A ground-breaking new home for Taiwanese football

The island's first-ever purpose-built football stadium could be the start of a new era for the sport in Taiwan

- JAMES SHIELD

In the south-western corner of Taichung, the second largest city in Taiwan, something special is happening which could eventually help soccer supersede baseball as the country's most popular sport.

“We want everyone here to participate in it,” local mayor Lu Shiow-yen said, referring to the International Football Sports and Leisure Park (TIFSLP) complex, which is scheduled to be completed in April. “Our aims include to enhance the social atmosphere of the game here, increase participation, cultivate talent and elite-level competitors, and take part in exchanges with teams from abroad which will bring about new ideas”

The project, costing an estimated NT$1.51 billion (around £37 million), will see an 11-a-side artificial pitch, two five-a-side playing areas, an underground car park and associated transport links constructed on the 4.7-hectare site. Most significantly, however, it also involves the creation of a 6,000-seater arena surrounding a naturally turfed surface: the island’s first built specifically for football.

In a nation where people are more transfixed by home runs than goals, the official opening ceremony is set to be an historic moment. Maybe a pivotal one too, given what one of the state-of-the-art venue's tenants believes is soccer’s potential for growth among her compatriots.