Uthai Thani

Uthai Thani FC arrived in the Thai League 1 for the first time in the 2023–24 season and finished seventh, when the side was still finding its feet in the third tier under a new name and a new home province.

That home is not where the club started. Its lineage runs back to 1937 and the Royal Thai Air Force Football Club, which spent decades in Bangkok under various names tied to the air force, most recently Air Force United. At the end of the 2019 season the club left the capital altogether, relocating to Uthai Thani Province and re-emerging as Uthai Thani FC for the 2020–21 campaign.

The move brought a new identity built around the province's Huai Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuary, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its elephant population, which gave the club its nickname, the Elephants, and its red-and-black colours.

The climb since has been fast rather than steady. A 17th-place finish and relegation marked the debut T2 season, but Uthai Thani answered by winning the Thai League 3 Northern Region and then the national championship in 2021–22, beating Krabi 3–1 in the final to bounce straight back up. Ricardo Santos carried much of that run, topping the scoring charts in the Northern Region with 19 goals and then in Thai League 2 with 30 the following season, as the club finished third and won the promotion play-offs, edging Suphanburi on aggregate before beating Customs United 5–2 to reach the top flight.

Matches at the Uthai Thani Province Stadium draw a crowd that fits a ground built for 5,500.