Post by jandrew87 on Aug 5, 2011 0:40:52 GMT 8
I saw this via PEx and Wikipedia. I thought it'd be interesting to see how the J.League started off as a semi pro league like the UFL to what it is now. I would like to one day see a Philippine Premier League that is as good as Japans.
Phases of J1
* Before the professional league (—1992)
Before the inception of the J. League, the highest level of club football was the Japan Soccer League (JSL), which consisted of amateur clubs. 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 level 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 same time, JSL changed its name and became the Japan Football League, a semi-professional league. Although the J. League did not officially launch until 1993, the Yamazaki Nabisco Cup competition was held between the ten clubs in 1992 to prepare for the inaugural season.
* Inaugural season and J. League boom (1993–1995)
J. League officially kicked-off its first season with ten clubs on May 15, 1993 as Verdy Kawasaki (current, Tokyo Verdy) played host to Yokohama Marinos (current, Yokohama F. Marinos) at the Kasumigaoka National Stadium. It made a huge impact on the Japanese sports culture as professional baseball, golf, and sumo were the only well-supported and widely-watched sports in the country. Many famous and post-peak foreign players were brought into the clubs and the stadiums were filling in. On every match day, at least one game was broadcast live on national TV, and it seemed the league was a huge success. In the second season (1994), the league recorded its highest average attendance of 19,598, which is yet to be broken.
Because of such popularity, clubs in the (former) JFL that failed to join "the original ten" in the inaugural season tried to join the league. Clubs like Júbilo Iwata and Bellmare Hiratsuka (current, Shonan Bellmare) joined the league in 1994, six more clubs followed in next four years.
* After the boom (1996–1999)
Despite the success in the first three years, many experts anticipate that "the boom" would soon dissipate, and the league would be in terrible shape financially as the clubs continued paying high wages to the foreign players. In fact, the phenomenon began in early 1996 as the league attendance declined rapidly. In 1997 the average attendance was 10,131, compared to more than 19,000 in 1994. Many claimed that the sudden decline in popularity was also due to rapid expansions; A total of eight clubs were added in the four year span from 1994 to 1998. With high paychecks and low attendance, money was bleeding from the clubs, and the league sponsors were becoming very worried. It seemed that there was no way out from the losses.
Although J. League clubs were no longer corporate-owned, they still depended heavily on support from sponsors, who were thus de facto parent companies. When the Japanese economy took a turn for the worse, clubs suffered as their sponsors were affected. In 1998, Sato Kogyo, a general contractor and primary co-sponsor of Yokohama Flügels, announced that it was experiencing financial difficulties, and it would be pulling its support from the club. The other primary co-sponsor, All Nippon Airways, who could not support the club on its own, met with Nissan Motors, the primary sponsor of Yokohama Marinos, the Flügels' cross-town rival, and decided to merge their clubs. Under the agreement, the Flügels were dissolved, and the Marinos were renamed Yokohama F. Marinos, the "F." representing the Flügels. To many, this incident signified and symbolized as "the fall of the league" as many other clubs across the league were having similar financial difficulties. Another great example is Fujita canceling a major sponsorship deal with Bellmare Hiratsuka, which ultimately lead to the relegation of the club in 2000. Without a change, it would be just a matter of time before the league collapsed.
* Change of infrastructure and game formats (1999–2004)
The league's management finally realized that they were heading in the wrong direction. 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 hundredth season. The league also encouraged the clubs to promote football or non-football related sports and health activities, to acquire local sponsorships, and to build good relationship with their hometowns at the grass-root level. The league believed that this will allow the clubs to bond 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, 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 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 second-tier Japan Football League (former), now became third-tier Japan Football League.
The league also began to follow European game formats as time went on. Originally, due to the cultural unease[citation needed] of neither side coming out as the winner of a game, extra time, golden goal rules, and penalty shoot-outs were employed for regular league matches. Penalty shoot-outs were abolished in the beginning of the 1999 season, and extra time was abolished in 2002 for J2 and 2003 for J1.
Also, 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 series to determine the overall season winner and runners-up. Júbilo Iwata in 2002, and Yokohama F. Marinos in 2003, won both "halves" of the respective seasons, thus eliminating the need for the playoff series. This was the part of the reason the league abolished the split-season system starting from 2005.
