Overseas joint-use football pitches (Case 1)

In recent years, grassroots football has developed strongly in Taiwan and the number of players and teams has increased sharply, leading to shortage of pitches or difficulty hiring venues in some cities and counties. Also, 11-a side football pitches cover a wide area and are demanding of players in terms of skill and fitness. Consequently, with reference to Germany’s FUSSBALL IST ZUKUNFT (1000-feet Program,) “the Planning and Design Reference Handbook for 5-a side, 8-a side and Joint-use Football Pitches commissioned” by the Sports Administration will be available on the Sports Administration website for download and use by interested parties at the end of August. The aim is to continue to develop 5-a side and 8-a side football and encourage the setting up of community football pitches or joint use pitches to increase the opportunity for playing football of children and adolescents and their interest in the sport.

The Sports Administration said that a proposal from the public was received on the “join public policy website participation platform” suggesting that Germany’s successful FUSSBALL IST ZUKUNFT (1000 feet Program) be emulated, widely establishing different types of football pitches to increase the promotion and setting down of roots of football. The proposal passed the threshold for seconding in May 2021 and the Sports Administration then invited scholars and experts and city/county governments to hold discussion meetings to discuss related policy proposals. With regard increasing the number of pitches and standardization of related facilities, the drawing up of the Planning and Design Reference Handbook for 5-a side, 8-a side and Joint-use Football Pitches was commissioned. It includes the facility norms and certification criteria of domestic and overseas venues and facilities, construction budget and planning schedule etc.

In terms of “joint-use football pitches”, they involve setting up informal integrated dual-use pitches in parks and communities with reference to overseas experience, such as football and basketball joint use pitches/courts (hard floor,) and football and croquet pitches (grass.) The dimensions of pitches can be flexibly adjusted according to the site to allow resources to be fully utilized.

The Sports Administration has invited county and city governments on August 23 to meet to exchange opinions of the current 5-a side, 8-a side football development situation in counties and cities and feasibility of establishing “joint-use football pitches” in future, as reference for future policy promotion.