Avid fan dedicates rice field to Liverpool

Last year's rice crop showing the Liverpool emblem and planted by Chalaew Munthong, an avid fan of the Premier League football club, in Nong Phai district of Phetchabun. (Photo from Rai NBB Farm Facebook account)

PHETCHABUN: A 46-year-old football fan is again preparing to plant his rice fields with crops of different colours to proudly display the Liverpool emblem, as a symbol of his undying loyalty to the English Premier League club.

Chalaew Munthong said on Monday he first created the symbolic field at his Rai NBB organic rice farm in Nong Phai district last year, as a demonstration of his support for the football club, which he has adored for more than three decades.

The Liverpool field covered two rai of the farm. The Liverbird, which is the symbol of the English city of Liverpool, was planted in riceberry, to make it similar in colour to the mythical bird. It was surrounded by the deep green of hom mali rice.

It took about 60 days for the riceberry rice to grow and show the shape and details of the bird, and it was ready for harvest after four months, he said.

The first Liverpool rice field was reaped in November last year. This year, he is already planning to do it again.

"My wife and friends ask me 'Are you crazy?'," Mr Chalaew said. "I tell them, this is my passion."

"Do not forget this midnight to cheer Liverpool vs Watford," a confident Mr Chalaew wrote on the farm's Facebook page on Saturday, only hours before the match started.

But Watford shocked Liverpool as the Reds suffered their first league loss of the season. The struggling Hornets humiliated the visitors 3-0.

But Liverpool are still on course for their first English title in 30 years as they lead second-placed Manchester City by a comfortable margin of 22 points.