Cambodia would possibly face consequences for its partial withdrawal from the forthcoming 33rd SEA Games early next month, Chaiyapak Siriwat, the CEO of the Southeast Asian Games Federation office, said yesterday.
Earlier this week, Cambodia cited serious security and safety concerns amid ongoing border tensions with Thailand as the reason for its abrupt decision to withdraw from eight out of the 21 sports it had previously confirmed for participation in the Thai-hosted Games, scheduled to be held between December 9–20.
During a meeting of the National Olympic Committee of Thailand (NOCT) on Friday, Chaiyapak, who also serves as the NOCT vice president, revealed that the number of events from which Cambodia had withdrawn for the 2025 Games had now risen to nine, with volleyball being the latest withdrawal.
The NOCT vice president reiterated that Cambodia would not come away without consequences for its actions, which he admitted had added more problems for Thailand as the host country.
“There are a lot of problems to address, including Cambodia’s withdrawal from nine sports, which came at short notice and certainly affected the organisation of the event. Surely, there will be consideration of possible penalties, fines or other measures.
“The International Sepak Takraw Federation and the Asian Sepak Takraw Federation have already informed us that they will ban Cambodia from next year’s Asian Games in Japan,” said Chaiyapak.
For other sports, he further stated that it would depend on each sport’s governing body to consider punishment, since Cambodia’s withdrawal after submitting its athletes’ list amounted to a breach of the rules.
Cambodia, however, has confirmed its participation in the remaining 12 sports: swimming, athletics, e-sports, fencing, gymnastics, ju-jitsu, kickboxing, taekwondo, equestrian, jet ski, triathlon and teqball.
Despite Cambodia’s partial withdrawal coming hot on the heels of the decision to relocate all 10 sport events from flood-hit Songkhla to Bangkok, Chaiyapak remained upbeat that Thailand’s hosting of the region’s most prestigious sporting event would be a success.
Meanwhile, NOCT secretary-general Thana Chaiprasit, in his capacity as Thailand’s chef de mission, revealed that a total of 1,531 Thai athletes will compete at the home Games, comprising 833 males and 698 females.
There are 50 official sports, three demonstration disciplines (air sports, flying disc and tug of war) and one “value-added” sport (mixed martial arts) featured in the 33rd SEA Games, with 574 gold medals at stake.
