An impasse that has paralyzed the nation’s soccer governing body is over and new executives are to be elected to the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) in a board election that is to take place in Taipei on Saturday next week, association officials said yesterday.
Taiwan-Japan Relations Association Director Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) is widely believed to have garnered sufficient support to win the chairmanship, while incumbent chairman Lin Yung-cheng (林湧成) over the weekend said that he would not seek a third term, after it became apparent that he did not have sufficient support.
“Taiwanese soccer should not be besieged by division and confrontation. In the upcoming board election, the eligible members should cast votes for the capable people, and they should not become embroiled in feuds,” Lin said while announcing that he would not run for re-election.
“I will continue to work at the grassroots level and focus on my Fu Jen Hang Yuen club to try and turn in into a fully professional team,” he added.
If Chiou, 68, wins the election, it would be his second time serving as CTFA chairman, as he already served from December 2005 to January 2010.
Soccer fans and proponents of sports reform welcomed the news.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator and CTFA board member Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) said the development bodes well for Taiwanese soccer, as besides the expected change in leadership, there would be a turnover of board members and executives.
“It will be a new era for Taiwanese soccer, with a younger group of people taking charge to make progress at the CTFA,” Chiu said.
He and six other older board members have decided not to seek re-election to allow fresh faces on the board of directors, he said.
The election would conform to the direction and guidelines set by the National Sports Act (國民體育法), which was amended last year, Chiu said.
The vote would promote sports reform and reduce the influence of partisan politics in the association, which is another reason he is not seeking re-election, he said.
“The list of eligible candidates for election included coaches, male and female veteran soccer players and other officials associated with the game. Therefore, we expect the new board to have much more diversity in representation compared with the previous ones. The new executives can lead the way in reforming the nation’s other sports governing bodies,” Chiu said.
Association deputy chairman Kung Yuan-kao (龔元高) echoed Chiu’s sentiments in welcoming a new group of executives, saying he would also not seek re-election to make way for younger people.
“The new executives at the CTFA must give priority to establishing a professional top soccer league in Taiwan,” Kung added.
“The national teams must also be reorganized and injected with resources, so that a professional management team and dedicated medical staff can be set up to take care of the players. This way, the head coach and their coaching staff can concentrate on training, running the team and preparing for games,” Kung said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods