Chinese Taipei national football team

The Chinese Taipei national football team (Chinese: 中華台北男子足球代表隊) represents Taiwan (The Republic of China) in international football^[4] and is controlled by the Chinese Taipei Football Association. Despite never qualifying for the FIFA World Cup, Chinese Taipei, then known as Republic of China, reached the semi-finals of the 1960 and 1968 AFC Asian Cups, finishing third in the former. The side also won gold at the 1954 and 1958 Asian Games, although the players in the team originated from British Hong Kong.

The Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) was founded in mainland China as the China Football Association (CFA) in 1924 and relocated to Taiwan in 1949 at the end of the Chinese Civil War. The country joined FIFA in 1954,^[5] renaming to "Chinese Taipei" in 1982.^[5][6]

Chinese Taipei's greatest success came when they finished third at the AFC Asian Cup in 1960. The team also qualified for 1960 Summer Olympics. However, the players in the team originally came from Hong Kong, despite the Hong Kong national football team not being one of the best in Asia.^[7]

In 1970, an agreement was reached by the Chinese Taipei Football Association and the Hong Kong Football Association to the effect that Hong Kong footballers were no longer eligible to play for Taiwan. Since then, Chinese Taipei has not qualified for any FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup competitions.

Due to the political conflict with the People's Republic of China (China PR), Taiwan (Republic of China) had to change their name and Olympics design to "Chinese Taipei" after Chinese Taipei had been expelled from Asian Football Federation^[8] and Asian Games. Chinese Taipei was part of the Oceania Football Confederation from 1975 to 1989.

Chinese Taipei was then re-admitted back to the Asian Football Federation in 1989^[9] and Olympic Council of Asia in 1990.^[10]

Chinese Taipei reached their highest FIFA World Ranking of 121st in July 2018, under the guidance of renowned English coach, Gary White.^[11] Since his arrival in the autumn of 2017, White's strategies aimed not only to improve the national team, but also the standards of football on the island. An extended scouting operation looking for talents of Taiwanese heritage from abroad was also part of his plans. The cast proved to be successful when players such as Tim Chow, Will Donkin and Emilio Estevez were tapped in for the national team.

In December 2017, Chinese Taipei hosted the CTFA International Tournament, an A-level competition that also included Laos, the Philippines and Timor-Leste. It was created to test the country's team in preparation for international friendlies and tournaments in future years. Chinese Taipei won all of their three games, winning the mini-tournament and their first official international trophy in 55 years.^[12] Thanks to the four goals he scored (two of which in the final match against Laos), striker Li Mao was deemed as the competition's top scorer.^[13]

White led a successful period for the Chinese Taipei, including winning 7 FIFA international games in a row. Charged with taking Taiwan to their first AFC Asian Cup since 1968, White had taken over the guide of the national team halfway through the qualification campaign: eventually, he brought them to the third round of the qualifiers, missing a spot to the tournament (in favour of Bahrain and Turkmenistan) by just one point. White was then offered a contract by the Hong Kong national team and left his role in Taiwan in September 2018.^[14]

Following the Englishman's departure, progress started to plummet during the following year. Vom Ca-nhum, employed as a caretaker manager while he was guiding the Chinese Taipei U19 squad, was unable to qualify his side to the final round of the EAFF E-1 Football Championship (even though they won their match against Mongolia). Then, another Englishman, Louis Lancaster, who previously assisted Gary White during his time on the island, was appointed as the main coach to take his first senior management position.^[15] However, things got even worse for the Chinese Taipei: in 2019, the team won just one out of the nine matches they played (a 2–0 win in a friendly against Hong Kong),^[16] and they were prematurely eliminated from the continental qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, losing all of their first five games and getting thrashed by Australia (1–7), Kuwait (9–0) and Jordan (5–0). Following the shocking results in the first phase of the qualifiers, Lancaster was sacked in December 2019,^[17] and the federation soon decided to hire Vom Ca-nhum again, this time on a full basis, as he was one of the few coaches on the island to have already gained an AFC Pro A coaching license.^[18]

In October 2023, Chinese Taipei participated in the first round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification, winning against Timor-Leste 7–0 on aggregate which saw them advancing to the second round, being placed in Group D alongside Oman, Kyrgyzstan, and Malaysia.

As of January 2023, the official kit supplier is local Taiwanese sports brand Entes.^[19]

Chinese Taipei played their home matches at the Kaohsiung National Stadium which is able to hold up to 55,000 seating capacity. The stadium, designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito, makes use of 1 MW of solar cells to provide most of its power needs. The stadium's semi spiral-shaped, like a dragon, is the first stadium in the world to provide power using solar power technology. The solar panels covering the vast external face of the stadium are able to generate most of the power required for its own operation, as well as additional power that can be sent to the grid.

Chinese Taipei used to play their match at the 20,000 capacity stadium Taipei Municipal Stadium which as of now, will be second in line to host the national team matches. On 3 July 2011, the stadium recorded its highest attendance for a football game when Chinese Taipei hosted Malaysia in the first round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification second leg match, when 15,335 spectators attended the game.

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

  Win   Draw   Loss   Fixture

Caretaker managers are listed in italics.

The following players were called up for the match against Sri Lanka.^[20]

Caps and goals updated as of 10 June 2025, after the match against Sri Lanka.

The following players also received a call-up within the last twelve months.

As of 29 March 2025^[21]

Players in bold are still active with Chinese Taipei.

  Champions    Runners-up    Third place     Fourth place  

• AFC Asian Cup
  • Third place (1): 1960
• Asian Games¹
  • Gold medal (2): 1954, 1958

• CTFA International Tournament (1): 2017

Only official honours are included, according to FIFA statutes (competitions organized/recognized by FIFA or an affiliated confederation).

Notes

1. Competition organized by OCA, officially not recognized by FIFA.

• List of Taiwanese footballers
• Chinese Taipei national futsal team
• Chinese Taipei women's national football team

• Chinese Taipei Football Association official website (in Chinese)
• Chinese Taipei at AFC
• Chinese Taipei at FIFA
• Chinese Taipei at 2006 FIFA World Cup official website (archived 12 March 2007)
• Chinese Taipei national team squad at CTFA official website (in Chinese) (archived 10 December 2007)