* European League Format & AFC Champions League (2005–2008)
Since the 2005 season, J. League Division 1 consisted of 18 clubs (from 16 in 2004) and the season format became similar to the European club football. The number of relegated clubs also increased from 2 to 2.5, with the third-from-bottom club going into promotion/relegation playoffs with the third-placed J2 club. Since then, other than minor adjustments, the top flight has stayed consistent.
Japanese association football clubs have been participating in the AFC Champions League since the 1980s, but for the most part, the Japanese clubs took the Asian competition as an extra burden that took their attention away from the domestic competition. A good example is the 2005 season, where ACL participants Yokohama and Iwata went through 13 consecutive Asian and domestic matches in a span of 44 days, averaging 1 game per 3.66 days. The league declined to ease the fixture pressure from the clubs, whereas Chinese and Korean league moved their domestic games to help their clubs in continental competition. The issue of fixture congestion was finally addressed by the 2006 season.
However in the recent years, with inclusion of A-League in Eastern Asia, introduction of FIFA 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 notable fan base in Hong Kong, owing to their participation in the Asian Champions League during the 2007 season. 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 ranking and a total of 4 slots starting from the 2009 season. The league took this as an opportunity to sell TV broadcasting rights to foreign countries, especially in Asia.
Also starting the 2008 season, Emperor's Cup Winner was allowed to participate in the upcoming Champions League season, rather than waiting a whole year (i.e. 2005 Emperor's Cup winner, Tokyo Verdy, participated in the 2007 ACL season, instead of the 2006 season). In order to fix this one-year lag issue, the 2007 Emperor's Cup winner, Kashima Antlers', turn was waived. Nonetheless, Kashima Antlers ended up participating in the 2009 ACL season by winning the J. League title in the 2008 season.
* Modern phase (2009–present)
Three major changes were seen starting in the 2009 season. First, starting this season, four clubs entered the AFC Champions League. Secondly, the number of relegation slots increased to three. Finally, the AFC Player slot was implemented starting this season. Each club will be allowed to have a total of four foreign players; however, one slot is reserved for a player that derives from an AFC country other than Japan.
* Future plans (2012—)
There are currently no major plans for J. League Division 1. The number of clubs will most likely stay at 18. Recently, in the Japanese media there has been a rumor of an implementation for a playoff system for J1 Championship or creating new Japanese Premier League with fewer clubs.
Phases of J1
* Before the professional league (—1992)
Before the inception of the J. League, the highest level of club football was the Japan Soccer League (JSL), which consisted of amateur clubs. 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 level 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 same time, JSL changed its name and became the Japan Football League, a semi-professional league. Although the J. League did not officially launch until 1993, the Yamazaki Nabisco Cup competition was held between the ten clubs in 1992 to prepare for the inaugural season.
* Inaugural season and J. League boom (1993–1995)
J. League officially kicked-off its first season with ten clubs on May 15, 1993 as Verdy Kawasaki (current, Tokyo Verdy) played host to Yokohama Marinos (current, Yokohama F. Marinos) at the Kasumigaoka National Stadium. It made a huge impact on the Japanese sports culture as professional baseball, golf, and sumo were the only well-supported and widely-watched sports in the country. Many famous and post-peak foreign players were brought into the clubs and the stadiums were filling in. On every match day, at least one game was broadcast live on national TV, and it seemed the league was a huge success. In the second season (1994), the league recorded its highest average attendance of 19,598, which is yet to be broken.
Because of such popularity, clubs in the (former) JFL that failed to join "the original ten" in the inaugural season tried to join the league. Clubs like Júbilo Iwata and Bellmare Hiratsuka (current, Shonan Bellmare) joined the league in 1994, six more clubs followed in next four years.
* After the boom (1996–1999)
Despite the success in the first three years, many experts anticipate that "the boom" would soon dissipate, and the league would be in terrible shape financially as the clubs continued paying high wages to the foreign players. In fact, the phenomenon began in early 1996 as the league attendance declined rapidly. In 1997 the average attendance was 10,131, compared to more than 19,000 in 1994. Many claimed that the sudden decline in popularity was also due to rapid expansions; A total of eight clubs were added in the four year span from 1994 to 1998. With high paychecks and low attendance, money was bleeding from the clubs, and the league sponsors were becoming very worried. It seemed that there was no way out from the losses.
