In a stunning development, Huang Che-ming has resigned just three games into his stint as head coach of Taiwan’s mens team. This means the Blue Wings will be looking for their third full-time head coach in five months and puts a huge spotlight on the CTFA and their handling of football within Taiwan.

Effectively announcing his resignation at the postgame press conference, Huang made it clear he was resigning due to the actions of the CTFA and spoke at length about his dissatisfaction with the country’s .

“I am resigning after this match because the team is under-resourced[…] The players are working very hard, hoping to present a different style of football. The difficulties faced by many young players and the national team are simply unacceptable”.

Huang, who played twenty-three times for the Taiwan national team before transitioning into coaching, then sat down for an interview with GoGoal, where he laid out a number of issues he had with the CTFA’s performance.

The key issues Huang had were the lack of cohesive contact with the clubs of Taiwan’s overseas based players. As noted previously, the Taiwan team were missing a number of key players for the double header with Thailand, with only Chris Tiao and Yuan Yung-cheng able to make it in time.

Moreover, a lack of communication meant that Tiao, a Taiwanese-American dual national who plays for New York FC, was called up without staff knowing he was healthy enough to play. Although he played a few minutes in the first game with Thailand, Tiao didn’t feature at all in the second game, which was surprising at the time but now makes total sense. Huang noted himself that Tiao’s injury was so serious that sending him onto the field would have gotten him hurt.

The other major concern was facilities– a complaint that has come up time and time again in recent months. Much to Huang’s fury, he revealed that the national team had been obliged to train at the Yingfeng football grounds in Taipei, a regular-use field that is also used for pick-up games or youth soccer tournaments.

“What hurts me most is that your national team is the highest level [and we are] training at the Yingfeng football field [.]A national team should train in a closed environment, not an open one. […]. How could we, a national team, train at that kind of field?“

Huang further noted that there was constant miscommunication regarding hotels and team nutrition in the build-up to the away game in Thailand before moving on to criticize the overall state of Taiwanese football administration.

“You need to establish a comprehensive system so that the entire national team knows how to proceed. You need to establish this system, rather than just throwing problems out there and then asking, “How are we going to handle them?” […] We understand the association’s current predicament, but I don’t think we can replicate the same approach with the national team. It really shouldn’t be done“

By his own admission, his sudden resignation is intended to force accountability and a change in approach, although whether that happens remains to be seen.

In the last five months alone, Gary White (the previous mens coach) quit after declining opportunities to resign with the Blue Wings, Chan Hiu-ming (the women’s head coach) resigned after guiding the Mulan to only their second AFC Finals appearance since 2008 and Mehmet Fatih Kale departed as national team technical director.

The decision by Huang to also depart the national team set-up is obviously another blow. Despite losing all three games in charge, those defeats were to two growing Asian powers, Thailand and Indonesia.

But now, the CTFA must return to the drawing board. It is unclear who will be replace Huang or if they will go with an interim coach for the rest of the qualification campaign.

As of the time of writing, the CTFA has not acknowledged the resignation of Huang or made comment.

Photo Credit: CTFA