While many in Taiwan look abroad to follow the exciting goals and tournaments by soccer teams of other countries, some are asking themselves why the sport is not more prominent in this nation. They are also trying to do something about it.
Among them is 56-year-old lighting designer Yao Jen-kung (姚仁恭), who played soccer from his junior-high school years through college.
He said he has always been mystified as to why Taiwan fares well in junior soccer, but fails in adult soccer.
Photo: Lin Tsung-wei, Taipei Times
After seeing a game where a junior-high team dominated against a national team in a 14-year-old league, Yao said he started thinking whether many good players are being passed over by national team scouts.
On a visit to eastern Taiwan, he discovered why so many potential soccer players are not realizing their potential, he said.
Some schools have at least 30 players on their team rosters, but only have the funding to feed 25, Yao said, adding that there was a marked difficulty in caring for players in more rural areas.
Photo: Chang Cheng-pang, Taipei Times
Acting at first out of a desire to help young Aborigines, Yao said he gave his own money to make up for the shortage of food provided to school teams, but he later began helping fix teams’ living environment as well as buying all the equipment that each player required.
“The more time I spent with the players, the more I felt they needed and I am willing to provide anything, without conditions, that is within my power,” Yao said.
A good team needs equipment, but it also needs training.
To that end, before the Lunar New Year this year, Yao established the non-profit C33 Football League, holding regular practice sessions for the league’s four teams: Jen Ho Junior High School from Taoyuan County and the Hua Jen Junior High School, Hua Jen Elementary School and Nan Hua Elementary School teams from Hualien County.
The Hua Jen Junior High School placed second in the first tournament the league played in.
“I believe that our soccer players are not so bad. I have seen what they are capable of,” Yao said.
Yao said he is not trying to run everything when it comes to the league, adopting almost a laissez- faire attitude toward the details.
He said he is not the type of person who has a plan for everything, adding that when drawing, he “paints the first strokes without even knowing what I want to draw.”
However, that does not mean that he does not have goals.
He has contacted teams in Japan, South Korea and China about a tournament in August, and in the long term he hopes to form a professional team to enter the professional league in one of those three nations.
Yao jokingly said that he has only done three things in life — soccer, music and design — but his actions have helped inspire many youngsters to dream about one day playing soccer professionally — and internationally.
Another Taiwanese who shares a love for soccer and a burning desire to see an international role for Taiwanese in the game is sports analyst Max Shih (石明謹).
Shih has been one of the main commentators for the ELTA Sports network during the 2014 World Cup tournament. However, few people know that the 38-year-old’s main job is being a police officer.
“It runs in the family. Several of my relatives are in the police as well. I had opportunities in the past for promotion to higher ranks, but because of my love for soccer, I gave up those chances,” Shih said.
His passion for the game began during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, when he was just a third-grader.
The Mexico tournament had the most superstars gathered for any world World Cup, including Diego Maradona of Argentina, Michel Platini of France, Zico and Socrates of Brazil, Gary Lineker of England, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge of West Germany and Jan Ceulemans of Belgium, he said.
“Watching these superstars perform and the many exciting games in 1986, I became addicted to soccer,” Shih said.
When the 2002 World Cup — which was played in South Korea and Japan — rolled around, Shih was dissatisfied by the publications about soccer on the local market.
Along with fellow enthusiasts, he produced a “World Cup 2002” guidebook, which was well-received.
Later that year, Shih founded Football Fever, a monthly magazine, in the hopes of sustaining the soccer fervor that had enveloped Taiwan.
“It cost me NT$300,000 [US$10,000 at current exchange rates] to publish each month’s issue. The magazine lasted for two-and-a-half years, a total of 28 issues. We sold the publishing rights to another company, but the magazine later folded. Overall, I sank in more than NT$6 million of my savings and my father’s in the venture,” he said.
“It was like burning money, we lost the NT$6 million investment. Much of it was due to inexperience; we were taken advantage of. The printing company quoted us high prices. The bookstores also charged excessive commission rates,” he added.
Shih said the magazine had been a big financial blow, but the venture paved the way for his later success.
“My dream in 2002 was to broadcast future World Cup tournaments. That became a reality in 2010. If I had not gone through that failure, I would not be a TV commentator for soccer now. It was because of my experience in publishing Football Fever,” Shih said.
“I have another big dream. That is to see Taiwan making it into the World Cup finals by the time I am 70,” he added.
His passion for the game shines through in his analysis of matches, but Shih said it was built upon the failure of the magazine venture more than a decade ago.
“That is the reality of engaging in the soccer business here. We need to develop the game in Taiwan through a larger framework. No matter what happens, I will continue to invest in soccer,” Shih said.
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