Yangxin Bank announced sponsorship of the Taipei Athletic Club soccer team, this Sunday will wear the game "Yangxin Taipei Athletic Club" new jersey to play in Taipei Shihu. Shihlin farmers' children Yangxin Chairman Chen Sheng-hong said the bank's public welfare direction is sports, not just soccer, from baseball, softball to archery support for student teams, Yangxin's past sponsorship of Kaohsiung women's soccer for seven years, this year's fitness factory takeover success in the former chairman of the Soccer Association, Qiu Yiren, to introduce the resources into the Taipei Athletic. "The future achievement of Taipei Athletic is the achievement of Yangxin and the honor of Yangxin."
Qiu Yiren said that there is no shortage of rich people in Taiwan, there is a shortage of rich people with heart. "There are many rich companies in Taiwan and it is not difficult to find thousands of them. However, there are very few companies like Chen Dong who are willing to do public service and invest in various sports teams for a long time. After completing the women's soccer team, they increased their investment in men's soccer; Chen Hsin-An's soccer school is also well known in Taiwan. In such a difficult environment, he runs a good business, including all levels of the ladder. With soccer players like that, if I can do a little bit of work, it's not very busy, but at least it's very important that the team's management model can be supported."
Taipei Athletic head coach Chen Hsin-An revealed that grassroots soccer in Taiwan is full of energy, but support for the team is quite limited. Fortunately, in the past, Taipei Athletic Club's main sponsors did not require naming, but they wanted to deepen youth training and actually participate in the team's administrative operations. Yangxin is sponsoring the Corporate League Adult team this time, and the two are not in conflict. There are currently 10 teams with nearly 200 players at all levels of age-graded and women's teams starting at U8, U10, U12, U13, U15 and U18. Chen Xinan estimates that the annual operating expenses are about 30 or 40 million yuan. That number doesn't sound small, but it's still relatively tight compared to the popular professional baseball or professional basketball in China, let alone compared to real professional teams abroad.
"The fact is, if you spend your money in the right places, you won't spend much. The players don't spend much, it's mainly on coaches and venues. We try to catch up with foreign systems as much as possible, hiring foreign coaches and players and seeing young players move on. This year, we selected 6 players to be promoted from the reserves to the A team. The goal is to have 60% of the players from our own youth training ladder in three years' time." Taipei Athletic is the closest team in China to the European and American club formats, but Chen Xinan also admits that while teams in the current Corporate League know that youth training is the foundation for developing local strength, and team certification in the association requires the organization of youth teams, the actual practice is to show their own magical power.
"Youth training will only spend money and not make money, making money is for adult teams, but now adult leagues do not have a good organizational system to make money, there is no TV broadcasting, no fans, and they have to rely on sponsorships, which is the most difficult part of managing teams in Taiwan. The quality of the league should be improved, but how to improve not only the music department but also the association should work together."
Grassroots training has always been Chen Hsin-An's most important job since the start of the Taipei Wanhua Soccer School. Even his decision to enter the Corporate A Division league three years ago was to give players outside the school system room to continue playing soccer. "Nowadays, good high school players can only play in the student league, not in the B division, let alone in the A division. Unfortunately, we need these young players for our national teams, but it's hard for them to progress without playing; and then many of them retire in their 20s after college. In fact, they give up before they are most technically mature, so we will never have good players."
In the case of Chen Hsin-An, for example, Wei-Jie Huang, who just represented the Chinese team in the World Cup qualification, jumped all the way to 'soccer gifted students'. "Wong Wai Kit came in under 13 and played in Group B at 15. Now he's been playing in Group B and Group A for two years, but he's only 19. He has already proved himself in the national team. He's gained experience, he didn't suddenly become very strong. In the future, the chances of the national team or even traveling abroad will be greater. Now there are Chinese Super League teams inviting him to try out or go to Spain. We just want to find a way to send him out and make him better." Wong Wai Kit will go abroad the earliest in the second half of this year's season, but only 18-and-a-half-year-old Chan Yan Swee has also been promoted to the First Division this year and started the opening match. "Yen-Sui played very well as a child. Last year, he turned around and played U18 and B Division. If he's given a stage, he'll grow up even faster."
It's worth noting that normally corporations sponsor sports teams just to win the championship scenery, but neither Yangxin nor Taipei Athletic has set a ranking goal, and even if the team records in the top three of the Corporate League, Chen Hsin-an doesn't plan to use the Yangxin title to create pressure to win the championship. "In this third year, the eight teams are very close, with Taiwan Power losing to Ming Chuan, and three-peat Taiwan Steel not too high. Last year our (Taipei Athletic) main midfielder left and this year's goal is just to relegate to the top six, with a focus on developing young players."
In fact, Taipei Athletics is located in Taipei as is Shihu, Taiwan, but the city government publicly tendered for the Taipei Athletic Stadium. Taipei Athletic was not awarded the criteria. Currently, it rents the Taipei University Athletic Field in Sanxia, New Taipei as its home field, with an average of less than 300 fans per game. When sponsorship funds are available, they hope to lay artificial turf and even add nighttime lights to give fans a more comfortable viewing environment.
