crown 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 exceed division of the Japan Professional Football League ( 日本プロサッカーリーグ, Nihon Puro Sakkā Rīgu ) and the top professional Football J.League in Japan. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] It is one of the most successful leagues in asian clubhouse football. presently, the J1 League is the first level of the japanese association football league system. The second tier is represented by the J2 League. It is presently sponsored by Meiji Yasuda Life and thus 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 amateur clubs. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] Despite being well-attended during the smash of the recently 1960s and early 1970s ( when Japan ‘s national team won the bronze Olympic decoration at the 1968 games in Mexico ), the JSL went into decline in the 1980s, in cosmopolitan channel with the deteriorating situation global. Fans were few, the grounds were not of the highest quality, and the japanese national team was not on a par with the asian powerhouses. To raise the floor of dally 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 time, 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-spot clubs in 1992 to prepare for the inauguration 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 achiever in the beginning 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 ultimately realized that they were heading in the wrong focus. In order to solve the problem, the management came out with two solutions. first, 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 temper. The league besides encouraged the clubs to promote football or non-football refer sports and health activities, to acquire local sponsorships, and to build well relationship with their hometowns at the grass-root horizontal surface. The league believed that this will allow the clubs to bond with their respective cities and towns and get documentation from local government, companies, and citizens. In other words, clubs will be able to rely on the locals, rather 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 club from J.League to create a two part system. The top trajectory became the J.League Division 1 ( J1 ) with 16 clubs while J.League Division 2 ( J2 ) was launched with ten-spot 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 broad season, the ace from each one-half played a two-legged series to determine the overall season winner and runner-up. Júbilo Iwata in 2002, and Yokohama F. Marinos in 2003, won both “ halves ” of the respective seasons, frankincense eliminating the need for the playoff series. This was the character of the rationality 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 alike to european club football. The number of relegate clubs besides increased from 2 to 2.5, with the 3rd-to-last club going into the promotion/relegation playoffs with the third-placed J2 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 years, in part ascribable to the distances travelled and teams played. however, in the 2008 Champions League, three japanese sides made the quarter-finals. [ 12 ] however, in recent years, with the inclusion body of the A-League in Eastern Asia, insertion to the Club World Cup, and increased marketability in the asian continent, both the league and the clubs paid more attention to asian competition. For example, Kawasaki Frontale built up a noteworthy fan free-base in Hong Kong, owing to their engagement in the asian Champions League during the 2007 season. [ 13 ] continuous attempt led to the achiever 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 ranking and a total of four slots starting from the 2009 season. The league took this as an opportunity to sell television receiver broadcasting rights to alien countries, particularly in Asia. besides starting from the 2008 season, the Emperor ‘s Cup Winner was allowed to participate in the approaching Champions League season, preferably than waiting a unharmed class ( i.e. 2005 Emperor ‘s Cup achiever, Tokyo Verdy, participated in the 2007 ACL season, alternatively of the 2006 season ). In order to fix this annual lag return, the 2007 Emperor ‘s Cup achiever, Kashima Antlers ‘ turn was waived. Nonetheless, Kashima Antlers ended up participating in the 2009 ACL season by winning the J.League style in the 2008 season .

modern phase ( 2009–2016 ) [edit ]

Three major changes were seen starting in the 2009 temper. First, starting that season, four clubs entered the AFC Champions League. second, the number of relegation slots increased to three. last, the AFC Player slot was implemented starting this season. Each club will be allowed to have a full of four alien players ; however, one slot is reserved for a player that derives from an AFC country other than Japan. besides, as a necessity of being a extremity of the Asian Football Confederation, the J.League Club Licence regulations started in 2012 as one criterion of whether a cabaret was allowed to stay in its division or to be promoted to a higher tier in professional charge league. No major changes happened to J.League Division 1 as the count 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 organization. The season was split into first and second stages, followed by a third and final examination backing stage. The third phase was composed of three to five teams. The top point accumulator in each stage and the top three distributor point accumulators for the overall season qualified. If both of the stage winners finished in the top three teams for the season, then only three teams qualified for the championship stage. These teams then took partially in a championship playoff degree to decide the achiever of the league trophy .

