The battle to gain control of the Chinese Taipei Football Association became more heated with two rival factions issuing statements accusing the other side of wrongdoing and the new minister of sports failing to impose a mandate for the association to hold a long-delayed board election.
The feud at the soccer body has left fans, national team players and soccer teams exasperated and confused as to which officials are in charge following Saturday’s dismissal of association secretary-general Chen Wei-jen (陳威任).
Association deputy chairman Kung Yuan-kao (龔元高) and board member Liu Fu-tsai (劉福財) convened an extraordinary board meeting on Saturday, when the board decided to call a members’ meeting on Sunday to finalize a date for the board election — tentatively set for Aug. 11 — and dismiss Chen.
Kung and Liu, a former association chairman, are leading a group of soccer officials supporting Chiou I-jen’s (邱義仁) bid for association chairman.
Chiou, who is also Taiwan-Japan Relations Association president, was soccer association chairman from 2005 to 2008. He is also a former secretary-general of the National Security Council and is known for playing soccer and rugby union.
The group is opposed by a coalition advocating the re-election of association chairman Lin Yung-cheng (林湧成), who is also backed by Changhua County sports official Chang Chih-tung (張志東), Hang Yuen soccer team head coach Chiu Yi-wen (邱奕文) and other soccer officials.
As an election has not been held and as Lin is still in office, the association on Monday issued its own statement, saying that Chen is still association secretary-general.
“The extraordinary board meeting contravened the provisions of the charter and therefore all decisions made were invalid,” the association said.
“Chen is still the secretary-general of the association, as only the chairman has the power to appoint and dismiss the secretary-general. There are no changes, with all administration and working duties at [the association] still functioning normally,” it added.
Lin has called for a board meeting on Friday also with the agenda to finalize the details of the board election and the election of a new chairman, as well as new board members and supervisors.
Kung yesterday told reporters that Saturday’s meeting conformed with the regulations, and all the resolutions made in the meeting were valid and binding because it reached quorum with six board members attending.
Kung also said the board members have already made a decision about the members’ meeting, and drawn the rules and details of the upcoming association election.
“The six members felt no need to attend Friday’s meeting that Lin wants to hold. With [the matters] already decided, we can be sure that Lin’s meeting cannot reach a quorum, and no decision can be made there,” he said.
Regarding last week’s decision, Kung said that Chen had produced forged documents and misinterpreted the rules to disqualify five association group memberships from casting votes in the election.
“As Chen abused his power and made decisions that were illegal and contrary to the charter, the board members voted on the motion to dismiss Chen,” Kung said.
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