On Aug. 13, an estimated half a billion football fans in more than 200 countries will tune in for the first round of the Barclays Premier League. With the bulk of these viewers in Asia, it makes perfect sense that preseason schedules for some of the clubs include visits to the region and participation in the league’s biennial Asia Trophy.
This year, Arsenal, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea and Liverpool delighted fans in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and mainland China with their slick passing and polished play. But Taiwan was once again left on the sidelines, leaving many local football fans wondering why their country cannot get a slice of the league’s preseason action.
In the past, it would have been easy to blame this state of affairs on an absence of suitable facilities; but with the 2009 launch of world class stadiums in Kaohsiung and Taipei, this excuse no longer holds water. Perhaps then it is the possibility that Taiwanese are just not into football, only getting emotional over baseball, a sport in which the country has experienced tremendous success over the years.
If this were true, then someone forgot to tell the fans who watched Taiwan down Malaysia 3-2 in the second leg of a 2014 World Cup qualifier July 3 at the 20,000-capacity Taipei Municipal Stadium. The thrilling victory, the nation’s first against a top 150 outfit in 11 years, may not have been enough to put the team through to the next round, but confirmed local passion for the sport and a growing interest in watching quality contests.
This fact has not flown under the radar at the headquarters of the Chinese Taipei Football Association. Lu Kun-shan, president of Taiwan’s premier footballing body, has long made all the right noises when it comes to bringing big-name sides from around the world to the island.
In October 2009, Lu was a leading proponent of an idea floated by Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) Ltd. to organize a visit by Liverpool. This move followed parent company Standard Chartered’s inking of a four-year team jersey sponsorship with the English football giants beginning July 2010.
According to local media reports, Lu said “the more, the better,” when asked his opinion on the suggestion, adding that if Liverpool wanted to visit Taiwan, his association would invite the champion side from the Japan Professional Football League to take on the Merseysiders in a friendly.
But after nearly two years, Taiwan is yet to roll out the red carpet for Liverpool or the J-League champions. It seems the proposal has fallen by the wayside, superseded by last January’s Real Madrid for Taiwan hype, which was created by a Taipei-based sports marketing firm with strong mainland Chinese corporate connections.
This ambitious plan would have seen the world’s richest football club play an exhibition match in early August 2010 at Taipei Municipal Stadium before jetting off to mainland China for a fixture at the Beijing National Stadium. This proposal, which contained a wonderful array of details, was widely reported in the Taiwanese and mainland Chinese media as a sure thing. But the grandest of plans have a funny way of falling flat and, not surprisingly, local fans were once again left empty-handed.
Given that Lu backs the goal of bringing major overseas clubs to Taiwan for exhibition games, perhaps he should follow up on more concrete offers such as the one made by Lord Grantchester, Everton shareholder and member of the All-Party Parliamentary British-Taiwanese Group.
During a weeklong tour of Taiwan in January by British lawmakers, Lord Grantchester—a lifelong Everton supporter—said playing a preseason fixture at the 55,000-capacity state-of-the-art Kaohsiung Stadium was a real possibility. He invited officials from Taiwan’s football governing body to get in touch and “see what can be done to make this event happen.”
But to this day, Lord Granchetser’s phone remains silent. No one from the CTFA or the central government’s Sports Affairs Council pursued the opportunity, and the chance to set up a special match for the people of Taiwan during ROC centennial celebrations went begging. This is particularly disappointing since Everton, which enjoys a high profile in Asia courtesy of its jersey sponsorship deal with Thailand’s Chang Beer, is no stranger to the region, having visited in 2005 for the Asia Trophy.
Passing on the offer made by Lord Grantchester is puzzling, to say the least, especially in light of Lu’s recently announced plan to form a Taiwanese professional league by 2018 and achieve a FIFA top 100 ranking by 2019. Although admitting that his job is to make football the most popular sport in the country, the CTFA president does not appear to see the value in promoting the game at grassroots level by chasing down high-profile fixtures.
Instead, Lu is hoping that the Sports Industry Development Act, which would see government pay up to 30 percent of an Olympic or Asian Games athlete’s salary for up to five years, will bankroll his dream. The only problem with this strategy is that Taiwan’s footballers have never qualified for the Olympics or Asian games, aside from two championships in 1954 and 1958.
What the government needs to do is give the CTFA a leg up in addressing the issue of Taiwan’s involvement in the beautiful game. Greater pressure must be exerted on the Premier League to have the nation host the Asia Trophy or other preseason club visits. Alternatively, a competition could be organized along the lines of the Sunmoon Peace Football Foundation’s Peace Cup, with high-tech firms such as Acer Inc., AsusTek Computer Inc. and HTC Corp. footing the bill.
The reality is that for Taiwan to stage preseason visits by Premier League teams, it is going to take more than lip service. Money, and lots of it, will probably get the job done, but the benefits are undoubtedly worth it. Hosting just one game would give football a badly needed boost islandwide, while showing there are many ways to kick a goal when it comes to boosting Taiwan’s international presence.
Ed Zacapa is a freelance writer based in Kaohsiung. These views are the author’s and not necessarily those of Taiwan Today. Copyright © 2011 by Ed Zacapa
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