Thailand football team were offered a two-million-baht incentive for making it the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup finals on the eve of their first play-off battle against Vietnam in Mumbai, India.
Thailand men's team manager Nualphan Lamsam, who oversaw Chaba Kaew's march to the 2015 and 2019 World Cup finals as their team manager at the time, announced the bonus on Tuesday.
The Thais lost 7-0 to Japan in the AFC Women's Asian Cup quarter-finals, forcing them to bid for a World Cup slot through a three-nation paly-off which kicks off on Wednesday. The top team will advance to the finals.
The match, which starts at 3pm (Thai time), will be shown live on ELEVEN Sports app.
Chaba Kaew's assistant coach Natsuko Todoroki yesterday said: "Although we lost to the Japanese team in the quarter-finals, we still have two matches in the play-off round with a place in the World Cup finals at stake.
"Vietnam and Taiwan are good teams and we've tried to work very hard on how to play in the situation we have been faced with."
Several Thai players have been sidelined after contracting coronavirus. Their names and numbers have not been revealed.
"We must not let our players get excited and we have been telling the players about this all the time," said Todoroki.
Thailand midfielder Irravadee Makris said: "If we play according to the plan, like we train, we have a chance to qualify for the World Cup finals.
"The World Cup means a lot to me as I have never played in the tournament. I hope to have a chance to play in the next year's World Cup finals. I will do my best to help Thailand qualify."
With Australia having already qualified for the finals as co-hosts, the play-offs for the remaining automatic Asian berth involve only Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Meanwhile the three postponed Thai League 1 matches will take place this evening with Chiangmai United playing Suphanburi, Bangkok United taking on Samut Prakan City and Police Tero facing Buriram United.
