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.
The New Taipei Kings claimed the inaugural Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) championship on Sunday, defeating the Kaohsiung FamilyMart Aquas 108-89 in the final. Playing at home, the Kings pulled ahead with Jeremy Lin’s (林書豪) clutch three-pointers, securing their victory over the Aquas in the TPBL final. The Kings came out strong in the first quarter, dominating to build a 35-18 lead. By halftime, they had stretched their advantage to 61-38. In the third quarter, the Aquas narrowed the deficit to 12 points, but Lin stepped up, sinking several tough three- pointers to extend the lead. In the final quarter, the Kings pushed the
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