Chiang Mai FC

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The photo above was released a few days after the Chiang Rai v Army game on the clubs' FB page. I'm sitting three rows behind the five girls at the front (blue shirt and hat). The guy sitting right at the back in the centre of the pic wearing pale blue jeans died of a massive heart attack not long after this pic was taken.
That'll lighten the mood for the day..

 

So, the King of Thailand died in October which triggered a mourning period of 30 days. All entertainment was cancelled because of this and this meant that the football season, which still had two or three games and two cups to be contested, was brought to an abrupt end. Teams still in the two cups drew lots to see who won the trophies and those unlucky enough to find themselves in the relegation zones with the couple of games remaining were instantly relegated. This also meant that the team who were top of the TPL were crowned champions and those teams in the promotion places in the other leagues went up a division.

As for Chiang Mai FC. They remain in League One.
I stopped going after about ten games of the last season. The fans were told that the existing chairman was standing down (hooray!) and that Bangkok Glass were taking over all team affairs. This turned out to be an untruth. The existing chairman, a truly horrible man with an ego the size of a small European country, was still pulling all bar the purse strings and as he is detested by all CMFC fans, several thousand continued to boycott the team and didn't bother turning up.

However, the company that owns the Singha brewery in Thailand have just announced that they have bought controlling shares in the club, and that the aforementioned nasty piece of work has been told to do one, with immediate effect.

The club has already started buying players in preparation for the new season which starts in February and there's talk that the several thousand no shows will once again be gracing the terraces with their presence. This will include me. I've missed match days, and with wealthy new owners this could be the start of something big..

 

A Chiang Mai fan has posted what he reckons is a leak of the three favoured designs of the new shirt for the coming season, which starts next month. Over the years we've played in predominately dark blue at home and plain yellow away, so this is a seismic shift by the new owners.
It's all a bit QPR and Sheffield Wednesday isn't it @Biff Tannen?

 

So, quick update as I know some people loves this thread. CMFC are still in the second tier of the Thai leagues, currently sitting in 7th place with just over half the season gone and a very slim chance of promotion.

The big news though is that we've drawn big boys Muangthong Utd in the FA cup, which will be played a week on Wednesday. This is about as big as it gets over here as Muangthong have nine of the National team in their side. It's going to be a slaughter..

 

CMFC lost 3-2. Put up a great fight but Muangthong had too much quality in the end.

Anyway, lots and lots happened since that night.
A new kid on the block, JL Chiang Mai FC were created and started out in a local league, owned by a bloke with a vision and cash to follow it through. They won the local league easily, were accepted into Thai league 4 as a result and over the next three years have climbed the ladders and now sit atop Thai league 2, just one promotion away from the promised land.
I moved to Melbourne two years ago so have been watching the teams progress from afar, but before I left I started an English FB page for them and handed the reins over to an equally keen fan of the side.
More to follow.

 

Haven't really been following T1 but the top tier has been owned by Buriram for the past few years, doesn't look like they're doing great either though this year.
CMFC used to have a fan favourite who hailed from Paraguay named Anggelo Machuca and he jumped ship to JL early in their existence so I started supporting them from there. I actually think they'll go far but the fans in the city are still turning up for CM, and that's a shame as the chairman has invested a lot of cash into the club.

 

Won 6-0 yesterday to go top, and with CMFC winning away on Saturday it's all looking a bit rosy at the top for Chiang Mai football

 

Seven games to go and Chiang Mai Utd and CMFC are still in with a great chance of going up, the latter probably via the play offs but Utd have hold of one of the two automatic places. The midweek match on Wednesday sees the behemoth of all fixtures when Chiang Mai take on Khon Kaen Utd..

 

JL Chiang Mai beat KKU last night and leaders Nongbua dropped further points so it's only a three point gap between top and second. The promised land just got that bit closer.