Soccer referees and staff said they are still owed wages for working a tournament in November last year in another financial dispute embroiling the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA).
Ministry of Sports officials yesterday ordered the CTFA to settle the payments by the end of this month to the 30 referees and more than 50 other staff for the national soccer championship for U12 grade school students, which was held in Taitung County from Nov. 22 to 30 last year.
The referees and staff made their complaint public through local media outlets, after failing to receive their entitled salaries after waiting for more than one month, with the total owed amount reported to be about NT$1.31 million (US$41,495).
Photo from the Chinese Taipei Football Association Web site
“Usually the wages are paid out at the end of the day,” said one staffer, who added that they would get NT$2,000 as a standard wage for the whole-day job, while each match has one referee and two assistant referees paid NT$700 and NT$300 per match respectively.
The referees and staff said they decided to turn to local media after failing to get an adequate response from the CTFA officials in charge of the competition.
The competition was held at Fongli Elementary School and soccer pitches at a nearby school in Taitung City, and consisted of 241 matches played by teams from across Taiwan.
The CTFA in a statement said that payments were held up due to the election of a new chairperson, during which the association’s finances were frozen.
The Ministry of Sports yesterday said that it had contacted the CTFA about the situation and mandated the association complete the administrative work to settle the payments by the end of this month.
Former CTFA chairman Wang Lin-hsiang (王麟祥) announced his resignation in November last year amid perceived mismanagement, financial scandals and an international losing streak.
Chang Tsan (張璨) was elected CTFA chair in a 31 to six vote on Dec. 20 last year.
Chang was previously a manager of a biomedical firm before serving as news media executive at EBC Network and ETToday News. He later served as head of the Taiwan Junior Soccer Association, founded the online soccer Web site GoGoal.com and was owner of the women’s soccer club Valkyrie FC.
In his address after winning the vote, Chang said he would push for reform and new policies to bolster Taiwanese soccer, saying that he would visit all the nation’s regional soccer bodies to forge closer cooperation, boost competitiveness of clubs and players in the nation’s top divisions, enhance communications and collaboration with the Ministry of Sports, address financial problems, and support the women’s national team ahead of the Women’s Asian Cup.
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