Beneath a fascinating large stadium lies a feeling of inferiority complex - Cambodia and its neighbours' unfriendly coexistence

When Cambodia was announced as host of the 2023 Southeast Asian Games (potentially moved to 2025 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the first thing Cambodia wanted to do was to build a massive stadium that must rival some of the world's finest. It is not a secret that the Cambodian government announced that the new stadium, replacing the outdated Phnom Penh Olympics Stadium, have to reflect the prideful past. In the end, a Chinese firm won and built the stadium. With 75,000 capacity, it has already become the largest stadium in mainland Southeast Asia, surpassing even Thailand's Rajamangala that holds only 50,000.

For relatively 15 million people with a quite low-income economy, the building of this stadium was enormous both by cost and by personnel. More than 500 people were involved in the projects, with the Chinese nearly 350; while thousands of workers worked days and nights; the Chinese designation was to be an expression of long, ancient Sino-Cambodian relations. An even smaller population holding the biggest stadium in mainland SEA is quite abnormal, as people would expect the stadium to be no more than 50,000. Yet the desire to build a very huge stadium was rooted in Cambodia's unhappy history of being together... with neighbours.

The Morodok Techo Stadium after its completion.

Cambodia was the descendant of no other than the notorious Khmer Empire, once the largest inland empire in Southeast Asia. The capital Angkor Wat for once was the largest capital in the world, even far-reaching than that of China's ancient capitals. Its landmass encompassed modern Laos, Thailand, part of Vietnam, Malaysia and Burma, alongside the heartland.

The rise of Siamese kingdoms of Sukhothai and later Ayutthaya in the west facilitated Cambodia's demise. The Siamese, predecessors of modern Thailand, initially accepted tributary to the Khmers, before revolted and defeated the Khmers, twice ransacked the Cambodian nation. In the east, after the collapse of Champa, the Vietnamese - descendants of the Sinic world - invaded Cambodia. The other, but less known, Laotian kingdoms, also came from a subset of the Tai tribes that also composed the Siamese, won independence from the war-ravaged Cambodia.

Cambodia became the battlefield for control between the Siamese and Vietnamese, this nurtured into the minds of many Cambodians and had attributed to their disdains against both neighbours. Cambodia requested French helps in 1858, but instead, Cambodia was turned into a French protectorate, before getting annexed into the larger Indochina colony, in which Vietnam was the biggest centre. Realising the French were no better than her neighbours, the Cambodians attempted to campaign against French rule, but fears of future Vietnamese domination hampered the process, thus explaining the lack of coordinated resistance against France among the Cambodians. Surprisingly, the French failed to realise the anti-Vietnamese sentiment among Cambodians, thus unable to rally the needed Cambodian supports on its flawed reconquest of the former colony from 1946 to 1954.

Cambodia declared itself neutral once the French left, but the Americans proved no better. The United States, displeased with Cambodia's neutrality during the Vietnam War, had the CIA staged a coup in 1970, exiled the monarchy and established the Republic led by Lon Nol. Lon Nol received billions of American funds, but his government was highly xenophobic. One of Lon Nol's first acts was to prove a disaster: instead of fighting the Vietcong, he ordered the open persecution of Vietnamese people. Many Vietnamese were murdered in Cambodia under the regime of Lon Nol, regardless of political affiliation. As the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) was an American ally, Saigon was accused of failing to defend the Vietnamese citizens under the violence of Lon Nol's regime. It had partially contributed to the growth of the Vietcong and, especially, the Khmer Rouge, then still remained moderate.

American evacuation and South Vietnam's fall in 1975 also marked the collapse of the Khmer Republic. Instead, the Khmer Rouge, now controlled by radical factions under Pol Pot, was to show himself a true successor of Lon Nol. He initiated the Cambodian genocide and fought his former ally Communist Vietnam in a bid to restore the lost empire. War broke out in 1979 brought to an end the Khmer Rouge. Yet many Cambodians saw the war as another form of Vietnamese occupation, anti-Vietnamese resistance mounted between various Cambodian groups, united under the Khmer Rouge with backups from Beijing and Washington. The genocide was not known until 1984 when British director Roland Joffé, using the stories of Cambodian journalist and survivor Dith Pran, and memoirs from American journalist Sydney Schanberg, directed the film. It shocked everybody and put American and Chinese morality into question. Nonetheless, not until the 1990s that the United States began to cease its support for the Khmer Rouge, partly due to Vietnam's economic reforms.

