Mr. Ekapol Plarnavi, Secretary-General of the Football Association of Thailand under the patronage of His Majesty the King, has issued a letter to all football clubs participating in professional football league competitions, including the competition organizers and the referees, to emphasize the importance of ensuring the safety of football players, team officials, referees, competition officials, and spectators in case of thunderstorms and lightning, which may pose a risk to people within the competition area.
The Association has issued guidelines for handling cases of thunderstorms and lightning for use in all professional football league competitions as follows.
1. Suspension of competition and safety measures (30 seconds) If a thunderstorm is observed and the time between the onset of the thunderstorm and the hearing of thunderous sounds is less than or equal to 30 seconds, it is considered a situation that may cause danger from thunderstorms. The referee and/or competition officials should consider suspending the competition temporarily, and the relevant authorities should promptly evacuate the football players, team officials, referees, and competition officials from the competition area and enter a safe room or other designated safe space for spectators to move to.
2. Monitoring and resuming competition after the suspension. The referee should continuously monitor the weather conditions, and the referee, competition officials, and relevant authorities should assess the weather conditions and safety situation and consider the appropriateness and safety before allowing the competition to resume.
3. In case the adverse weather conditions do not improve (60 minutes), if the adverse weather conditions do not improve for a period of more than 60 minutes since the first competition stop, the competition organizers should work with the referees and the competition management to consider the relevant competition regulations in case of an emergency to assess the possibility of resuming the competition and/or terminating it.
4. The home team club must prepare for the implementation of the safety measures mentioned above, especially the preparation of a shelter area for football players, team staff, and spectators, as well as the instructions on evacuation and communication to ensure that they can be carried out quickly and efficiently.
All clubs and relevant parties must strictly adhere to the above guidelines, with the safety of football players, competition staff, team staff, and spectators as the top priority.