Sunny Bank Athletic Club Taipei (Chinese: 陽信台北競技; pinyin: Táiběi jìngjì), previously known as Andy Chen Academy, Is a professional football club based in Taipei, Taiwan that competes in the Taiwan Football Premier League, starting in 2022.
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| Full name | Sunny Bank Athletic Club Taipei |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Tigers |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Ground | National Taipei University |
| Capacity | TBD |
| Owner | Chen Sing-an |
| Chairman | TBD |
| Coach | Chen Sing-an |
| League | Taiwan Football Premier League |
| 2023 | 4th of 8 |
| Website | https://actaipei.com/ |
History
editIn 2010, the club started as a football academy, Little Peacock Club, and was later renamed as Andy Chen Academy.[1]
In 2017, the academy collaborated with Chelsea F.C. Hong Kong Soccer School to introduce Chelsea F.C.'s youth training system to the academy. The academy committed $2 million NTD to build five artificial turf pitches.[1] Academy's owner, Chen Sing-an, planned to make the club to be the first Asian Football Confederation qualified Taiwanese football club.[2] Their youth players can also play for their respective schools, colleges, or university in youth tournaments, to enable competitive football experience since their players' youth.[3]
In 2020, their first-team was formed, with the self-proclaimed long and short-term ambitions of playing on Taiwan's top-flight league; representing Taiwan at the AFC Cup; and introducing their academy players to the first-team matches,[3] as they were granted a Taiwan Club License, debuted in the 2020 Taiwan Challenge League.
They made their official debut on July 18, 2020, when they lost 5–2 away to CPC Corporation. During the season, they earned 28 points in 14 matches. But, they still were unable to be promoted to the first division, as they finished in 3rd place. Despite having a 14 positive goal difference advantage, they finished 3 points behind second-placed Inter Taoyuan that season.[4]
Their efforts were rewarded in 2021, winning the Taiwan Challenge League title by a tight margin, sitting above second-placed Ming Chuan University by just 2 points. With this 35-point campaign, they were successfully promoted without playing the promotion play-offs.[5]
The club was rebranded and modernised as in the club's identity, including a name change. They changed their name from Andy Chen Academy to AC Taipei, on 31 March 2022.[6][7]
AC Taipei debuted in the 2022 season of Taiwan's top-flight league[8][9] against Taipower, when they lost 4–1, with Tsai Meng-cheng scoring their lone goal.[10]
AC Taipei's reserve team has yet to win a place at the Taiwan Challenge League, the national football 2nd tier league, for the 2022 season. They played a single-leg qualification match against Kaohsiung F.C. by a draw conducted by the CTFA in 7 May, losing with a score of 0–2. Therefore, they did not secure a spot in the 2022 Challenge League.[11]
On June 13, 2023, the club was renamed to Sunny Bank AC Taipei after receiving sponsorship from Sunny Commercial Bank.[12]
Current squad
edit- As of 5 August 2024 [13]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Records
edit| 1st section | 2nd section | 3rd section | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taipower | 4–1 | AC Taipei | 1 | AC Taipei | 0–1 | Taipower | 1 | Taipower | 2–1 | AC Taipei |
| 2 | AC Taipei | 2–6 | Tainan City | 2 | Tainan City | 2–2 | AC Taipei | 2 | AC Taipei | 0–7 | Tainan City |
| 3 | AC Taipei | 1–4 | Taichung Futuro | 3 | Taichung Futuro | 3–3 | AC Taipei | 3 | AC Taipei | 1–2 | Taichung Futuro |
| 4 | AC Taipei | 1–2 | Hang Yuen | 4 | Hang Yuen | 3–1 | AC Taipei | 4 | AC Taipei | Hang Yuen | |
| 5 | Leopard Cat | 2–0 | AC Taipei | 5 | AC Taipei | 2–2 | Leopard Cat | 5 | Leopard Cat | AC Taipei | |
| 6 | Ming Chuan | 1–2 | AC Taipei | 6 | AC Taipei | 1–1 | Ming Chuan | 6 | Ming Chuan | AC Taipei | |
References
edit- ^ a b 中時新聞網. "200萬建足球場 陳信安要打造台灣首個職業俱樂部 - 體育". 中時新聞網 (in Chinese). Retrieved 2022-07-29.
- ^ "給台足一個希望 陳信安足球學校引進切爾西青訓系統 | ETtoday運動雲 | ETtoday新聞雲". sports.ettoday.net (in Traditional Chinese). 28 June 2017. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
- ^ a b "AC Taipei Basic Info" (in Chinese). Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- ^ "AC Taipei Philosophy" (in Chinese). Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- ^ "ACA were the 2022 TCL champions". 26 December 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
- ^ "足球》ACA升上企甲變身台北競技 新隊徽新陣容展現企圖". tw.news.yahoo.com (in Chinese). 31 March 2022. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
- ^ "ACA changed its name to AC Taipei, and Chen Sing-an lead the team" (in Chinese). Yahoo! Taiwan. 31 March 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
- ^ "Taipower vs AC Taipei match report by CTFA". CTFA. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
- ^ "TPFL's 7 teams kick-off the top-flight season in Taiwan". 4 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
- ^ "Chen Sing-an praises his team after Taipower clash despite losing" (in Chinese). Retrieved 19 March 2022.
- ^ "Challenge League". CTFA. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
- ^ "受陽信銀行冠名贊助，今日起俱樂部更名為「陽信台北競技俱樂部」" (Press release) (in Chinese). Sunny Bank Athletic Club Taipei. 13 June 2024. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
- ^ "AC Taipei Squad list" (in Chinese). Retrieved 29 April 2024.