Still, the damage was done, nothing could be recovered from the losses. The entire 20th century was short of, total humiliation for Cambodia and its people, once a glorious empire turned into a war zone. Hence, Cambodian development of nationalism is to outpace its neighbours, to recover from the past humiliation. Beating Thailand and Vietnam, which have been seen to do the most harm to Cambodia, is a mission. China, whose role in aiding the Khmer Rouge was far exceeded, ironically became its ally.

This fearful mentality has enhanced Cambodians into taking the streets and rioted at various times. In January 2003, after a Cambodian newspaper published an article about Thai actress Suvanant Kongying claiming Angkor Wat as Thai, anti-Thai unrest sparked in Phnom Penh for a day. Ten years later, unrest once again sparked in the country when the Cambodian government was thought to be a puppet of Vietnam (in truth, Cambodia's PM, Hun Sen, was a former member of the Khmer Rouge).

Football reflects even more of this chauvinist development. In the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification, Vietnam was drawn in the same group with Cambodia, others being Afghanistan and Jordan. Vietnam qualified for the edition in the UAE, at least after beating Cambodia twice, the away game in Phnom Penh was exceptionally difficult as Cambodia had proven its toughness, already in second by beating Afghanistan 1-0. Many Cambodians were celebrating before Nguyễn Quang Hải - the future jewel of the Vietnam team - netted on Cambodia with a header to win 2-1.

I remember that game, where xenophobic sentiment was seen among Cambodians, negative portrayal of Vietnam and the Vietnamese team were widespread. The game was a do-or-die business for the Cambodians. I was not in Cambodia, but my knowledge reminded me of so.

Recently, Cambodian nationalists see football as a tool to show the power of Cambodia. When it was announced to host the 2023 SEA Games, Cambodian officials rushed to pour money to build a new Cambodian team, resulting in the rise of talents like Chan Vathanaka. The Cambodians also gained a successful qualification to the 2020 AFC U-19 Asian Cup at the dismay of the Thais, who lost 1-2 in Phnom Penh, before Cambodian joy ended in vain due to its cancellation owing to the pandemic. The senior side? Well, it is difficult to judge - the last time Cambodia took part in a competitive tournament happened in 1972 when the country qualified to its first, and only, AFC Asian Cup, finishing fourth in Thailand.

Now, having the biggest stadium in the Southeast Asian mainland sends a clear message that, Cambodia is, and always a major power. Yet how will Cambodia achieve this is questionable. The recent 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification unveiled this much: Cambodia was completely trashed by the remainders, including two heavy 0-14 and 0-10 defeats to Iran, and a 0-8 loss to Bahrain. It performed a bit better against Iraq and Hong Kong, but lost three out of four, with its only point came against Hong Kong.

It's not clear if Cambodia can qualify for another Asian Cup again, leave alone the World Cup. The current crops of Cambodia are certainly better than the predecessors, but Cambodia's ability to compete against fellow Southeast Asian rivals is to be put to test. In October the same year, Cambodia will know who shall be its opponent, already stayed in Pot 4, the lowest among all the competitors' Pots. The upcoming 2023 Asian Cup qualification will also put Cambodia in a risky position to face the likes of Kuwait, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Palestine or even regional rivals like Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Not just that, being one of the bottom four, Cambodia has to play a playoff series against Guam, though victories against the American possession are possible.

Cambodia has seen improvements in the football fields.

The Morodok Techo Stadium is likely to be taken to the qualification for China Asian Cup and the current vaccination rates are likely to enable thousands of Cambodians to fill the stadium ahead of crucial fixtures. But even spectators can't guarantee any wins, three heavy defeats to Iran and Bahrain as well as how Iraq mopped Cambodia even not at the best shape would be a huge warning for the Cambodians that their nationalist sentiment could backfire. Let's not forget teams like Thailand, Malaysia, Tajikistan and India alone pose too many problems for Cambodia, leave alone Kuwait and Uzbekistan.

The question, though, lies on about the over. If Cambodia wants to be better with such a hastily planning and embedding nationalist sentiment to dislike its neighbours, it may not get the reward it has long dreamed for. Unfortunately, the desire to make a short pass over stronger neighbours have put Cambodian football into either getting humiliated or getting with a short-lived glory, in which the former is likely to happen.