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With the support of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Dream Asia Foundation, the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) collaborated with the Global Worker’s Organization (GWO), to hold a Migrant Workers’ World Cup along with other sporting events, from October 15 to November 19, 2022.
The month-long festivities provided workers from various communities with an opportunity to come together to celebrate the spirit of the beautiful game as the world geared up for the greatest show on earth, the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Marked by a high degree of participation, the programme was divided into three segments: The Migrant Workers’ World Cup, Summer Football Camp: Migrant Worker and Human Rights, and the FANCHANT: Football Culture Around the World.
The Migrant Workers’ World Cup included 12 teams comprising 400 participants from different countries who are currently settled in Chinese Taipei as migrant labourers. Barring the Final, which was played for 90 minutes divided into two halves, all matches were 50 minutes long with no breaks.
In order to maximise awareness and increase global viewership, the Semi-finals and Final of the tournament were aired online with commentary available in Mandarin, English, Indonesian, Thai, and Vietnamese.
Meanwhile, a summer football camp was organised in three different cities, namely, Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung City where indoor as well as outdoor activities were conducted for teenagers to help them understand the importance of the cultural diversity that football represents as well as the nuanced nature of migrant workers’ human rights.
The third aspect of the programme is an ongoing multilingual awareness campaign where the GWO encouraged migrant worker footballers from different countries to record their fanchants in their own languages, as a symbol of Chinese Taipei’s multiculture heritage. With chants from 22 different nations under their belt, the GWO continues to welcome recordings from more communities.
The programme, which underlined the AFC’s determined efforts of promoting inclusivity in football, also successfully upheld FIFA’s commitment to champion the cause of labour rights.
