J1 League

top division of association football in Japan
Football league
The J1 League ( japanese : J1リーグ, Hepburn : Jē-wan Rīgu ) or plainly J1 is the top division of the Japan Professional Football League ( 日本プロサッカーリーグ, Nihon Puro Sakkā Rīgu ) and the lead professional Football J.League in Japan. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] It is one of the most successful leagues in asian club football. presently, the J1 League is the first floor of the japanese association football league system. The moment tier is represented by the J2 League. It is presently sponsored by Meiji Yasuda Life and frankincense officially known as the Meiji Yasuda J1 League ( japanese : 明治安田生命J1リーグ ). [ 9 ] Until the 2014 temper, it was named the J.League Division 1 .

history [edit ]

For the history of japanese club association football before the origin of the professional league in 1993, see Japan Soccer League

Reading: J1 League

For the detail history of J2 League, see J2 League § History

Phases of J1 [edit ]

Before the professional league ( 1992 and earlier ) [edit ]

Before the origin of the J.League, the highest level of club football was the Japan Soccer League ( JSL ), which consisted of amateurish clubs. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] Despite being well-attended during the boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s ( when Japan ‘s national team won the tan Olympic decoration at the 1968 games in Mexico ), the JSL went into refuse in the 1980s, in cosmopolitan line with the deteriorating position worldwide. Fans were few, the grounds were not of the highest quality, and the japanese national team was not on a equality with the asian powerhouses. To raise the degree of play domestically, to attempt to garner more fans, and to strengthen the national team, the Japan Football Association ( JFA ) decided to form a professional league. The professional association football league, J.League was formed in 1992, with eight clubs drawn from the JSL First Division, one from the Second Division, and the newly formed Shimizu S-Pulse. At the lapp meter, JSL changed its name and became the early Japan Football League, a semi-professional league. Although the J.League did not officially launch until 1993, the Yamazaki Nabisco Cup rival was held between the ten clubs in 1992 to prepare for the inaugural address season .

Inaugural season and J.League boom ( 1993–1995 ) [edit ]

J.League officially kicked off its first season with ten-spot clubs in early 1993 .

After the boom ( 1996–1999 ) [edit ]

Despite the success in the first three years, in early 1996 the league attendance declined quickly. In 1997 the average attendance was 10,131, compared to more than 19,000 in 1994. notably, Arsene Wenger managed Nagoya Grampus Eight during this period .

change of infrastructure and game formats ( 1999–2004 ) [edit ]

The league ‘s management finally realized that they were heading in the ill-timed direction. In regulate to solve the trouble, the management came out with two solutions. beginning, they announced the J.League Hundred Year Vision, in which they aim to make 100 professional association football clubs in the nation of Japan by 2092, the one-hundredth season. The league besides encouraged the clubs to promote football or non-football associate sports and health activities, to acquire local sponsorships, and to build good kinship with their hometowns at the grass-root level. The league believed that this will allow the clubs to adhere with their respective cities and towns and get support from local government, companies, and citizens. In other words, clubs will be able to rely on the locals, preferably than major national sponsors. second, the infrastructure of the league was heavily changed in 1999. The league acquired nine clubs from the semi-professional JFL and one baseball club from J.League to create a two division system. The top flight became the J.League Division 1 ( J1 ) with 16 clubs while J.League Division 2 ( J2 ) was launched with ten clubs in 1999. The former second-tier Japan Football League now became the third-tier Japan Football League. besides, until 2004 ( with the exception of 1996 season ), the J1 season was divided into two. At the end of each full season, the champion from each half played a two-legged serial to determine the overall season achiever and runner-up. Júbilo Iwata in 2002, and Yokohama F. Marinos in 2003, won both “ halves ” of the respective seasons, thus eliminating the motivation for the playoff series. This was the part of the reason the league abolished the split-season organization starting from 2005 .

european League Format & AFC Champions League ( 2005–2008 ) [edit ]

