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.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS