The government’s budget for sports will be be increased by NT$1.5 billion (US$47.54 million) next year, 15 percent more than this year’s budget, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said on Saturday.
Pan made the commitment during a forum on national sports development that was held in Taipei in the wake of the disappointing results by Taiwan at the Rio Olympics.
Taiwanese won one gold and two bronze medals, while top sports officials had said before the Games that the national team would probably take three golds, two silvers and one bronze.
A number of panel discussions focused on the results in Rio, and some participants said Sports Administration Director-General Ho Jow-fei (何卓飛) and other sports governing body executives should resign for what they called the “debacle” in Rio.
They cited a variety of problems, including alleged financial mismanagement, corruption and political interference at the expense of athletes, such as the controversy over tennis star Hsieh Su-wei’s (謝淑薇) participation and commercial sponsorships involving top female badminton player Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎).
Hsieh withdrew from the national team after an argument with Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee officials over her coaching demands.
However, Pan voiced support to Ho on Saturday.
“We are not currently considering replacing him. The priority right now is to implement reforms to the nation’s sports governing system and its policies, and the need to solve the problems we are facing... I believe Ho has the passion in his heart for sports, and therefore can give his best effort, to forge the energy coming from all sectors to make progress for reform.”
Among the recommendations made at the forum was to set up an arbitration board to mediate disputes between athletes and sports governing bodies, with clear guidelines for the selection of arbitrators for the board, so the judgements could be fair and equitable for all parties involved.
Another recommendation was for “financial transparency and accountability” for the governing bodies, with the Sports Administration to draft a policy requiring certified accountants to audit and sign off on the annual finance report for those associations that receive more than NT$2 million in annual subsidies from the government.
Volleyball player Huang Pei-hung (黃培閎) said that although he appreciates the work done by volleyball’s governing body in Taiwan, “it has been the same lot of officials in charge for more than 20 years.”
“We would like to see the injection of new energy for a change. If something does not make progress, then it is time to have a new group of people come in and take charge for a fresh start,” he said.
Others at the forum urged for amendments to the law to allow for open elections of the secretary-generals of governing bodies for each sport.
At present, chairmanships of such groups are limited by law to a four-year term.
However, many of the associations’ secretaries-general have held their posts for more than 10 or 20 years, or longer.
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