Siam Navy – the football club set up by the Royal Thai Navy in the close-season – has hit stormy seas with a terrible start in the TPL. They drew 1-1 at Sisaket in their opening match, but that result was then changed to a 3-0 win in Sisaket’s favour after it was found out that Siam Navy had fielded an ineligible player. The club also received a pretty hefty fine of 100,000 baht. Last weekend they lost 3-1 at home to TPL newcomers Chiang Rai where nearly all of the lowly 2,000 crowd were bussed-in servicemen. And on Wednesday, the club had to release three of its foreign signings after failing to submit the correct registration paperwork.

Some would say this series of misfortunes is karma at work after the RTN controversially re-took control of the club in the close-season. They changed the club’s name from ‘Navy Rayong’ to ‘Siam Navy’ and moved it out of Muang Rayong. The club is now homeless (they are temporarily playing in Chonburi); they have a serious lack of quality in their squad, and the huge attendances the club used to enjoy in Rayong seem a thing of the past. In a rush for money it seems like Navy, one of the oldest clubs in Thailand, might have pushed the self-destruct button.