Lawmakers on Thursday criticized the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) for incurring years-long debts to contractors, after officials at the soccer governing body asked for a government bailout.
The organization is carrying about NT$90 million (US$2.95 million) in debt, as revealed by lawmakers during recent legislative sessions.
The CTFA is seeking financial restructuring through austerity programs, including the termination of some youth soccer programs, it said.
Photo: CNA
Deputy Minister of Education Lin Teng-chiao (林騰蛟) said that he has ordered the body to revamp its fiscal management and trim spending.
Lin said the Sports Administration, as an agency under the Ministry of Education, has allocated NT$26 million for the CTFA this year, adding that soccer’s international governing body, FIFA, provided US$1.3 million to the organization.
New Power Party (NPP) Chairwoman and Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) said she has received numerous complaints about alleged mismanagement financial troubles at the CTFA.
She said on social media on Friday that the complaints came from referees, contractors and travel agencies, among others.
The CTFA has “delayed paying wages and bills, and is persistently in debt,” Wang said, adding that money has been owed for months on services such as travel, accommodation, site rentals, equipment and physiotherapy.
“The CTFA told their debtors that the Sports Administration was to blame,” she said.
Wang said the CTFA had mismanaged its finances and failed to take remedial measures when financial problems surfaced.
Accounting reports showed that the CTFA was NT$8 million in debt in 2017, which rose to NT$31 million in 2018 and NT$50 million in 2020, Wang said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐) also questioned sports officials on the matter.
Lin told Cheng that the Sports Administration has asked the CTFA to draft a financial restructuring plan, and said he would monitor the situation while seeking ways to better support the nation’s soccer programs.
New CTFA chairman Wang Lin-hsiang (王麟祥) said he met with government officials for guidance and to request funds, and vowed to balance the budget within four years through austerity programs.
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
WASHED ASHORE: Of the 16 bodies discovered along Taiwan’s west coast this month, two were Vietnamese and five were Taiwanese, coast guard officials said Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) said that he has instructed prosecutors and maritime authorities to launch investigations after 16 bodies were found along Taiwan’s west coast this month, amid speculation that they were victims of smuggling or human trafficking rings. Coast Guard Administration (CGA) officials said the bodies, most of which had washed ashore, were found by coast guard personnel and local residents along the coastline from Keelung to Kaohsiung. Thirteen of the bodies are male and three are female, the CGA said, adding that items found on the bodies indicate that two of the men were Vietnamese, while three men
TASK FORCE DISPATCHED: MOFA said it would assist state employees with repatriation or relocation to other ally nations in the region after Tegucigalpa severed ties The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Monday ordered Honduras to vacate its embassy in Taiwan within 30 days of Sunday after Tegucigalpa made a similar demand of Taiwan. Taipei on Monday announced that it had cut ties with Honduras after the Central American nation earlier said in a statement that it had established ties with Beijing and ended its diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. Following the announcements, Honduran Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Garcia spoke on Honduran television saying that Taiwan would be required to vacate its embassy in the Honduran capital. In Taipei, MOFA later told a news conference that “according
CHINA TRIP: The former president said he hoped the two sides of the Taiwan Strait would work together to pursue peace, avoid war and strive to ‘revitalize China’ Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday began a 12-day tour of China with a visit to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing. He paid tribute to Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), a founder of the Republic of China, giving a short speech and then bowing in front of the memorial. “The people of both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the Chinese nation, are children of Yandi (炎帝) and Huangdi (黃帝),” he told reporters who had been allowed to follow him on the trip, referring to figures said to have founded of the Han ethnicity in ancient China. Ma has framed the trip as