Thailand fails with Japanese coaches

The decision of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) to fire coach Futoshi Ikeda shows the failure of the Thai national teams in inviting experts from Japan.

Coach Futoshi Ikeda did not achieve the expected results with the Thai women's team.

FAT decided to terminate the contract with coach Ikeda after the country's women's team only ranked 4th at the 2025 AFF Women's Cup. This is considered an inevitable consequence after a series of disappointing results, especially two defeats against Vietnam.

Coach Futoshi Ikeda, born in 1970 in Tokyo, played for Urawa Reds before switching to coaching. He led the Japanese U20 women's team to win the AFC U19 Championship in 2017 and the U20 World Cup in 2018, then led the Japanese women's team from 2021-2024 with a winning rate of over 61%.

However, when he arrived in Thailand in early 2025, Coach Ikeda's mark faded. At the 2025 AFF Women's Cup, the Thai women's team suffered consecutive defeats: losing 0-1 to Vietnam in the group stage, losing 1-2 to Myanmar in the semi-finals, and falling 1-3 to Vietnam in the third-place match.

Before Mr. Ikeda, the Japanese coach of Thailand U23, Nishigaya Takayuki, was also fired after a series of 5 consecutive losses. In 2021, coach Akira Nishino was also fired by FAT despite having 6 months left on his contract.

Coach Masatada Ishii has not been very successful with the Thai team.

At that time, Mr. Nishino was one of the leading coaches in Japanese football. However, the Japanese coach failed to achieve his goal with the Thai team in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. The "War Elephants" under the leadership of Coach Nishino only ranked 4th out of 5 teams in Group G (9 points after 8 matches), and soon said goodbye to the dream of participating in the biggest football festival on the planet.

In general, Japanese coaches have not achieved significant success in Thailand. Currently, only Masatada Ishii - head coach of the Thai men's national team remains in the Thai football scene. Although he still holds the position, Ishii's position is shaky as the Thai national team's performance has not improved.

According to statistics, no Japanese coach has helped Thailand win a championship in a national team tournament in Southeast Asia. Even in the Thai League 1 season 2025/26, there are no Japanese coaches leading any teams. This fact further highlights the instability in the FAT's "following Japan" strategy.

Source: https://znews.vn/thai-lan-that-bai-voi-cac-hlv-nhat-ban-post1580004.html