Two interesting reports coming from Chinese Taipei show the contradiction between the taiwanese preparation for the 7th AFC Championship in Vietnam, absolutely inadequate as the articles and pictures will clearly demonstrate, and the good results of the Chinese Taipei National Team. What is sure is the following: if is true, as FIFA announced during the World Champs 2004, that Chinese Taipei was chosen to develop futsal there, the current situations seems no to be the logical consequence of that choice.


Training Facility? (where & how the National team practices)

by Rich Mayell

CHINESE TAIPEI NATIONAL TEAM TRAINING FACILITIES

Recently I had the opportunity to see the Taiwan National Team Practice Facilities. The occasion was their final practice before they left to participate in the AFC Futsal Championship, Viet Nam 2005. There was no advance notice in the papers or any of the other media outlets; it’s all word of mouth. Practices are not closed; it’s just that the public is unaware of the opportunities.

The Team’s practice facility is the outdoor playground at a primary school, in a northern suburb of Taipei. They play there because no other facility will let them use the indoor facilities, even facilities that are designed for indoor sports.

My first impression of the practice facility was one of shock. I’ve seen better facilities at the ghetto playgrounds in some of the major cities in the US. The pitch was an old concrete surface that had major cracks, with no foot traction . This was compounded by a surface that was exposed to the elements so there was also a good amount of dust and weathering.
On the day of training there was occasional rainfall. So there were some puddles still left when we arrived about 30 minutes before practice. School kids were out on the pitch with mops trying to dry up the concrete surface so that the National Team could practice.
There were lights but they were at different elevations, at different distances and at different intensities. Only half the pitch was lighted.. On the playing surface because the lighting was so irregular, lights could be shining directly into the players’ eyes at one spot and be in relative darkness at another spot. The facility was designed as a playground for the school children not as a proper facility for organized sporting events at night; so lights were a haphazard add-on that made it extremely difficult to see the ball especially when coming at speed.
Goals looked sturdy enough but were rusty and the nets were frayed and torn allowing the ball to go whizzing through without stopping, making it difficult to tell if a goal was scored or not.
Changing facilities were non-existent so players had to come dressed to play. Their belongings had to be left in the hallway. After practice there were no shower facilities so players were forced to wait until they dried off or ride home sweaty and dirty.

Maybe there are other countries that have similar conditions but not many have the resources to improve the conditions for their National Teams as Taiwan. Taiwan already has a number of facilities available for the team to practice in including the facilities used to host the 2004 FIFA Futsal World Championship, the Physical Education University facilities in Taipei, any number of university campuses and the numerous high school facilities available around the island. However the National Futsal Team is not allowed use these facilities.
Recently it was announced that Taiwan is donating millions of dollars to one of its allies in the Caribbean yet they don’t have money to provide a covered facility for its National Futsal Team.


If the National Team is to perform better on the world stage, we have to show better support. If we want our youth to have a better futsal future, we have to show better support.





CHINESE TAIPEI - RESULTS OF THE ASIAN FUTSAL CHAMPIONSHIP- VIETNAM 2005

By Rich MAYELL

Taipei June,2005

Despite the lack of adequate training facilities and virtually no support from the Taiwan public the Taiwan National Futsal team managed to pull off an upset of the South Korean team in their 2nd game. To show that it wasn’t a fluke they went on to beat Qatar, the Maldives and for the 2nd time in the tournament they beat the South Korean team again; that’s 4 wins in 5 matches. In their last match, Taiwan team lost to Hong Kong 0 -1 to finish in 13th place in the 24 team competition.

A remarkable performance for a program that has no training facility, no training program, no team administrator, no technical director, no physiotherapist, no goal keeper coach, no psychologist, no nothing!!!
Still! Chinese Taipei managed to get 4 wins out of 6 matches!!!
Even in defeat the Taiwan team managed to keep the games close and competitive.

THANK YOU FOR THE GREAT RESULTS!



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com