The Bangkok Metropolitan Association (BMA) has opened the beleaguered Nongchok Futsal Stadium to nine state agencies for inspection, hoping to dispel the stadium’s odious reputation.
Earlier this month, the stadium failed to earn approval from the international soccer regulatory body Fifa, the latest in a string of delays to its opening. Construction delays, owing to last year’s flooding, kept the facility shuttered well past the date of its planned unveiling, and charges of corruption still haunt the whole process.
Even while representatives from such agencies as the Sports Authority and Government Budget Auditing Bureau take a closer look at the structure, officials from the Department of Special Investigations (DSI) are looking into charges of misused funds surrounding the stadium’s construction.
In an interview with the Nation, deputy DSI chief Pol Colonel Yanphol Yingyuen stated that, “nobody has filed any complaints with the DSI demanding an investigation into the construction, but the BMA has expressed its intention to be transparent and is calling on many agencies to scrutinize the project.”
The BMA has also renamed the stadium Bangkok Arena Nongchok.
