The Japan Football League, ( japanese : 日本フットボールリーグ, Hepburn : Nihon Futtobōru Rīgu ) besides known as just the JFL is the fourth grade of the japanese association football league arrangement, positioned beneath the three divisions of the J.League. The league features amply master teams that hold J.League associate membership among its ranks .
According to the official document published in December 2013 when the J3 League was established, the J3 League was the 3rd charge of the J.League. The J.League and non-J.League amateurish leagues have unlike hierarchical structures, and the J3 League was ranked on the like tied as the JFL. In addition, the JFL itself has the same recognition in the material showing the league composition on the official web site. [ 1 ] Therefore, the JFL is treated as equal to J3 in theory, but in practice it is considered equivalent to a fourth division.
Reading: Japan Football League
history [edit ]
The Japan Football League started from the 1999 season when the second division of J.League ( J2 ) was besides born. Until then, J.League consisted of only one division and the early JFL was the moment highest division. Out of 16 teams who played the last season of the former JFL, 9 decided and were accepted to play in J2 and the early 7 teams a well as Yokogawa Electric, the winners of the Regional League Promotion Series, formed the new Japan Football League. These 8 teams together with Yokohama FC that was allowed to participate as a special encase after the amalgamation of Yokohama Flügels and Yokohama Marinos competed in the inauguration 1999 season. The 9 teams that competed in the beginning season were as follows : Denso SC, Honda Motors, Jatco SC, Kokushikan University F.C., Mito HollyHock, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, Sony Sendai, Yokohama FC and Yokogawa Electric. In the second season the phone number of clubs was increased from 9 to 12, reaching 16 in 2001. In 2002 it was concisely 18 clubs before going back to 16 the next season and settle for dear at 18 in 2006. For the 2012 season it had 17 clubs due to the recently withdrawal of Arte Takasaki. The league suffered another contraction after 2013 season, as 10 of its 18 teams joined the newly created J3 League. It besides moved a tier down the pyramid, making it fourth-tier league since 2014. Four former JFL clubs have competed in the top flight : yokohama FC ( 2007 ), Otsuka Pharmaceuticals ( 2014, as Tokushima Vortis ), Matsumoto Yamaga ( 2015 ), and V-Varen Nagasaki ( 2018 ) .
overview [edit ]
JFL clubs may be affiliated to companies, or be entirely autonomous clubs or reserve teams of these. Until 2010, university clubs ( which as a rule do not play in the japanese football league system ) were recommended by the Japan University Football Association and played off against bottom JFL teams for entrance. B-teams are allowed to participate but only A-squads of in truth autonomous clubs are eligible for J.League associate membership, and with it, promotion to J.League .
promotion from JFL [edit ]
A baseball club that satisfies the adopt criteria will be promoted to J.League Div. 2 ( for the 2012 and 2013 seasons ) :
- Have J.League associate membership
- Finish the season in the top two in JFL
- If only the champion is an associate member, it will be automatically promoted.
- If both the champion and runner-up are associate members, the champion will be automatically promoted and the runner-up will play a Promotion/Relegation Series against the second-to-last club in the J2.
- If only the runner-up is an associate member, it will play the Promotion/Relegation Series against the last club in the J2.
- Pass the final inspection by the J.League Committee.
With the establishment of the J3 League in the 2014 season, the top 2 requirements are no long necessary should a team that is approved by J.League Committee and is a J.League consociate member. however, they start in the J3 rather. The JFL is the highest tier of amateur floor football in Japan again, but they hush serve the purpose of helping likely J.League clubs to participate in the J3. At a J.League board meet in August 2021, 60 clubs, of which 20 are J3, were targeted for the stallion league, and a hypothesis that J3 will have exceeded 20 clubs by the 2023 season was brought up. Mitsuru Murai, the J.League president, revealed that he was discussing how to adjust to 20 clubs. At this time, he was asked, “ If there is a hypothesis of the [ J3 ] league having 21 teams, is it okay to understand that there are teams that will fall from J3 to JFL ? ” While under consideration, he admitted that the J3 and JFL were considering the presentation of relegation to the latter league american samoa early as after the 2022 season. [ 2 ] Later in November, Murai announced that promotion from and relegation to the JFL had been planned for the end of 2023. [ 3 ]
relegation from JFL [edit ]
up to two teams at the bottom of the league may face a direct relegation or relegation/promotion play-off against the teams finishing at the top of the Regional League promotion rival. The number of the teams who need to compete in the play-off varies depending on the number of the teams that are promoted to J3 or withdrawn from the JFL .
