The Sports Administration has approved a preliminary design plan for the construction of a soccer stadium in Taichung’s Nantun District (南屯) which, when completed, would be the first in the nation qualified to host tournaments organized by the Asian Football Confederation.
Facilities available for national soccer team players came under scrutiny following the women’s national team’s extraordinary performance last week in the Women’s Asian Cup in India.
Forward Su Yu-hsuan (蘇育萱), who scored a goal in the playoff game against Vietnam, told a post-game news conference that she hoped Taiwan builds more training facilities for soccer players so they can engage in high-quality training.
Photo courtesy of Chinese Taipei Football Association
Taiwan’s team was the only one in the Women’s Asian Cup without a fixed training venue.
The soccer stadium — to be built on the intersection of Yifeng Road Sec 3 and Longfu 9th Road — would be equipped with one 11-a-side natural grass pitch, one 11-a-side artificial turf pitch and two five-a-side artificial turf pitches, as well as other facilities, the Sports Administration said.
The stadium would be able to accommodate 7,254 spectators, with 6,000 fixed seats, 1,200 temporary seats and 54 spots for spectators in wheelchairs, the agency added.
The agency had consulted the Chinese Taipei Football Association and Taiwan Women’s Football Players Association about the design of the stadium, it said, adding that it would provide the Taichung City Government with a NT$500 million subsidy to build it.
Construction of the stadium is to begin at the end of this year and is expected to be completed by 2025, it said.
As part of the nation’s six-year soccer development program, the government has since 2017 used funds allocated through the Forward-Looking Infrastructure Development Program to subsidize Kaohsiung, New Taipei City, and Yilan and Hsinchu Counties in building and renovating soccer pitches, the agency said.
Except for pitches in Kaohsiung and Yilan County, which are still under construction, other facilities have been completed, it said.
Due to a lack of a fixed training venue, the women’s national team also faced other challenges when practicing for the qualifiers, local media reports said.
The nation’s two best soccer pitches — at the Taipei Municipal Stadium and the Kaohsiung National Stadium — are artificial grass fields.
Both venues were under renovation when the team was training for qualifiers, and the team had to constantly move around training facilities in Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi County, the reports said.
National team players were accused of illegally gathering when the nation raised the COVID-19 alert to level 3 due to the surge of locally transmitted cases and a ban on outdoor gatherings of 10 people or more was imposed.
Taiwan’s last chance to compete in the Women’s World Cup will be through a 10-team inter-confederation playoff tournament from Thursday to Wednesday next week, in which the national team must reach the top three.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “[we] appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
RSS