By our collaborator from Chinese Taipei, Fatih Kale

Difficult times for Chinese Taipei National Team

Many countries around the world are fast realising the potential of FUTSAL and trying hard to develope the sport with short, mid and long term plans.
But unlike many, Taiwan had the unique chance to host the 2004 FIFA Futsal World Championship in Taipei. It was thought that this would give all the incentives needed to improve Futsal on the island!

Two full years have passed since the World Championship, but Taiwan's Futsal is still where it was, if not further behind.
Though Chinese Taipei had a good run in 2005, winning 5 matches and loosing only once under the Management of Mr. CHANG , in march of 2006 ,National Football Association suddenly appointed Mr. Kao Yong as the new coach, and they lost 7 of the 8 matches, beating only newcomers Macau.

While Asian giants Japan, Iran and Thailand are far ahead of all others, Central Asian countries are pushing hard to catch-up with the top three. Meanwhile Taiwan's Futsal is fast loosing blood with internal fighting.

During the Taipei International Futsal Tournament held between Oct.27~29(which was organised by the Sports Office of Taipei City, not the Football Association), Taipei City Select who is coached by ex national team coach Mr.CHANG beat Chinese Taipei National Team by two goals. After the match Chinese Taipei Football association General Secretary publicly humiliated both their own National team coach Mr. KAO Yong and his opponent Taipei Select, by saying "even If I coached our National Team, we would have beaten Taipei SelectTeam".

Just 2 weeks after the Taipei International Futsal Tournament, Chinese Taipei Football Association has announced that in December, they will select a new National Team and a new coach for the 2007 Asian Futsal C'ship Preliminaries.

However, in a bold move Taipei Select Team decided not to participate in the selection process. This protest is said to caused by "the lack of respect shown to FUTSAL in general by the National Football Association".

However, the real reason seems to be the timing of the selection. Taipei Select coach Mr. CHANG said "a new national team can not prepare for the preliminaries just in one month (from December 2006 to January.2007), therefore me and my players do not want to be involved in the National team for now!"

Part of the "2007 AFC Asian Futsal Championship Preliminaries" will be held in Taipei between Jan.21~30.2007 .



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