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.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
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.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station