Hands up all those who want a break free season…. Yep, I guess that’s all of us.

The current season structure is a mess - no continuity, a stop/start charade that gees us all up then let’s us down just as things get interesting. At a time when attendances are dropping from an already mediocre level, things need to change to provide a more straight-through and continuous shootout.

The move of making Tier 1 a 16 team competition is an ideal opportunity to modernize and streamline the fan’s season. I would prefer a 12 team league but that’s for another day!!

So what activities could be slung out and what are essentials that have to be kept.

·         The National team has to have breaks - acknowledged - but not the overlong breaks that we currently endure and which do not seem to be yielding much improvement in National team performance. Copy the European pattern and shorten the break.

·         Scrap the terms “Leg 1” and “Leg 2”. If there is no break why artificially compartmentalize the season.

·         Scrap the King’s Cup - a meaningless and underwhelming tournament that is out of step with current international fixture thinking worldwide.

·         Scrap the Songkran break - contentious I know and I personally would not try to travel to a game at these dangerous times BUT last year’s fixture between Buriram and Chonburi drew a tremendous crowd when held around Songkran time. If I were in charge I would use the Songkran festival as a nationwide “footie fest” with free family tickets and food and “water” freely available!!

So there we have it, for the 2018 season with 16 teams, 30 weekend fixtures with perhaps just a couple of weekends lost to NT breaks. No midweek league fixtures with the 2 cup competitions taking up relevant midweek slots.

Slightly off point but in my mind as Thai domestic football seems to be an armchair viewer’s activity, I would like to see more Friday evening fixtures, supplemented by Monday night football too. Match day crowds will howl that it is difficult to get to these games but it has become a “use it or lose it” situation. Thai football cannot be sustainable by relying solely on fans turning up on matchdays. While on the subject why not have cup matches on Tuesday/Wednesday to allow for more football coverage.