Sports Administration officials on Friday touted a bright future for the nation’s soccer development at the official launch of the Taiwan Premier Football League (TPFL), with the inaugural season consisting of competitions between eight clubs to begin this month.
Coaches and players from the eight teams, as well as administration officials and corporate sponsors, were on hand at the unveiling of the TPFL logo at the event.
The ball starts rolling on Saturday with the TPFL opener in Kaohsiung, with subsequent matches on weekends and Wednesdays, in which teams are to compete over four rounds in each half of the season.
Photo: Jason Pan, Taipei Times
Play is to follow a home-and-away format, with 28 games for each club, culminating at the season’s end with a playoff series in October to determine the champions, Chinese Taipei Football Association president Lin Yung-cheng said.
The winning club is to receive prize money of NT$700,000 (US$21,686) and earn a spot in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup tournament, Lin said, adding that the runners-up would also get a berth in the AFC Cup.
The runners-up are to receive NT$200,000 in prize money, while third place would get NT$100,000, association officials said, adding that there would be NT$100,000 prizes for highest scorer, best coach and fair play awards.
All eight teams are to see action in Saturday’s 2017 inaugural season curtain-raiser at Kaohsiung’s National Stadium, with Tainan taking on Hang Yuen/Fu Jen University at 1pm, Min Chuan University facing National Sports Training Center at 3pm, Royal Blues squaring off against National Taiwan University of Sport-Taichung at 5pm and Kaohsiung-based Taipower FC playing Taipei’s Tatung FC at 7pm, a rematch of last season’s Intercity League final.
Taipower manager Chen Kuei-jen, former manager of the national squad, said his team would go all-out to win the title.
“It is our goal to take the championship in 2017, because it is the inaugural season and we want to make history by winning the first TPFL trophy,” Chen said.
The team is fortunate to have the full support of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), as the expanded format for the league requires more funding, Chen said.
He estimated that the team would need about NT$7 million to cover all of the club’s expenses for the coming year.
Lin said that he and other soccer officials had sought more corporate sponsors, but came up short, but added that they would continue their efforts to drum up support from fans and businesses to transform the TPFL into a fully professional league.
“The association has received about NT$4 million in corporate sponsorships for the league’s first season,” Lin said. “To operate the league, we estimate we will need NT$14 million this year, so more financial support is needed.”
It is regrettable that, other than Taipower, state-run enterprises would not provide corporate support for the league, he said, but added that he hopes firms such as Taiwan Sugar Co, China Steel Corp and CPC Corp, Taiwan, as well as other major state firms, would commit funding or even organize their own teams.
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