Thailand Bans MMA

^The GAA had a ban on playing 'foreign' sports for years-didnt work out too well in the long run. They used to boot people out for just attending soccer and rugby games, let alone playing in them. The grandad used to tell me a story of how a him and a few of his mates had to flee from the scene of a local soccer match when they got word their hurling coach was on the way down.

Short sighted decision by the Thai's maybe, but its not such a big deal all in all seeing as MMA training isnt banned. As mentioned in the article the Muai Thai training industry provides a massive boost for the economy, and lets face it, not many people are going to move to Thailand to study BJJ. Their just looking after their own interests-I can see the logic in what their doing, just not sure if it will work out for them over the long term.

cowzerp wrote: »

It's not really the same thing as what the Thai's are doing, The Gaa did not ban foreign sports for no reason, It was because the British had banned the playing of our national sports and tried to destroy our culture

At the time when all that was set down as policy it was correct, The Gaa was set up to save Irish Games and our Culture, If they where to do it today then that would be for competition reasons and totally wrong.

I think the primary reason they put forward for banning foriegn sports was they were worried that the British were trying to infiltrate the organisation to plant informers, which was a genuine threat at the time.

The other side of that coin was that they did think it would encourage the spread of GAA over rugby and soccer, and to a degree, that worked-especially in the rural areas, albeit working out as a royal pain in the arse for people that enjoyed playing all sports.

As mentioned above, they kept Rule 42 on board-its was relaxed a few times- they stopped banning people for attending foriegn games around the early 70s, but the rule still stood for soccer and rugby being played on their grounds right up to 2005-and at that, I think the rules have been changed only in relation to Croke Park, not other grounds.

The Thais dont have to worry about informers, but I do think they are concerned about MMA camps popping up all over the shop and somewhat watering down the quality of the Thai fighters produced. The last thing they want is MMA camps that offer Thai training on the side as opposed to Thai camps that offer MMA training-they've likely seen the effect MMA has had on boxing in other countries and dont want to chance that happening with Thai.

Whether this works out well for them or not remains to be seen, like I said I can see their logic, just not so sure how it will turn out for them. From what I've heard of Thailand, its likely the law will just be ignored or bribed past if needs be, and much like the GAA, their governing bodies are probably thinking of allowing shows further down the line providing the price is right-the GAA made quite a bit of cash from opening Croker, the FAI and IRFU paid handsomely for playing their games there-wouldnt surprise me if an extra government grant or two was involved as well. I would think the Thais will do something similar if the UFC ever did make a concentrated effort to get in there.