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

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

from 1-5 December 2017, organized by the

Chinese Taipei Football Association Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) is the governing body for football in the Republic of China (commonly known as Taiwan). Its official name in Chinese is the Republic of China Football Association, but due to the political status of Tai ...

(CTFA). Results involving the

Philippines national football team The Philippines national football team () represents the Philippines in men's international association football, football, governed by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) and has been playing internationally since 1913. Prior to World W ...

led to strong reactions by Filipino football fans, and disputes between football administrators. The six games in the tournament were authorized by

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

as International “A” Matches.

Participating nations

Four nations participated in the tournament.

Venue

Matches

*All times are

National Standard Time National Standard Time is the official time zone in Taiwan defined by an UTC offset of +08:00. This standard is also known as Taipei Time (), Taiwan Time () or Taiwan Standard Time (TST). History The first time zone standard in Taiwan was en ...

–

UTC+8 UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. It is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a possible candidate for ASEAN Common Time, mainly due to China's large population, with an estimated population ...

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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 a Filipino business and sports executive. He was the general manager of the Philippine men's national football team from 2009 to 2024. He is credited for his contributions to the revival of f ...

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: Sport * Professional Fighters League, an American mixed martial arts league * Peel Football League, an Australian rules football league * Pioneer Football League, an NCAA Division I FCS football conference * Professional Futsa ...

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, first introduced in December 1992. The men's teams of the member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their gam ...

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

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

surpassed the Philippines as top national men's team in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

. Jefferson Cheng, 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

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 an English-language print newspaper in Taiwan published by the Liberty Times Group. Founded as the third English-language newspaper on 15 June 1999, it is currently the last surviving English-language print newspaper i ...

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