Songkhla Football Club (Thai สโมสรฟุตบอลจังหวัดสงขลา) is a Thai semi-professional football club based in Songkhla Province, a province located in Southern Thailand. The club is currently playing in the Thai League 3 Southern region.
History
1999–2011: Early history
Songkhla Football Club was established in 1999, and it then first played in the Thailand Provincial League, a former league, parallel to the Thai Premier League. In the founding year of the league, 1999, reached the eighth place in the league table.
In the years after it was found mostly back in the bottom of the table regions. In 2007, the club was runner-up of the Provincial League and played the following year in the Thailand Division 2 League. Surprisingly, it was the end of the season, again winning a second place and went on to the newly formed Thai Division 1 League.
In 2009 Thai Division 1 League, they finished a creditable 7th. They fared even better in 2010 Thai Division 1 League and just missed out on automatic promotion by 2 points. Their 4th-placed finished earned them a place in the Thai Premier League play-offs. Unfortunately the Bulls couldn't maintain their end off season form and finished bottom of their play-off group.
In this 2011 Thai Division 1 League, the team have an average attendance of around 18.000, with a peak of 23.000 people at Tinsulanonda Stadium during last matches. Highest attendance Songkhla 1–1 Buriram (36,715) (7 August 2011) . Their star and top striker with 17 scores is the Brazilian Chayene Santos.
Songkhla football club was come back [3] and played in 2018 Thailand Amateur League Southern Region.
The Samila Mermaid won promotion from the fifth tier of the Thai football league systemThailand Amateur League Southern region in 2019 – beating Jantrangcee Saba Yoi City in the lower southern subregion final and beating Patong City in the southern region final. They qualified for the 2019 Thailand Amateur League championship stage as southern winner.
In 2022, Songkhla competed in the Thai League 3 for the 2022–23 season. It is their 3rd season in the professional league. The club started the season with a 2–0 home win over Wiang Sa Surat Thani City[4] and they ended the season with a 0–0 away draw with Wiang Sa Surat Thani City.[5] The club has finished 1st place in the league of the Southern region and advanced to the national championship stage. In addition, in the 2022–23 Thai FA Cup Songkhla was defeated 2–3 by Suphanburi in the second round, causing them to be eliminated[6] and in the 2022–23 Thai League Cup Songkhla was defeated 1–2 by Lopburi City in the qualification play-off round, causing them to be eliminated too.[7]
Crest
Mermaid statue at the Laem Samila beach serves as a symbol for the team
The club logo incorporates elements from the mermaid statue.[8] Mermaid comes from the story Phra Aphai Mani by Sunthorn Phu.
The stadium has a capacity of 45,000 but just 10,000 of those spaces are covered in a small single-tiered stand along one touchline. The rest of the stadium is a continuous curving tier. The stadium hosted one of the semi-finals in the 1998 Asian Games men's football tournament.