Future ( 2017– ) [edit ]

Despite the newly multi-stage format being initially reported as locked in for five seasons, due to a negative reaction from hard-core fans, and a bankruptcy to appeal to casual fans, towards the end of the 2016 it was abandoned in party favor of a return to a single-stage system. [ 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 promotion playoff series. [ 15 ] If the J2 playoff achiever prevails, the club is promoted, with the J1 golf club being relegated, differently the J1 club can retain its place in J1 League with the promotion failure of the J2 clubhouse. In November 2017, Urawa Red Diamonds played the AFC Champions League final against Al Hilal. After a draw in the first peg, Urawa Red Diamonds won the second leg 1-0 and were crowned asian Champions. In the past 10–15 years, japanese clubs have risen not only continentally, but besides internationally. Clubs Gamba Osaka and Urawa Red Diamonds have been crowned asian champions and participated in the Club World Cup, constantly targeting at least the semi-finals. Kashima Antlers were finalists of the 2016 edition and finally lost to Real Madrid .

timeline [edit ]

2022 temper [edit ]

League format [edit ]

eighteen clubs will play in double round-robin ( home and away ) format, a sum of 34 games each. A club receives 3 points for a acquire, 1 bespeak for a tie, and 0 points for a loss. The clubs are ranked by points, and tiebreakers are, in the following arrange :

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

A draw would be conducted, if necessity. however, if two clubs are tied for first home, both clubs will be declared as co-champions. The crown three clubs will qualify to the following class ‘s AFC Champions League, while the bottom two clubs will be relegated to J2. The third base cabaret 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 prize, lead 4 clubs are awarded with the follow funds.

Read more: Real Sociedad

J league funds distributed to top 4 clubs (from 2017)
  • Champions: 1,550,000,000 yen
  • Second place: 700,000,000 yen
  • Third place: 350,000,000 yen
  • Fourth place: 180,000,000 yen

[ 16 ]

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 ( 2022 ) [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 lead trajectory for the 2021 season .

Relegation history [edit ]

only 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 first division in 2012, and remain there ever since. The former J.League club Yokohama Flügels never experienced relegation before their amalgamation with Yokohama Marinos in 1999. JEF United Chiba holds the record for the longest top flight engagement stripe of 44 consecutive 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 flight streak belongs to Yokohama F. Marinos who play in the top escape since 1982 ( 40 seasons as of 2020 ) .

The 1998 season

When the league introduced the two-division arrangement in 1999, they besides reduced phone number 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 demote clubs. This created a confuse situation, where for the backing race phase standing were used, while overall standing was used for delegating survival. At end of the 2004 season, Division 1 again expanded from 16 to 18 clubs. No clubs were relegated ; however, last-placed ( 16th ) clubhouse had to play Promotion/Relegation Series against 3rd place club from J2. Again, to determine 16th identify club, overall standing was used alternatively of stage stand. For two seasons starting in 2015, three bottom clubs were relegated based on overall standings .

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

For the following four seasons, 2005 to 2008, the issue of relegating clubs was increased to 2.5, with two clubs from each division being promoted and relegated directly, and two more ( 15th in J1 and 3rd in J2 ) competed in Promotion/Relegation Series. In 2009, the pro/rele serial 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 station. 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 achiever .

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 ] alternatively, four relegations were in put for the 2021 season to bring back the count of teams from 20 to 18. [ 19 ]

Summary

* 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 live 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 merely ) [ 21 ] and Dentsu. [ 22 ] [ 23 ]
^CHN – as chief distributor, including J2 matches ^DACH – starting from MW2 in 2020 season

See besides [edit ]

Domestic cup

References [edit ]