Although J. League clubs were no longer corporate-owned, they still depended heavily on support from sponsors, who were thus de facto parent companies. When the Japanese economy took a turn for the worse, clubs suffered as their sponsors were affected. In 1998, Sato Kogyo, a general contractor and primary co-sponsor of Yokohama Flügels, announced that it was experiencing financial difficulties, and it would be pulling its support from the club. The other primary co-sponsor, All Nippon Airways, who could not support the club on its own, met with Nissan Motors, the primary sponsor of Yokohama Marinos, the Flügels' cross-town rival, and decided to merge their clubs. Under the agreement, the Flügels were dissolved, and the Marinos were renamed Yokohama F. Marinos, the "F." representing the Flügels. To many, this incident signified and symbolized as "the fall of the league" as many other clubs across the league were having similar financial difficulties. Another great example is Fujita canceling a major sponsorship deal with Bellmare Hiratsuka, which ultimately lead to the relegation of the club in 2000. Without a change, it would be just a matter of time before the league collapsed.
* Change of infrastructure and game formats (1999–2004)
The league's management finally realized that they were heading in the wrong direction. 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 hundredth season. The league also encouraged the clubs to promote football or non-football related sports and health activities, to acquire local sponsorships, and to build good relationship with their hometowns at the grass-root level. The league believed that this will allow the clubs to bond 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, 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 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 second-tier Japan Football League (former), now became third-tier Japan Football League.
The league also began to follow European game formats as time went on. Originally, due to the cultural unease[citation needed] of neither side coming out as the winner of a game, extra time, golden goal rules, and penalty shoot-outs were employed for regular league matches. Penalty shoot-outs were abolished in the beginning of the 1999 season, and extra time was abolished in 2002 for J2 and 2003 for J1.
Also, 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 series to determine the overall season winner and runners-up. Júbilo Iwata in 2002, and Yokohama F. Marinos in 2003, won both "halves" of the respective seasons, thus eliminating the need for the playoff series. This was the part of the reason the league abolished the split-season system starting from 2005.
* European League Format & AFC Champions League (2005–2008)
Since the 2005 season, J. League Division 1 consisted of 18 clubs (from 16 in 2004) and the season format became similar to the European club football. The number of relegated clubs also increased from 2 to 2.5, with the third-from-bottom club going into promotion/relegation playoffs with the third-placed J2 club. Since then, other than minor adjustments, the top flight has stayed consistent.
Japanese association football clubs have been participating in the AFC Champions League since the 1980s, but for the most part, the Japanese clubs took the Asian competition as an extra burden that took their attention away from the domestic competition. A good example is the 2005 season, where ACL participants Yokohama and Iwata went through 13 consecutive Asian and domestic matches in a span of 44 days, averaging 1 game per 3.66 days. The league declined to ease the fixture pressure from the clubs, whereas Chinese and Korean league moved their domestic games to help their clubs in continental competition. The issue of fixture congestion was finally addressed by the 2006 season.
However in the recent years, with inclusion of A-League in Eastern Asia, introduction of FIFA 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 notable fan base in Hong Kong, owing to their participation in the Asian Champions League during the 2007 season. 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 ranking and a total of 4 slots starting from the 2009 season. The league took this as an opportunity to sell TV broadcasting rights to foreign countries, especially in Asia.
Also starting the 2008 season, Emperor's Cup Winner was allowed to participate in the upcoming Champions League season, rather than waiting a whole year (i.e. 2005 Emperor's Cup winner, Tokyo Verdy, participated in the 2007 ACL season, instead of the 2006 season). In order to fix this one-year lag issue, the 2007 Emperor's Cup winner, Kashima Antlers', turn was waived. Nonetheless, Kashima Antlers ended up participating in the 2009 ACL season by winning the J. League title in the 2008 season.
* Modern phase (2009–present)
Three major changes were seen starting in the 2009 season. First, starting this season, four clubs entered the AFC Champions League. Secondly, the number of relegation slots increased to three. Finally, the AFC Player slot was implemented starting this season. Each club will be allowed to have a total of four foreign players; however, one slot is reserved for a player that derives from an AFC country other than Japan.
* Future plans (2012—)
There are currently no major plans for J. League Division 1. The number of clubs will most likely stay at 18. Recently, in the Japanese media there has been a rumor of an implementation for a playoff system for J1 Championship or creating new Japanese Premier League with fewer clubs.