Phanop Jaikuea, Secretary-General of the Sports Journalists Association of Thailand, points out that the National Sports Development Fund's budget emphasizes developing events more than building athletes.
On 9 Feb 2026 GMT+7, Phanop Jaikuea, Secretary-General of the Sports Journalists Association of Thailand and a Subcommittee member on Sports in the Senate, posted on Facebook about the 2026 budget of the National Sports Development Fund, highlighting that the budget focuses more on event development than on building Thai athletes, with proportions of 34% versus 21%, despite previously emphasizing athlete development for excellence.
Phanop Jaikuea posted the following message:
As I have hinted before, let me now explain clearly the distortions and inequalities you should all see plainly.
I analyzed the details of the 2026 National Sports Development Fund budget line by line (data as of 27 Jan 2026) and I must say, it’s quite "entertaining."
Overall, I divide the budget by the approval status as follows:
The original budget framework is 3,346,159,987.85 baht.
The adjusted/increased budget is 1,473,703,534.23 baht.
The total approved budget is therefore 4,819,863,522.08 baht.
Considering the total amount, the top three highest budget allocations are:
1. Promotion/support according to government policy (1.64 billion baht), the largest portion, about 34% of the total budget. Notably, this was increased "miraculously" by 1.1 billion baht.
2. Support for the athlete development system toward excellence (1.03 billion baht), the second largest budget, focusing heavily on the athletes themselves (around 21%).
3. Support for prize money (612 million baht), paid based on athletes’ performance and achievements.
What caught my interest and concern is the significant increase in two items, which jumped dramatically from the original framework.
First is the government policy budget, which doubled.
Second is the budget for generating buzz from sports competitions, which rose from 40 million to 250 million baht—a 525% increase.
Meanwhile, only two items saw no increase.
Support for the welfare system (30 million baht) and prize money support (612 million baht), which I assume were set as fixed amounts based on existing criteria.
Meanwhile, key long-term development budgets such as sports science and education received only about 269 million baht combined (163 million for sports science plus 105 million for scholarships), slightly less than the "buzz creation" budget (250 million baht).
I therefore conclude personally that the 2026 fund budget primarily focuses on "driving government policy" and "developing athletes toward excellence," with substantial additional injections into buzz creation and competition promotion.
Compared to previous years, the 2026 budget is not smaller in total numbers but shows an extreme shift in priorities.
Where it used to emphasize supporting sports associations for excellence, it now emphasizes government policy projects and advertising instead.
A key issue to watch is that these budgets are often used for events and contracted projects, which are known within budgeting circles to be difficult to audit effectively and provide opportunities for favoritism or benefits to close associates of power groups.
Vague project descriptions like promoting Soft Power or elevating the image of Thai sports, with the ubiquitous excuse of urgency according to policy,
are usually approved at the board level, and if the board "agrees," the funds can be approved immediately without outside society noticing.
Another tactic draining the budget is "event within event" creation.
To illustrate, suppose a tournament is organized with a normal budget, but then an additional "policy budget" is approved to hold exhibition booths or campaign projects to create buzz, such as countdown events, cooperation press conferences, and so on.
Sometimes, the extra "policy budget" requested for a regular competition event exceeds what the sports association spends on organizing the entire tournament.
Just a rough thought: the additional 1.4 billion baht, if divided among the roughly 90 sports associations in Thailand, would give each about 15 million baht extra on average—enough to train many athletes. I emphasize this is just a rough calculation.
The administrative budget is another item to watch. Usually, administration budgets include salaries, compensations, meeting allowances, and temporary hires, but there was an additional 30 million baht request, bringing the total to 194 million baht.
Another “miraculous” figure, which I plan to clarify with the fund manager next time.
In summary, when a large budget is diverted to gain political popularity or to create opportunities for dividing funds through event projects, it clearly shows that athlete success is not the top priority.
Ultimately, who is this budget serving? For me, the answer is likely not the future of the athletes.