The Chinese Taipei national football team represents Taiwan (the Republic of China) in international football and is controlled by the Chinese Taipei Football Association. Despite never qualifying for the FIFA World Cup, Chinese Taipei, then known as Republic of China, reached the semi-finals of the 1960 and 1968 AFC Asian Cups, finishing third in the former. The side also won gold at the 1954 and 1958 Asian Games, although the players in the team originated from British Hong Kong. History The Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) was founded in Mainland China as the China Football Association (CFA) in 1924 and relocated to Taiwan in 1949 at the end of the Chinese Civil War. Affiliated with FIFA in 1932 as China, the country rejoined FIFA in 1954, first under the name Taiwan, then renaming to Chinese Taipei in 1980. The team's greatest success came when they finished third at the AFC Asian Cup in 1960 as Taiwan. However, the players in the team originally came from Hong Kong, despite the Hong Kongese national team not being one of the best in Asia. Due to the political conflict with the People's Republic of China (China PR), Taiwan, now known as Chinese Taipei, was part of the Oceania Football Confederation and participated in the Oceanian World Cup qualifiers from 1975 to 1989. Chinese Taipei reached their highest FIFA World Ranking of 121st in July 2018, under the guidance of renowned English coach Gary White. Since his arrival in the autumn of 2017, White's strategies aimed not only to improve the national team, but also the standards of football on the island. An extended scouting operation looking for talents of Taiwanese heritage from abroad was also part of his plans. The cast proved to be successful when players such as Tim Chow, Will Donkin and Emilio Estevez were tapped in for the national team. In December 2017, Chinese Taipei hosted the CTFA International Tournament, an A-level competition that also included Laos, the Philippines and Timor-Leste. It was created to test the country's team in preparation for international friendlies and tournaments in future years. Chinese Taipei won all of their three games, winning the mini-tournament and their first official international trophy in 55 years. Thanks to the four goals he scored (two of which in the final match against Laos), striker Li Mao was deemed as the competition's top scorer. White led a successful period