Emperor ‘s Cup eligibility [edit ]
Until 2008, only the club at the top of the standings at half-season ( 17 matches completed ) was qualified for the Emperor ‘s Cup, entering it at the one-third round along with the clubs in J2, but the allotment was widened to the top three clubs in 2010 due to the expansion of J2. Every early club must qualify through a qualify cup in their own prefecture and then must enter at the first base round. In 2015, only the winner of the apertura ( first half ) qualified .
JFL eleven [edit ]
In 1999 ( Bangabandhu Cup ) and since 2014, a JFL XI team has played off-season matches against guest teams. The 2016 season besides featured an JFL East v JFL West all-star find.
2022 season [edit ]
competition format [edit ]
The league follows a one-stage duplicate round-robin, wherein the team complete at the top of the table following the temper is declared the ace. From 2014 to 2018 it used the Apertura and Clausura system, with two winners of each stagecoach contesting the championship in the playoff. From 2019 it used the single table with double over round-robin arrangement to 30 matches .
Participating clubs [edit ]
- Pink background denotes clubs that were most recently promoted from Japanese Regional Leagues through the Regional League promotion tournament.
- “Qualifiable base for J.League” indicates the club has the basic prerequisites for 100 Year Plan status. Clubs who actually hold the status are denoted in bold.
Stadiums ( 2022 ) [edit ]
elementary venues used in the JFL :
former clubs [edit ]
- Pink background denotes clubs that were most recently promoted to J3 League.
championship, promotion and relegation history [edit ]
Most successful clubs [edit ]
Clubs in bold compete in JFL as of 2021 season. Clubs in italic no long exist .
From 2014 to 2018 the Japan Football League switched to the Apertura and Clausura format to determine the champions. In 2019 the single-table format returned .
A = Apertura champion, C = Clausura champion, 1 = Won both stages, 2 = Earned the moment most points entire in the overall mesa if 1 applies. † only second half of season was played due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan .
JFL records and statistics [edit ]
- As of December 2021.
In bold the ones who are actually playing in JFL. In italic the ones who are still active in other league .
Caps
No.
Player
Caps
Career
1
Daiki Koyama
389
2000–2002, 2004–2017
2
Hajime “Gen” Nakamura
374
2003–2017
3
Takanori Kanamori
348
2008–
4
Hirotaka Nagatomi
348
2006–2021
5
Kazuhisa Hamaoka
338
2001–2005, 2007, 2010–2013, 2014–2016
6
Takuya Tomiyama
333
1999–2012
7
Masayuki Ishii
314
1999–2010
8
Takahito Seta
313
2008–2018
9
Keisuke Iwata
312
2009–2020
10
Junya Nitta
307
1999–2011
Goals
#
Player
Goals
Career
1
Junya Nitta
146
1999–2011
2
Tatsuya Furuhashi
127
1999–2004, 2014–2020
3
Kodai Suzuki
111
2000–2010
4
Sho Gokyu
104
2006–2007, 2009–2013, 2015
5
Mitsuru Hasegawa
103
2001–2008
6
Masatoshi Matsuda
100
2014–2015
7
Hajime “Gen” Nakamura
94
2003–2017
8
Takehiro Hayashi
91
1999–2004
9
Shoma Mizunaga
83
2005–2006, 2009–2012, 2018–2020
10
Tomohiro Ito
71
1999–2008
See besides [edit ]
- Domestic cup