Ahead of tonight's FA Cup Final game between Muangthong United and Buriram (7pm at Supalachasai Stadium), special guest writer Matthew Riley takes a look at how some crazy scheduling has managed to remove the shine from Thailand's premier cup competition. 
The English FA Cup has a cache and history no one else can match. Its 140 years of history mean it deserves the reverence it gets.And so to Thailand. The  time between FA Cup rounds one and two was nine weeks. Whilst no one could have predicted the devastating floods that were to arrive in July, the gap between rounds in England was two weeks.  Round Three lasted for fifteen weeks and any momentum of interest  began to dissipate, partly (but not completely) due to the ongoing national disaster. Round Four not only lasted seven weeks, but overlapped the previous round by six weeks. Again in Round Five an eight week overlap with the previous round was compounded by a stage lasting thirteen weeks. It all meant that by the time it came to the final rounds, we lurched from meander to reckless sprint. The quarter finals were played over two days and the winners were given just a two or three day rest before the semis, with just a further four day gap to the final proper.
Treating the FA Cup with such disdain is short sighted.  Buriram  arrive fresh after a regulation two nil victory over Army, but Muang Thong's penalty win over Songkla 96 hours ago brings them heavy legged to the game. A first time Thai football viewer could see the league champions Buriram romp to an easy win over one of their (apparently) closest challengers.  Why would they want to watch next season if it appears a league with only one decent team? And why a Wednesday evening? Well mostly because it's the King's Cup tournament on Saturday watched by one man and a dog.
Priorities are the key. Whilst there were delays, the Toyota Cup travelled more efficiently to its conclusion. Making it a two legged competition from Round Three was madness for any fledgling competition but, apart from one esception, the first legs at that stage were played over two days and the second legs over three weeks. Cynics might argue that the sponsored competition got bumped up the organisational priority chain at the expensive of its less noisy neighbour.
For the sake of Thai football's future let's hope they are wrong and that next season sees the FA Cup get the treatment it deserves. You can follow Matthew's personal take on Thai football at absolutethaifootball.wordpress.com.