Taiwan amends sports law, creates public database to ban rogue coaches

Taiwan’s sports environment has long drawn public attention, especially the power imbalance between athletes and coaches, referees, and other professionals, which can give rise to cases of abuse of authority, bullying, or improper discipline. To comprehensively improve safety in athletic settings, the Executive Yuan cabinet today formally passed a major amendment draft to the National Sports Act. The most prominent reform establishes a clear removal mechanism for unfit coaches, referees, or sports professionals and creates a public query system that allows the public and relevant agencies to conduct background checks at any time, aiming to eliminate unsuitable individuals from the system at its source.

According to Premier Zhuo Rong‑tai’s directive in the cabinet meeting, the core spirit of the amendment is to strictly vet the qualifications of sports personnel. In the future, coaches, referees, or professionals whose misconduct is verified will face the harshest administrative penalties, including denial of certification, refusal to grant licenses, or outright revocation of existing qualifications. Moreover, to give parents, schools, and athletic teams a reliable reference when hiring or selecting coaches, the government will build a dedicated unfit‑coach query system, making information more transparent and breaking the historically closed circles and information asymmetry within the sports community.

Addressing the public’s concern over historic cases and comprehensive reviews, newly appointed Sports Minister Li Yang responded positively at a press conference after the meeting. Li said that cross‑agency coordination will be pursued, particularly with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Justice, to conduct a thorough verification and update of existing databases. This effort concerns not only the qualification review of current coaches but also the effective filtering of individuals with past misconduct who may still be moving among schools or private clubs, ensuring the query system’s database achieves the most complete and up‑to‑date coverage.

The amendment and accompanying policies carry profound implications for the long‑term development of Taiwan’s sports sector. For decades, Taiwanese athletes have typically begun professional training in childhood, with coaches playing an authoritative role in athletes’ career development. This high‑dependency relationship has created opportunities for unscrupulous coaches. In the past, incidents of improper discipline or gender‑related misconduct often persisted because of a lack of inter‑agency information sharing, allowing implicated individuals to relocate to another county or join a private club and continue coaching. The current revision of the National Sports Act seeks to use legal force and digital query tools to construct a safety net for athletes, addressing longstanding concerns within the sports community.

With the Executive Yuan’s approval, the bill will now be submitted to the Legislative Yuan for deliberation, a step expected to spark intense debate among legislators and accelerate the legislative process. Key issues in the upcoming review will include the implementation of the database, safeguarding due‑process rights for the accused, and protecting the safety of minor athletes. The Sports Ministry and related agencies must complete preparatory work and inter‑agency coordination before the bill passes its third reading, ensuring that this system—critical to the rights of countless young athletes—can be effectively enacted and achieve the reform goal of preventing abuse and cleansing the sporting environment.

(Source: Central News Agency)