Since the 2005 season, J.League Division 1 consisted of 18 clubs ( from 16 in 2004 ) and the season format became more similar to european clubhouse football. The count of demote clubs besides increased from 2 to 2.5, with the 3rd-to-last golf club going into the promotion/relegation playoffs with the third-placed J2 baseball club. Since then, other than minor adjustments, the top flight has stayed consistent. japanese teams did not treat the AFC Champions League that badly in the early on years, in separate ascribable to the distances travelled and teams played. however, in the 2008 Champions League, three japanese sides made the quarter-finals. [ 12 ] however, in late years, with the inclusion of the A-League in Eastern Asia, insertion to the Club World Cup, and increased marketability in the asian celibate, both the league and the clubs paid more attention to asian competition. For model, Kawasaki Frontale built up a luminary fan infrastructure in Hong Kong, owing to their participation in the asian Champions League during the 2007 season. [ 13 ] continuous effort led to the success of Urawa Red Diamonds in 2007 and Gamba Osaka in 2008. Thanks to excellent league management and competitiveness in asian competition, the AFC awarded J.League the highest league rank and a sum of four slots starting from the 2009 temper. The league took this as an opportunity to sell television broadcasting rights to alien countries, particularly in Asia. besides starting from the 2008 temper, the Emperor ‘s Cup Winner was allowed to participate in the approaching Champions League season, rather than waiting a solid year ( i.e. 2005 Emperor ‘s Cup winner, Tokyo Verdy, participated in the 2007 ACL season, rather of the 2006 season ). In regulate to fix this annual stave publish, the 2007 Emperor ‘s Cup winner, Kashima Antlers ‘ turning was waived. Nonetheless, Kashima Antlers ended up participating in the 2009 ACL season by winning the J.League title in the 2008 season .

mod phase ( 2009–2016 ) [edit ]

Three major changes were seen starting in the 2009 season. First, starting that season, four clubs entered the AFC Champions League. second, the number of delegating slots increased to three. finally, the AFC Player slot was implemented starting this season. Each cabaret will be allowed to have a sum of four foreign players ; however, one slot is reserved for a player that derives from an AFC nation other than Japan. besides, as a requirement of being a member of the Asian Football Confederation, the J.League Club Licence regulations started in 2012 as one criterion of whether a golf club was allowed to stay in its part or to be promoted to a higher tier in master horizontal surface league. No major changes happened to J.League Division 1 as the issue of clubs stayed at 18. In 2015 the J.League Division 1 was renamed J1 League. besides, the tournament format was changed to a three-stage system. The temper was split into beginning and moment stages, followed by a third gear and final championship stagecoach. The third base phase was composed of three to five teams. The circus tent distributor point storage battery in each stage and the lead three point accumulators for the overall season qualified. If both of the degree winners finished in the lead three teams for the season, then entirely three teams qualified for the championship stage. These teams then took part in a backing playoff stage to decide the winner of the league trophy .

Future ( 2017– ) [edit ]

Despite the new multi-stage format being initially reported as locked in for five seasons, ascribable to a damaging reaction from hard-core fans, and a failure to appeal to casual fans, towards the end of the 2016 it was abandoned in favor of a return to a single-stage arrangement. [ 14 ] From 2017, the team which accumulates the most points will be named champion, with no championship stage taking place at the season ‘s end, and from 2018, the bottom two clubs are relegated and the 16th-placed club enters a playoff with the J2 club that wins a forwarding playoff series. [ 15 ] If the J2 playoff winner prevails, the clubhouse is promoted, with the J1 club being relegated, otherwise the J1 baseball club can retain its position in J1 League with the promotion bankruptcy of the J2 clubhouse. In November 2017, Urawa Red Diamonds played the AFC Champions League final against Al Hilal. After a draw in the beginning leg, Urawa Red Diamonds won the second base stage 1-0 and were crowned asian Champions. In the by 10–15 years, japanese clubs have risen not entirely continentally, but besides internationally. Clubs Gamba Osaka and Urawa Red Diamonds have been crowned asian champions and participated in the Club World Cup, always targeting at least the semi-finals. Kashima Antlers were finalists of the 2016 edition and finally lost to Real Madrid .

timeline [edit ]

2021 season [edit ]

League format [edit ]

eighteen clubs will play in double round-robin ( home plate and away ) format, a full of 34 games each. A club receives 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a passing. The clubs are ranked by points, and tiebreakers are, in the watch order :

Goal differential
Goals scored
Head-to-head results
Disciplinary points

A disembowel would be conducted, if necessity. however, if two clubs are tied for beginning stead, both clubs will be declared as co-champions. The top three clubs will qualify to the following year ‘s AFC Champions League, while the penetrate two clubs will be relegated to J2. The third club will play a playoff against the J2 playoffs-winning team .

