January 12, 2009
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Local Rules
During Exeter’s time in the Blue Square Premier League, much was said and written about the incompetence of the referees. However nothing could quite compare with the blatant cheating that takes place here in Taiwan. The top league which will arrange a complete season’s schedule around the every wish of the local team, FIFA accredited referees who make foul decisions based on a cry of “aiii” every time the foreigner opponent comes within 5 metres of him or, who will be fair until half time when the locals go and have a word to get a foreigner sent off.
For the first time in 16 years, a non-Taiwanese team won the Business Man’s League, a league so full of double standards that it allows team whose players are 26 years old or over, and also a team of high school kids. Taipei City was a break off from the Taipei Animals, fierce rivals to the Red Lions, for whom your humble chronicler plays, and they had managed to acquire some of the best footballing talents on the island.
It came down to the wire, with the top 2 teams meeting on the last day, level on points, with Taipei City needing to win to lift the championship. A 2-1 victory gave them the league win, and so they decided to apply for promotion (which does not come automatically) – whereby they would, if successful, become the first non-Taiwanese team in the top league.
Taiwan’s football authorities were obviously not prepared for this, but they soon worked out how to make sure that the top division would remain only for Taiwanese teams. They arranged a play-off between the bottom 4 teams and Taipei City, announcing the schedule to City 2 days before the opening game. They lost 5-1, followed by a 7-0 defeat.
With City losing their goalkeeper during the 3 or 4 month break between the end of the season and the play-offs, this was quite possibly one of the reasons for the heaviness of the losses. After the second game though, your humble scribe was called up and asked to help out between the sticks for the third game.
At 2-0 down, we had a goal disallowed for off-side, despite the cross coming in from the wing going backwards, but then we did get on the scoresheet, the referees and linesmen obviously messing up as they could find no reason to disallow it. They got their act together in the second half though, with 3 yellow cards for the non-Taiwanese team, despite not even being fouls. Oh, and we also conceded 3 more, including one blatantly off-side goal.
So to the final game, a must-win for both teams. But the result had already been decided. Alas it wasn’t helped by a comical piece of defending after merely 40 seconds, our central defender turning this way, turning that way, turning back the first way, then getting completely confused and giving the ball to the on-coming attacker who slotted the ball in to the corner. 1-0, and a mountain to climb. And of course, these mountains are made even harder when you have referees blowing for a foul every time a Taiwanese person asks for one. Or every time the team manager screams from the sidelines that he has not had a foul for at least 30 seconds, and so the ref should blow now.
With the second half coming to a close, and City 3-0 down, the referee banged the final nail in to the proverbial coffin. A foul, which could or could not have been given, was blown up, the defender shown a straight red card. This was a sign to the team that they were never have to have been allowed to be promoted, and should not apply for the top league ever again. Chinese/Taiwanese face had been saved – the foreigners had been beaten, the top division was still full of Taiwanese teams.
With the Stamp Racism out of Football and Fair Play Please campaigns going strong across Europe, and elsewhere around the world, it is sad to see that this is not adhered to over here in Taiwan. Of course, the fact that City had fielded an ineligible goalkeeper for the play-offs doesn’t count.
