Among the stars on the green fields at the World Cup there are men who dance beyond the spotlight and keep the game going on neat and clean. One of those men is Thailand’s very own Prachya Permpanich. Prachya is a sports reporter and columnist at Khao Sod, secretary of the Football Association of Thailand’s Referee Committee and assistant FIFA referee. With over 20 years of experience, he will be in Germany on the field as an assistant referee (linesman) with his international peers this year.

I had always wanted to be a footballer. I was on Nakorn Pathom’s team, together with Piyapong Pue-on and many other good players. At one point, I saw all my friends selected to the national team while I was still stuck in the same team. I love football, so I figured the way to be a part of football was to become a referee.

One can be successful, if one chooses what one can do best, not what one loves to do. Since then, I never wanted to return to football as a player. I know my limits. I can perform better as a referee.

Outside the game, a referee needs practice, continual learning, game study, discipline and responsibility. In the game, we need to bring what we learned and studied into practice, to use psychology, to have a positive attitude towards both teams and, most importantly, to be courageous.

No matter how well one is trained, if one doesn’t dare to run, the training will go to waste.

A good referee dares to make decisions in seconds. If we are too slow or too fast, there might be a problem. Only experience can teach us what to do in the wink of an eye.

I’ve made mistakes, but a referee has to keep in mind that when he makes a mistake, there cannot be compensation. If we gave an undeserving whistle, we must not think of how to repay the team.

Mistakes happen. All a good referee can do is try to make as few mistakes as possible. If we make mistakes purposefully, we will feel guilt. If we make mistakes accidentally, there’s nothing to worry about.

Anything can happen in a football game. That’s why a referee has to watch loads of games, but not for entertainment. We watch like a judge and like a student. Football requires endless learning.

Since becoming a referee, I haven’t supported any team and I never enjoy watching games.

My friends don’t want to watch a match with me anymore. They say it’s not fun.

Language isn’t a barrier. Football is an international game; it’s universal. On the other hand, a referee faces more problems with a compatriot player. It’s like this all over the world. Thai players can speak Thai to me, so they argue more, they complain more and they yell more to me.

The F.A.T. was founded during the reign of King Rama 6, so some wonder why we can never make our way to the World Cup. What they don’t know is that everything we’ve done has been funded by the association.

Before F.A.T. got only B200,000-300,000 from the government. That’s not even enough for the electricity bills and employee payments. The government finally really started helping two or three years ago. They now give us B30 million.

But how can people expect us to go to the world competition with this amount of money when Japan and Korea spends thousands of millions to achieve where they are today? As long as the budget is limited, the improvement will be limited, too.

Our footballers work in the morning and practice in the evening. But in other countries, all a footballer does is sleep, eat, learn and practice. Until a player can earn his living by just playing football, we can’t really talk about going to the World Cup.