Local referee to officiate

Kitinan Sanguansak

DAILY XPRESS

The Football Association of Thailand president Worawi Makudi has confirmed that local officials will officiate in the King's Cup final between Thailand and Denmark in Phuket today despite the unsavoury incidents in the stormy semi-final match against Lebanon on Wednesday.

The defending champions, Thailand, secured their passage into the final with the 2-1 victory thanks to goals from Teerasil Dangda and Suchao Nutnum. However, the qualification was marred by on-field scuffles among the players from both sides late in the game.

It was widely believed that the employment of Thai officials in the game was the main source of the Lebanese's irritation, which eventually led to chaos at the end. It needed Worawi's intervention to convince the visitors to continue playing after they twice threatened to walk out of the pitch in protest on what they perceived was unfairly treatment by the officials.

Even after the controversy, Worawi turned down calls to bring in foreign officials in the final to prevent a repeat of ugly scenes.

"What happened in the Thailand-Lebanon match certainly gave a bad publicity to the tournament. I'm willing to take full responsibility for that. I owe an apology to the fans.

"I don't want people to place blame on the players. Everyone is disappointed with the incident. We must try not to let this happen again. It's a lesson for the lads that we can't act in such a fashion. It's not professional behaviour.

"I insisted that it has nothing to do with the refereeing. The officials did their best. It also could happened even if we had employed a foreign referee. The two teams' lost of control and it is as simple as that.

"A Thai referee will officiate the final, for sure. Why we use the Thai officials for the competition? That's because we want to help our officials gain more experience at the international level. I think it's better than hiring a foreign official because there is no difference in quality."

The final will be staged after the third-place play-off between Lebanon and North Korea. Channel7 will televise the match live from 7pm.