Prize money (2020 figures)

Champions: 300,000,000 yen
Second place: 120,000,000 yen
Third place: 60,000,000 yen

In addition to the loot, top 4 clubs are awarded with the follow funds.

Participating clubs [edit ]

source for teams participating : [ 17 ]

Pink background denotes club was most recently promoted from J2 League.
“Year joined” is the year the club joined the J.League (Division 1 unless otherwise indicated).
“First season in top flight”, “Seasons in top flight”, “Current spell in top flight”, and “Last title” include seasons in the old Japan Soccer League First Division.

Stadiums ( 2021 ) [edit ]

primary venues used in the J1 League :

former clubs [edit ]

Grey background denotes club was most recently relegated to J2 League.
“Year joined” is the year the club joined the J.League (Division 1 unless otherwise indicated).
“First season in top flight”, “Seasons in top flight”, “Last spell in top flight”, and “Last title” includes seasons in the old Japan Soccer League First Division.

Statistics [edit ]

Championship history [edit ]

Most successful clubs [edit ]

Clubs in bold compete in top flight for the 2021 temper .

Relegation history [edit ]

lone four clubs have never been relegated from J1. Among those, only two clubs – Kashima Antlers and Yokohama F. Marinos – have been participating in every league season since its establishment in 1993. Sagan Tosu were promoted to the beginning division in 2012, and remain there ever since. The early J.League club Yokohama Flügels never experienced delegating before their fusion with Yokohama Marinos in 1999. JEF United Chiba holds the commemorate for the longest top flight participation streak of 44 back-to-back seasons in the foremost divisions of JSL and J.League that lasted since the establishment of JFL in 1965 and ended with their relegation in 2009. The longest ongoing top escape mottle belongs to Yokohama F. Marinos who play in the top flight since 1982 ( 40 seasons as of 2020 ) .

The 1998 season

When the league introduced the two-division system in 1999, they besides reduced numeral of Division 1 club from 18 to 16. At the end of 1998 season, they hosted the J.League Promotion Tournament to determine two relegating clubs .

Split-season era (1999–2004, 2015–2016)

Throughout 1999 to 2003 seasons, two bottom clubs were relegated to Division 2. To accommodate for split-season format, combined overall standings were used to determine the relegate clubs. This created a confuse situation, where for the backing slipstream stage standing were used, while overall stand was used for relegation survival. At end of the 2004 season, Division 1 again expanded from 16 to 18 clubs. No clubs were relegated ; however, last-placed ( 16th ) club had to play Promotion/Relegation Series against 3rd locate club from J2. Again, to determine 16th set clubhouse, overall standing was used alternatively of phase standing. For two seasons starting in 2015, three bottomland clubs were relegated based on overall standings .

Single season era (2005–2014, 2017–2019, 2022–future)

For the next four seasons, 2005 to 2008, the number of relegating clubs was increased to 2.5, with two clubs from each division being promoted and relegated immediately, and two more ( 15th in J1 and 3rd in J2 ) competed in Promotion/Relegation Series. In 2009, the pro/rele series were abandoned and three teams are directly exchanged between divisions. In 2012, promotion playoffs were introduced in J2, allowing teams that finished from 3rd to 6th to compete for J1 promotion plaza. For the 2018 and 2019 seasons and from 2022, the bottom two teams are relegated and the entry playoff has the 16th team play the J2 playoff winner .

Single season era (2021)

No teams descended to J2 after the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan and its effects. [ 18 ] rather, four relegations are in place for the 2021 season, bringing back the act of teams from 20 to 18. [ 19 ]

Summary

Year

17th place

18th place

19th place

20th place

2021

TBD

* Bold designates relegated clubs ;
† Won the Pro/Rele Series or entry playoff ;
‡ Lost the Pro/Rele Series or entry playoff and relegated

other tournaments [edit ]

Domestic tournaments

International tournaments

Defunct tournament

Players and managers [edit ]

Players [edit ]

Managers [edit ]

Media coverage [edit ]

Japan [edit ]

All J1 matches are streamed be through DAZN until 2028 season, with selected matches besides televised live plus highlights of other matches besides available on populace broadcaster NHK. [ 20 ]

Outside Japan [edit ]

The league is presently covered internationally ( excluding China ) by NHK World Premium ( japanese audio entirely ) [ 21 ] and Dentsu. [ 22 ] [ 23 ]
^CHN – as main distributor, including J2 matches ^DACH – starting from MW2 in 2020 season

See besides [edit ]

Domestic cup