The CTFA International Tournament () was a tier 1 international football competition held in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

from 1-5 December 2017, organized by the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA). Results involving the Philippines national football team led to strong reactions by Filipino football fans, and disputes between football administrators. The six games in the tournament were authorized by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

as International “A” Matches.

Participating nations

Four nations participated in the tournament.

Venue

Matches

*All times are National Standard Time – UTC+8 ---- ---- ----

Goalscorers

Aftermath

After the 1-2 win–loss result by the Philippines national football team, particularly the loss to 196th-ranked Timor-Leste on the seventh anniversary of the " Miracle in Hanoi", Philippines fans reacted with disappointment and anger. Former national team manager

Dan Palami Dan Stephen Castillo Palami (born June 9, 1970) is the general manager of the Philippine men's national football team since 2009. He is credited for his contributions to the revival of football in the Philippines due to the national team's perf ...

joined in criticism of team selection, although the Philippines Football Federation was limited by player commitments to teams involved in the 2017 Philippines Football League finals series. The decision to send a team to the tournament during the

PFL PFL may refer to: Science * Pyruvate formate lyase, an enzyme important in the regulation of anaerobic glucose metabolism * Positive feedback loop * posterior frontal lobe Sport * Peel Football League, an Australian rules football league * Pio ...

finals was also questioned, along with concern about the expected effect on the Philippines national team's

FIFA World Ranking The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, led by Brazil . The teams of the men's member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the ...

, which subsequently dropped six spots in the December 2017 FIFA rankings.

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

surpassed the Philippines as top national men's team in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

Jefferson Cheng Jefferson Cheng is a Filipino businessman and association football administrator. He is the current manager of the Philippines women's national football team. Education Cheng attended Xavier School where he used to play competitive football as a ...

, manager of the CTFA International Tournament team and owner of Davao Aguilas FC, defended selection decisions, asking that supporters consider the value of giving young players experience in International “A” Matches. In contrast, the Chinese Taipei Football Association reacted enthusiastically to the Chinese Taipei 3-0 tournament victory, reporting it as a high point in their history. The Timor-Leste national team was reported by the

Taipei Times The ''Taipei Times'' is the only printed daily English-language newspaper in Taiwan, and the third established there. Online competitors include the state-owned ''Focus Taiwan'' and ''Taiwan News''; ''The China Post'' was formerly a competit ...

to be "delighted" by their unexpected win over the Philippines after losing each of their earlier games by one goal. Timor-Leste rose five spots in the December 2017 FIFA rankings on the strength of this win.

Notes

References

{{Friendly tournaments 2017

CTFA International Tournament The CTFA International Tournament () was a tier 1 international football competition held in Taipei, Taiwan from 1-5 December 2017, organized by the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA). Results involving the Philippines national football t ...

International association football competitions hosted by Taiwan December 2017 sports events in Asia International men's association football invitational tournaments