Taipei is to host minifootball teams from around Asia in a six-a-side tournament in November, with Taiwan competing as “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei,” organizers said on Monday.
Sixteen national teams are to compete in the Asian Minifootball Championship Taiwan from Nov. 30 to Dec. 7 at soccer venues in the Taipei area, Formosa Football Association chairman Chen Huang-teng (陳湟滕) said.
As China is not a member of the Asian Minifootball Confederation (AMFC), there is no political pressure for Taiwan to compete as “Chinese Taipei” in the event, Chen told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
“After many years, this is the first time we can use ‘Taiwan’ at a domestically hosted international competition, and we will raise the national flag at match venues for Taiwanese fans to cheer,” he added.
Chen said the tournament was an opportunity to boost interest in soccer and minifootball in Taiwan.
He is also the general manager of the Taipei Vikings, who play in the Taiwan Challenge League, after spending last season in the top-tier Taiwan Football Premier League.
Minifootball, a six-a-side variation of soccer, is played on a field that is 46m to 50m long, much shorter than the more than 100m pitches used in soccer, and includes different rules from soccer and futsal.
“Minifootball has a fast pace, is played on a smaller pitch, is more exciting and quite suitable for local development. Taiwan faces a declining birthrate and fewer young people are playing sports, making the six-a-side game suitable for Taiwan,” Chen said.
Additionally, Taiwan has few proper soccer venues and not a lot of space for large sports stadiums, which minifootball does not require, he added.
The AMFC, which launched in 2020 and is headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has 26 member nations and is affiliated with the Switzerland-based World Minifootball Federation.
“We have the full input from Taiwan’s local minifootball organizations, and we believe it will be a successful tourney in Taiwan,” AMFC president Dato’ Worawi Makudi said in Taipei.
The confirmed participating teams are Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Maldives, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Oman and Iraq, officials said.
Chen and AMFC officials also unveiled the official logo for the championships, designed as a torch flame with a stylized design of the character “Tai” (台) for Taiwan.
The 16 teams are seeded into four groups in a round-robin format, with the winners from each group facing off, followed by the semi-finals and the championship match, to be held on the first weekend of December.
Organizers invited Taiwanese sports fans to attend the matches and learn about the sport.
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