Thailand

Thai football is older than it looks: the federation was founded in 1916 by King Vajiravudh himself, joined FIFA in 1925, and the Supachalasai Stadium, the country's first, has stood in Bangkok since 1935. The national team, the War Elephants, is a regional power with a collection of Southeast Asian titles, and the Thai League, created in 1996, has become one of the strongest and best attended leagues in the region, with Buriram United filling stadiums beyond 20,000. Below the top flight's shine lives a vast ecosystem of provincial clubs, organised by regions, where every district carries its temples, its sacred animals and its myths onto the crest. That is the football behind this collection's Thai representation: from the lands where green and white hoops are stitched together with stories of the Ramakien. Proof that there is no meridian where this pattern does not play.