Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Dai Yuliang/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 4.0
TAIWAN’S NATIONAL WOMEN’S soccer team has criticized coaching staff in the wake of a recent series of losses in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup playoffs.
In particular, coaching staff were criticized on several fronts. One is that training regimens were excessive, leading to player injuries. One player reportedly sustained a 4.75 cm muscle tear, affecting not only her performance at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, but also leading to permanent injuries.
To this extent, coaches were criticized for having no set game plan ahead of key matches, leaving players to come up with their own. Likewise, coaches issued orders that were then later retracted in short order, causing confusion.
Player selection, too, was criticized, in that there was unclear criteria for qualification. Mandatory medical exams were not conducted, and players selected sometimes appeared to be arbitrary, excluding individuals who had trained for over two years.
This is not the only time that coaches or other members of the sporting establishment in Taiwan have been criticized for a lack of professionalism–even abuse–toward players. Likewise, athlete selection has long been a matter of contention in Taiwanese sports.
The roots of such issues may go back to the authoritarian period. Serving as an official in sporting associations was traditionally a sinecure position during the authoritarian period. Individuals appointed to such positions frequently used their positions to enjoy elite privileges at the expense of athletes.
Consequently, sporting officials have been accused of actions including taking bribes to influence the selection of athletes, favoring individuals with close ties to them, and receiving kickbacks from corrupt sponsors. There are even reports of sporting officials using their position to coerce athletes into sleeping with them, threatening to prevent them from competing in international competitions otherwise. Although changes were made to the Sporting Act to prevent graft, athletes have alleged in the past that this is insufficient to prevent nepotism.
In July 2017, controversy broke out after swimmer Mitzi Ting, a gold medalist in the National Intercollegiate Athletic Games and national record-setter several times over, was blocked from participating in favor of two other high schoolers. Ting alleged that this had taken place because the father of one of the high schoolers was an influential swim coach, while the father of the other was friends with an influential swim coach.
Tennis player Hsieh Su-Wei, at one point the no. 23 in the WTA Tour singles rankings and the highest-ranked female Taiwanese tennis player in history, has also alleged being arbitrarily denied participation in sporting events as punishment for resisting, with claims that she did not register properly. As a result, Hsieh vowed never again to play tennis for the Taiwan national team, citing bullying that has gone on for decades. Badminton champion Tai Tzu-ying, formerly the No. 1 world-ranked badminton player in Women’s Singles, has alleged punishment from sports bodies because of being forced to wear attire from the sponsors chosen by sporting bodies, even if this was ill-fitting and hindered performance on the court.
As such, athletes have alleged irregularities over the choice of those to represent Taiwan in international competition, with athletes chosen on the basis of family ties to judges or influential sporting figures, while top-ranked athletes are passed over, or charged exorbitant fees in order to participate in international competitions. Otherwise, athletes have spoken up over being housed in substandard accommodations during travel, while officials have more luxurious accommodations.
In 2023, women professional soccer players were left in a lurch after the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) abruptly announced that training plans for the athletes would come to an end on November 3rd. Training had been ongoing since 2021, but players were informed that the training plan had come to an end suddenly on November 9th.
Reportedly, the CTFA did not submit a training plan to the National Sports Training Center (NSTC), which was what led to the end of the training. This occurred despite reminders by the NSTC for this to take place. At the time the controversy broke out in November 2023, the CTFA had not paid players for their appearances since January.
Such issues have evidently not been resolved when it comes to women’s soccer. Though efforts were made in past years by athletes to call for reform through the establishment of organizations such as Fair Game! TAIWAN!, sporting officials were accused of flooding sporting associations with large numbers of fake members to block change. It is to be seen whether Taiwan’s newly established sports ministry, headed by former Olympic gold medalist Lee Yang, will be able to make any reforms.