The controversy continues at the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) after the shock decision to disband the recently-assembled squad, mostly made up of ageing stars including striker Kiartisak "Zico" Senameung, for the King's Cup in December.

Most fans appeared positive about the move by the FAT to recall the older players for the country's most prestigious event as well as other big competitions including the Asian Cup, which will be co-hosted by Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam next year.

The move looked to mark the return of Thailand's senior side after a string of dreadful performances in the Asian Cup in 2004 and at the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign, which led to several changes of team coach.

But last week the FAT made a strange decision to axe the older squad, even after Vijit Getkaew, the FAT president, welcomed the players to his headquarters. The FAT justified the move by claiming they want to build a team for the future by using new players, a mixture of younger sides rather than veterans.

The responsibility of overseeing the team has been handed to Chanwit Pholchivin, the national team's head coach, instead of Chatchai Pholpat, who was initially appointed.

To add more controversy to the issue, reports have surfaced that the entire process of selecting the King's Cup side was done without the knowledge of Worawi Makudi, the FAT general secretary, even though Worawi's signature was on the order to recall the players to training.

Rumours soon circulated that the real reason behind dropping the team was because the FAT had serious financial problems and had no money for the players' allowances.

The latest controversy confused football fans and also rocked the FAT, leading to the resignation of King's Cup team manager Virat Chanpanich.

"In fact, the players were called to take part in a trial for team selection, not go directly to the King's Cup squad," said Virat.

"To pick the players, we focused on the lads who we think are the best and didn't consider the age factor because this team would be our senior team. I think some of them are not too old for the national team, as has been suggested.

"After the sudden order to drop the team, I felt like the FAT doesn't trust me so I decided to resign from my post. I would like to take a step back to watch what will now happen," added Virat.

The story took another twist when Worawuth Rojchanapanich, the FAT vice president, tried to clarify the situation by indicating the move did not mean the whole team was dropped, but only to include Chanwit as the head of the coaches in the team selection process.

"I just would like to give Chanwit outright authority to find suitable players to be called into the national team," said Worawuth.

"I will leave it all to the coaches to pick up the players who would be useful to the team at present and in the future. That will be the criteria in building the team for the King's Cup."

Chanwit also said he intends to keep the 28-member squad for consideration, but will add more names from players who star in the Queen's Cup tournament and some who initially has not been called.

Chanwit said that although he was head coach, it did not mean he had to get involved in every team. He was prepared to reinstate Chatchai as coach of the King's Cup squad because in his opinion no one was better than the experienced trainer.

The latest controversy over the King's Cup squad serves only to further expose the poor management of the FAT. With controversies continually happening in Thai football, the country's many fans can only dream about winning small events like the SEA Games.

Kitinan Sanguansak

The Nation