The Chinese Taipei national football team is the official name given by Fifa to the national football team of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Affiliated with FIFA in 1932 as China, rejoined Fifa in 1954, first under the name Taiwan, then Republic of China, and later Chinese Taipei.
Taiwan have never qualified for the Soccer World Cup finals.
On 6th July 2006, President Chen Shui-bian floated a plan to make Taiwan one of the world's top 32 soccer teams by 2018. "I realize that Rome was not built in a day. But please don't forget, our Hungyeh Junior Baseball Team [an Aboriginal school team from Taitung County famous for its achievements several decades ago] used sticks to bat with and substituted stones for balls when they were young. If it were not for Hungyeh, there wouldn't be any [New York Yankees pitcher] Wang Chien-ming...A-bian [Chen refers to himself in the third person by this nickname] would like to propose that the government select 20 healthy and talented players younger than 10 years old and provide them with US$10,000 a year (NT$320,000) to send them to the best soccer school in Brazil and train them for 10 years. The total expense would not exceed US$2 million. When they graduate, we'd help them get into the world's best professional soccer teams. Our goal is to see Taiwan make it to the world's top 32 teams by 2018."
8 July 2006 |
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7 July 2006 |
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