Footvolley began about 20-30 years ago in Brazil and those countries who do well in the game now are also the top teams in football, like Brazil, Argentina, England and France. It’s been going on in Thailand for almost 10 years now, but very quietly. So in many ways, we can say it’s a fairly new and not widely known sport here. Still, we can see that we have the potential to do very well. 

 

If you look at how we fare in sepak takraw, we’re number one in Asia and even the world. The two sports are very similar requiring less physicality and more technical skills, which really suits Thai athletes. We have the advantage of taking the tactics we use in sepak takraw and applying them to footvolley. There’s a lot of potential. 

 

By its nature, footvolley is very combative, fast-paced, and given that it’s played on the beach, it’s got all the entertainment you need. Also looking at sports like volleyball, sepak takraw and badminton, we’re seeing a trend where Thai female athletes are leading the way—women’s sports are a joy to watch as there’s so much emotion involved. So, we’re looking to press on with building our women’s team. The earlier we get started, the more chance we can dominate the game, too.

 

We’ve set high targets—we’re not satisfied with just being Asia’s number one, though. We want to win regardless of the opponents. And despite having no national league at the moment, we’re lucky to have quite a strong foundation in sepak takraw. We’re also lucky to have Thai sepak takraw legend Suebsak Phunsueb, who happened to be in my police unit, help us a lot with direction and training.

 

I just hope Thais give footvolley a try. Especially the less advantaged kids out there, I want them to know that the sport is very accessible without any big investment needed, and there are great opportunities to go far especially at this early stage of Thai footvolley.