Pundits and soccer fans have accused Taiwan’s CTFA soccer governing body of negligence and mismanagement, after Taichung Futuro, Taiwan Steel Group (TSG) and AC Taipei began this year’s Taiwan Football Premier League season with big wins on Sunday.
Local soccer enthusiasts are complaining of a lack of match information, inadequate publicity and poor-quality broadcasting, and have said that there were no advertisements from sponsors at the matches.
Supporters and pundits say the CTFA is not providing updates on the top men’s and women’s leagues, with the CTFA’s Web sites carrying last year’s information, with no match listings for this season.
“The CTFA’s leadership and officials are missing in action... We have no updates on new team players, no listings of upcoming games for the season. This is no way to run the nation’s top soccer league,” a sports journalist surnamed Shih said yesterday.
In previous years, the CTFA would organize a news conference to present the clubs and star players, provide booklets and online information on the men’s and women’s team rosters and a match schedule for the upcoming season, he said.
However, none of that has happened this year, said Shih, accusing the CTFA’s leadership of dereliction of duty.
He said that the governing body might be trimming is operating costs to deal with debt.
On Sunday, defending champions TSG played at home in Tainan against Hang Yuan. Neither side could score until late in the first half when TSG’s Marc Fenelus met a long throw-in with a glancing header, catching the Hang Yuan defenders and goalkeeper Lin Chun-hua sleeping.
Ten minutes from time, TSG’s Ange Samuel charged forward, sending a cross to Fenelus, who volleyed in his second goal and secured his team a 2-0 victory.
In Kaohsiung, Taichung Futuro broke through in the second half to beat Leopard Cat 3-0, with Benchy Estama scoring a brace and Lee Mao slotting the ball home in between.
The Taipei Dragons’ Lin Chun-kai opened their account against Taipower FC at the half-hour mark, but Taipower’s Kao Wei-chieh replied with a goal of his own five minutes later.
An hour into the game, Taipower were given a corner, resulting in a goalmouth scramble, and Lin Cheng-yi easily tapped in the winning goal to beat the newly promoted Dragons 2-1.
In Sunday’s evening match, Ming Chuan University (MCU) routed AC Taipei 3-0 at home in Taoyuan.
Huang Sheng-chieh was the first to score while surrounded by three defenders.
Huang Wei-chieh scored MCU’s second goal, and after a turnover 10 minutes from time, he burst forward, selling a dummy to score his second goal of the night.
Taiwan kept their hopes of advancing to next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Saturday, backed by solid pitching. Taiwan last night played against Nicaragua. As of press time, Nicaragua was leading 6-0. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan on Saturday kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen struck out one and allowed no hits, except for a hit-by-pitch over
Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
Team Taiwan are set to face Spain in a win-or-go-home match tonight for the final berth at the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC), despite losing to Nicaragua 6-0 in the WBC qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Sunday. The home team’s loss on Sunday means Nicaragua finish first in the qualifier round in Taipei with a perfect 3-0 record and advances to next year’s finals. After crushing South Africa 9-1 earlier on Sunday, Spain took second place in the four-team qualifier with a 2-1 record. With a 1-2 record, Taiwan finished third while South Africa placed at the bottom with
Team Taiwan avoided missing the World Baseball Classic (WBC) for the first time by defeating Spain 6-3 in a do-or-die game in Taipei last night. After narrowly escaping a mercy-rule loss to Spain in the WBC Qualifiers opener on Friday last week, the home team — winner of last year's WBSC Premier12 title three months ago — got their revenge against the 2023 European champions at Taipei Dome. "It felt quite different from when we won the Premier12," Taiwan captain Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) said after the game, recalling the ups and downs the team has experienced over the past few days. Unlike in
RSS