, has looked in to the delays and called for the government's intervention.
"We initially thought the stadium would be complete in time for the tournament but now it will not be," she said last week.
"There is confusion and it seems that all concerned parties are not well-prepared to organise the event such as the Tourism and Sports Ministry, the Sports Authority of Thailand and the Football Association of Thailand.
"I am afraid that the country's reputation could be further hurt so the government should look after it."
However, Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa told the committee on Thursday that the ministry had nothing to do with the tournament. "The FAT acts like it is Fifa's representative in Thailand so it looks after everything," Chumpol said.
At the request of the FAT, former deputy prime minister Suwat Liptapanlop is chairman of the organising committee. Chumpol said the prime minister should have been chairman of the organising committee of such a big event and a minister the administration chief of the tournament.
Chumpol, who also held the ministerial position in the previous government, claimed he preferred a Makkasan area as the site but was the only Cabinet member to vote for it.
The construction saga has prompted a war of words between the Democrat and Pheu Thai parties, Democrat MP Chuenchob Kong-udom and Panthongtae Shinawatra trading blows online.
Panthongtae is son of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who is elder brother of Prime Minister Yingluck.
Despite the problems, FAT president Worawi Makudi prefers to look on the bright side.
"It will be a memorial site to remind Thais that we have hosted an important sporting event," he said.
Warm-up fixtures for Thai national team
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) are organising a warm-up tournament.
The Bangkok All-Star Futsal Festival will be held at Keelaves 2 Gymnasium at the Thai-Japanese Stadium in Din Daeng from today to Thursday.
Thailand and four other teams _ Australia, Egypt, Panama and Solomon Islands _ will take part in one round-robin series of matches as part of their preparations for the Futsal World Cup to be held in Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima next month.
There will be several activities outside the stadium during the warm-up event as the BMA and the FAT hope it will help raise public interest in the World Cup.
FIXTURES
(All 6pm kick-offs)
Oct 21 _ Thailand v Egypt
Oct 22 _ Thailand v Australia
Oct 24 _ Thailand v Solomon Islands
Oct 25 _ Thailand v Panama