World Cup fever is expected to heat up even more in Taipei with the announcement yesterday that the Senegalese team will come to Taiwan even if it wins the championship.
"The team will come even if it wins the World Cup," said Senegalese Ambassador to Taiwan Adama Sarr during an interview with the Central News Agency yesterday.
As the only African representative at the World Cup quarterfinals, Senegal is slated to encounter Turkey on Saturday evening in Osaka, Japan.
If Senegal wins, it will stay in Japan next week to compete for the World Cup title with three other rivals, Sarr said.
"I hope my country's team will come to Taiwan -- the later the better," Sarr added.
Many Taiwanese soccer fans said they were heartened by the Senegalese team's upcoming visit.
"I am not sure if my parents would want to go to Taipei to see them play, but I would love to go," the 24-year-old daughter of Lin Yao-shan, (
Yunghua is the maker of the 360 soccer balls the country will donate to Senegal during President Chen Shui-bian's (
The daughter, who asked not to be named, has helped her parents produce the hand-made soccer balls which conform to FIFA standards.
"Many factories declined to take the order as the time pressure was too much," Lin said.
"My father then decided to take up the task, saying he would love to do a little to help his country sustain its diplomatic relations," she said.
"We rushed through our work day and night. We even worked non-stop over the weekends," she added.
The purchase order from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs even forced Lin's father to hire a few extra part-time workers, despite the fact that the company has been hit by the economic downturn.
According to Lin's daughter, the factory charged the ministry NT$800 for each of the balls.
The factory is one of the two sub-contractors that is producing the balls ordered for the foreign ministry.
The ministry was euphoric at the announcement of the visit..
"My father used to take me to watch soccer games when I was little although nowadays I don't really watch the games," said Katharine Chang (張小月) yesterday, the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"But the visit would really be to the satisfaction of all," Chang said.
According to the ministry's preliminary plan for the team's two-day whirlwind visit to Taipei, the team would play a two-hour exhibition game against Taiwan's national team.
FIFA data ranks Taiwan's national team as 172nd out of 203 teams worldwide.
The Taiwanese government would also host a banquet for the Senegalese team to congratulate on their performance at the World Cup.
Chen is slated to begin his 12-day Africa trip on June 28.
He will visit four of Taiwan's allies: Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, Malawi and Swaziland.
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