Taiwan's nongovernmental organization overseeing sports associations launched a signature drive on Thursday against the government's sweeping new rule on memberships in sports bodies.

Describing the new requirement to grant membership to anyone who applies regardless of playing experience as "unreasonable," Chang Chao-kuo, chairman of the Republic of China Sports Federation, told a press conference that the reason he organized the signature campaign was to ask the Sports Administration to re-examine the new rule.

"We'd have supported the new measure 100 percent if the Sports Administration had fully discussed draft statute with us, respected our professional expertise and mapped out a reasonable plan," he said.

The legislature passed amendments to the National Sports Act on Sept. 1 as part of President Tsai Ing-wen's reform initiatives since taking office in May last year.

The amendments aim at addressing four major issues of the sports sector: professional management, financial accountability, administrative transparency and public participation.

In terms of public participation, the amendments require that individual memberships should be allowed in all sports federations.

The amendments also require that at least one-fifth of members of a sports association's board of directors be active or former athletes of national sports teams.

Vincent Wang, legal counsel of the signature campaign, said sports federations are not against reforming the sports sector, but instead against the way the Sports Administration "crudely" demanded that all sports bodies change their membership structure, while alleging that many of the administration's requests go beyond the limits of the amendments to the National Sports Act.

One example is that the Administration asked all associations to accept individual members by the end of the year and group members by mid-March next year without taking into consideration the different situations of every association or the impact of the structural shake-up on next year's Asian Games.

The new rule has upset many, including the Chinese Taipei Football Association, which has written to the International Federation of Association Football and Asian Football Confederation to clarify the legality of the new law.

FIFA pointed out that its statutes obligate each member association to manage its affairs independently and without undue influence from third parties.

"It is therefore our opinion that it is not appropriate to impose on the CTFA the possibility for individuals (i.e. natural persons) to acquire membership of its Congress," it said.

The AFC also said that the individual membership mandated by the National Sports Act is "not only impractical but also goes against the principles of 'Association Football' in which only juridical persons can play a role."

As a gesture of protest, Chinese Taipei Taekwondo Association President Hsu An Chin renounced his re-election bid on Friday, adding that he is worried about the sustainability of the association if an individual who has little knowledge about Taekwondo and has few connections is elected to lead the association.

Chinese Taipei Tennis Association Secretary General Philip Liu said he is in favor of reforming the sports sector but is against the Sports Administration's "autocratic behavior" of imposing uniform rules on all sports bodies.

==Kyodo