In a major development, the Taiwanese Womens Football Players Association (TWFPA) put out a public statement criticizing their team’s current coaching set-up that have led to ‘systematic flaws that severely impact the team’s operations’. The statement was signed by eighteen members of the national team and also posted on the social media accounts of several starters including Su Yu-hsuan, Ting Chi, Saki Matsunaga and Chang Chi-lan.

The announcement comes less than a month after the team made it to the knock-out phases of the AFC Womens Finals for just the second time in the last thirty years.

In their statement, the TWFPA allege the following issues;

• Questionable training sessions that ‘lacked scentific data support, resulting in multiple players suffering non-contact injuries’ that in turn ‘directly weakened the team’s performance in matches but also caused irreversible damage to the players careers’.
• Poor tactical preparation, which in some cases forced the players to devise tactics for the games themselves.
• Inconsistent roster selection
• Lack of postgame feedback for players that resulted in similar errors being made across multiple games.
• A total breakdown of trust whereby ‘players have fundamentally questioned the leadership and professionalism of the head coach and the coaching staff’.

Critically, the players’ statement also demanded the replacement of current head coach, Prasobchoke Chokemor, and a total overhaul of the coaching set-up for the women’s team.

GoGoal also followed up the TWFPA statement with reporting of their own that alleged that Chokemor was lacking in many tactical areas. Beyond the limited coaching sessions, Chokemor made a number of suggestions to the players that included using a 5-1-4 formation and defensive ideas that were confusing and obviously ineffective.

GoGoal also claims that Chokemor did not attend the match between Vietnam and India in the AFC Finals, which would have given the Mulan players valuable information in advance of their games against both sides.

In response to the TWFPA statement, the current head of the CTFA, Chang Tsan has announced a full review of the claims.

Chokemor’s contract is understood to expire in September and given the public vote of no-confidence by his own players, it seems highly unlikely he will be renewed. The only question will be if Chokemor is kept around the team before his contract expires in the fall– which at this point also seems implausible.