The TLF Team
How it all began!
The Thai League Football website was founded by Nigel Bayne in late 2008 after he stumbled upon, then followed PEA FC (Ayutthaya) to victory in the ’08 TPL season. There was no information in English about the premier league outside the www.thaifootball.com forum. He found himself becoming the translator of fixtures and basic information on the forum so decided to start a blog compiling this information, whilst enjoying a new way to improve his Thai. The first form of TLF was as a blog www.thaileague.spaces.live.com launched around November 2008. The blog was pretty basic, but had a very small but supportive following. It attracted around 400 hits per week.
In 2009, he decided to change to a website format, and started www.thaileaguefootball.com , registered through www.readyplanet.com. At first, the site wasn’t a huge step up from the blog. Around this time his partner Kassie jumped on board, helping translate information in greater detail and acting as a correspondent with clubs.
By the first few weeks of the ’09 season it was obvious Thai football was going through some major improvements as publicity and professionalism grew.
With this the number of hits on the site grew. He felt a strong responsibility to help provide people access to the emerging main stream sports culture in Thailand, something he felt passionately about given the inclusive and organic nature of the sports culture in a time of political divide in the country.
Early in the 2009 season, Nigel met Matt at Muangthong Utd v PEA (Ayutthaya). They remained in contact and Matt often contributed to the site. They also started to get to know some players and coaches in clubs more closely and recorded video interviews. By the end of the ’09 season the site was getting about 400 hits per day..
In January 2011, Kevin was invited to help and contribute to the site. We relaunched our twitter account www.twitter.com/thai_league (opened in 2009 but not used) and Kevin quickly built it into one of the most informative sources of information about Thai football on the internet.
Also in 2011, we earned our first formal recognition as media by the Thai Premier League who approved and issued press passes for us.
We were also given permission to use articles from www.bkkfootballblog.blogspot.
Later that season, Nigel met Joseph. They chatted about photography and Thai Football, and Joseph was invited to photograph games for TLF. In the second half of the 2011 season, he became the website’s regular photographer.
By the end of the 2011 season, the number of hits the website was generating was steadily increasing. Thai League Football had articles, photography and statistics all supplied at a professional level. The content had outgrown the existing website.
With the help of Joseph’s website designer contact Tony, the website was relaunched for the 2012 season and a group of Nigel, Kassie, Matt, Kevin, Malky, Joseph and Lillian was formalised.
Team Members
Reporters
Name: Kevin
Position: Reporter
Location: South Korea
Clubs Supported: Singhtarua FC, Bangkok FC, Wellington Phoenix, Gyeongnam FC
A member of the TLF team since 2011, Kevin runs our twitter feed, with brief translations of local football news. He also tries to keep up with the constant fixture changes, and keeps the results and tables up-to-date.
Name: Matt
Position: Reporter/Journalist
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Clubs Supported: Muang Thong Utd
In the TLF team I am something of a utility squad player. I write articles, conduct interviews, contribute to the Twitter chatter and take match day photos of varying quality.
Photographers
Name: Joseph
Position: Photographer
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Clubs Supported: Golf Clubs
A member of the TLF team since …….
Name: Lily
Position: Photographer
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Clubs Supported: Singhtarua FC, Arsenal
Joining the TLF team in 2012, Lily is a matchday photographer and general assistant. You can find her shouting at people from the touchline.
