The Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) can borrow money from the government for the purchase of broadcasting rights for the 2022 World Cup, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said on Tuesday.
With the sports agency desperately seeking funds for the broadcast rights, Mr Wissanu offered the SAT a possible solution to the problem.
It could use the money from the government to cover the payment and pay it back later, he said.
The deputy prime minister strongly opposed using the central budget to buy broadcast rights. That fund should be for emergencies such as natural disasters, he said.
The SAT still needs another 1 billion baht after the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission agreed to allocate only 600 million baht from its research and development fund towards the cost of broadcasting the matches.
The international football federation (Fifa) has set the price tag for Thailand at 1.6 billion baht.
SAT governor Kongsak Yodmadee said on Monday the football governing body had agreed to slightly lower the price.
The World Cup is in Qatar this time, starts on Sunday and finishes on Dec 18.
With no private broadcasters interested in bringing all matches to their stations, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon promised two weeks ago to have matches live on Thai TV.
Gen Prawit on Tuesday appeared to back off from his pledge. "I don't know", he told reporters at Government House when asked about Thais' prospects of watching the games. The SAT was the right agency to answer that question, he added.
