Contract renewed for coach of men's, women's soccer

The Chinese Taipei Football Association yesterday renewed its contract with Imai Toshiaki, the coach of Taiwan's men's soccer team, whose previous contract had expired.

While Toshiaki will continue to coach the men's soccer team, his first task will be to lead the nation's women's soccer team in the Asian qualifiers for the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing. The qualifiers will be held in Taipei in February next year.

Lin Der-chia (林德嘉), the association's secretary-general, said yesterday that Toshiaki was recommended by the Japan Football Association and was recruited by the association last year. Since then, Toshiaki has guided the men's soccer team in the Asian Cup and some other regional games.

Though the Taiwanese team had not won any games, its performance had shown significant improvement, Lin said.

The decision to give a new contract to the Japanese coach gained the support of the National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, which also believed that an experienced international coach like Toshiaki would help raise the performance level of the women's soccer team.

The association said that while the qualifiers for the 2008 Olympics for men's and women's soccer will be held in February, Toshiaki will coach the Taiwanese women's team because it is thought to have a better shot at securing an Olympic berth.

The Asian qualifiers will be played in two phases. Taiwan will host women's games for Group C for the first phase.

Other nations in the group include Australia, Uzbekistan and Myanmar.