‘Give me Blood, I’ll Give You Graduation Credits’: Football Coach Scandal Shocks Taiwan

Outrage has been expressed online in response to a scandal in Taiwan concerning a university women’s football coach who is suspected of pressuring pupils to donate blood in order to receive the necessary academic credits.

The disclosure was made public by a Jian student from the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) who made the accusation. Jian said the children were forced to participate in excessive blood donation sessions by their coach, Zhou Tai-ying, 61, a well-known figure in the island’s football scene.

The process of getting extra credits by blood

According to reports, the sessions were linked to the 32 academic credits needed to graduate, and students who did not cooperate ran the risk of not being able to graduate or maybe being expelled. Jian claimed that throughout her time at the university, she received more than 200 academic credits in exchange for donating blood. This occasionally required ongoing sampling from 5 AM to 9 PM for up to 14 days, sometimes three times a day. Under the pretence of “on-campus research experiments,” the blood was purportedly extracted by inexperienced staff. In certain instances, the coach allegedly pocketed “team funds”: research grants meant for participants.

“For credit, it was really blood and sweat.  My anger was almost boiling over!  They were hardly able to locate a vein in either arm on the ninth day of blood draws in a row, Jian added.
 They even made an unsuccessful attempt at my wrist.  It hurt like hell.  I lost it.  They had to make six attempts before they were successful”, Jian shared a video of herself crying throughout the procedure along with her message.

Several victims took to social media to voice their opinions after the tragedy. According to one unnamed student, the coach had been bullying her for a long time, so she took a leave of absence. 

“If my dad knew, he’d definitely go fight the coach,” she added, adding that her parents were unaware of the situation and that she dared not inform them. The teenager remarked, “I simply did not want them to be upset.”

She also mentioned that before she could share her experience with her father, he passed away suddenly. “I never had the opportunity to be honest with him. Forgiveness, then? In the next life, perhaps.  Looking back, all I can feel is disdain, even though my college years were meant to be joyful and full of hope.”

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