Football over water draws tourists

01 ธันวาคม 2557

In Koh Panyee, part of the picturesque Phang Nga province, foreign visitors keep coming thanks to excitement over the community's innovative and highly unusual football pitch.

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This picture taken on October 1, 2014 shows youngsters playing football on a floating football pitch in Koh Panyee, in Thailand' southern Phang Nga province. AFP PHOTO/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT

Floating football pitch keeps Koh Panyee's tourism blues at bay

With stunning limestone cliffs towering over stilt houses and surrounded by azure waters, the island of Panyee is a typical Thai paradise. But it's not Mother Nature drawing tourists here — it's a floating football pitch.

Thailand's tourism industry has taken a battering this year following months of protests, imposition of martial law, May's military coup, and the brutal slayings of two young Britons on Koh Tao. But in Koh Panyee, part of the picturesque Phang Nga province, foreign visitors keep coming thanks to excitement over the community's innovative and highly unusual football pitch.

Nestled next to the largely Muslim island's ferry pier, the 16-by-25-metre pitch has become something of a national treasure after an advertising campaign by TMB Bank Plc in 2010 made the fishing community locally famous for their dedication to football.

"What do you do when you come to Panyee Island? You must see the floating football pitch," beams island chief Muhammad Prasanpan, who says 50,000-70,000 baht now comes in from tourists each day.

That represents a five-fold income increase for the 320 household-island since a decade ago when fishing was its mainstay, the chief says.

A fishermen steers his boat past fish farms in the waters off Koh Panyee. AFP PHOTO/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT

The island has long had a reputation for football-obsessed inhabitants who have refused to let something as inconvenient as a complete lack of flat surfaces hold them back from practising the "beautiful game."

Originally islanders played on a beach, but could only do so during low tide when enough sand was visible. The first floating pitch was built 30-years ago but was a dangerous hotchpotch of wooden boards knocked together with rusty nails.

"We had to avoid nails coming up. It was risky and dangerous. But we had to play on it because we had no pitch," recalls boat driver Prakit Prasanpan, sporting the local team's shirt.

Inspired by their dedication, TMB Bank commissioned a series of adverts charting the local team's success in a football tournament despite the rickety pitch. After the campaign aired the islanders, with help from local authorities, built themselves a new – and crucially nail-free – floating pitch.

Since those adverts aired in 2011, Koh Panyee has become famous both locally – and increasingly internationally – for football. But the pitch has done more than attract new arrivals. It has kept the island's younger inhabitants from leaving.

Depopulation is often a major problem in Thailand's poor communities, with youngsters travelling significant distances to find better paid work – usually to support large families back home.

In Koh Panyee, the young are staying put. The island's population has increased to 1,800 from 1,200 over the past 10 years.

"Jobs here are better than on the mainland – the young can find money more easily here, they can earn thousands of baht driving canoes," explains 74-year-old Aporn Janchulee, a market stall-holder. AFP

Now watch the story of the original Panyee Football Club in this excellent video sponsored by Thai Military Bank (TMB)