pfft, obviously it's the calender the the EPL uses. It's the only way to have a successful league. Also our players have to play on a pitch, call their games matches, call their opponents twats and wankers, and spell color with a u. Otherwise soccer will never succeed in our country!!!!
OMG you still don't get it. Soccer in America does not need that! We need promotion/relegation!!!!!! We need to see the LA Galaxy play against the mighty might of Ventura County and the amazing 2,000 seater stadium.
Look I'm sorry, but aside from the fact that you will never get owners to sign off on it, I think the popularity jump from pro/rel is vastly overrated. You think that Chivas or Revs fans are going to be THAT much more jacked about a relegation battle? It makes no sense. If it's not the highest league/standard we don't show up, with exception to NCAA football and basketball due to history and even then that's a regional thing. Because everything is predicated on media rights deals, if the second division doesn't have enough interest to get televised it's a non starter. I'm not too sure about the cultural aspects making pro/rel easier to stomach in Japan rather than here (and I am a East Asian Studies major) but I do think the different sporting landscape does help. Baseball aside, the market for team sports is wide open in Japan as opposed to here, so competition isn't as fierce. Again the main thing that helps pro rel is that in most countries where it happens, the compeition for attention is not nearly as fierce. n the 18-30 range and they'll LOL too, that's mainly old people sport).
Yup. I'm in the school of thought that says the J League's rise is mostly due to practical rather than cultural factors. But, there's definitely a difference in corporate culture compared to MLS. There's a big difference in saying "We want to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world" and "We want to have a 100 professional clubs in 100 years". Don't get me wrong, I think MLS is a quality league. But I wish their vision included more measurable goals.
Just remember that soccer is the outright 2nd biggest sport in Japan. That alone makes a world of difference.
I think that's fair to say. I think it helps that thing is that almost all the National Team matches (male or female) are on broadcast TV in quality HD. A lot of other matches you might not expect to see outside of cable too. I've had my heart broken twice before sunrise watching the US over here, but at least I could watch it for free! This is also true for other sports too. National volleyball team, fiba asia, some obscure figure skating event. It almost seems like the networks are obligated to cover it.
Well we must also see another difference. I believe the goal for 100 professional clubs is from the Japan FA. Japan FA = USSF J-League = MLS So in Japan the federation wants 100 pro teams and the independent J-league is onboard with the plan (I assume). Here in the USA it looks like the tail wags the dog (actually this is the case in most countries) what MLS wants is more important that any strategic plan the USSF has (if they have any).
Keep in mind the current number of pro teams in Japan and the United States: United States: 19 + 9 + 13 = 41 Japan: 18 + 22: 40. Its not as if we are doing bad. We are matching Japan yet we dont have the same goal.
So not a single club in the Japan National league meets the Pro-requirenment to be promoted to J2? So I assume there was no promotion/relegation between the National League (D3) and J2 this year. Edit: I guess that is called the Japan Football League (D3)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._League_Associate_Membership If I am reading this right, there are 4 clubs below J2 that meet the requirenments to be promoted. So yes, JFA is still short 66 clubs from their goal of 100.
What I was surprised about with Japan is just how far along they are. When Japan play, as you probably well know, the ratings are consistently between 7-10 million, and in most cases thats good enough to be the highest rated program of that week. Countries that don't have their own "football" sport, like Japan and Venezuela, find it much easier to break into the mainstream with soccer. I don't think its fanciful to say that soccer will be on par with baseball in both countries in the future. The gap they've closed down over the last decade or two is incredible. That obviously makes things like pro/rel easier to implement.
Well from my own noodling around, it's interesting. Japan definetly has potential as a market. J-League has a good following from what I can gather from TV ratings. And we already have made it clear that the lack of competition (relative to the US) has helped. But what really drives interest is the National Teams, both men and women. They are GRAND events when on TV. Even outside of the World Cup, when Japan is in the..........oh man I forget what the AFC version of the Euro is...........when it's in that competition, it's a top 10 rating for the entire week. World Cup qualifiers have been blockbuster in terms of ratings Asian regional qualifiers (for Brazil) have gotten around 30% ratings for national team fixtures. Heck, the 2011 Asian Cup Final (Japan vs Aus) and semifinal (vs S.Korea) got around 30% and that was around 11pm at night!
That match was awesome. Lee bought himself a ticket out of Japan with that goal. Yea. The line between fully professional and semi-pro gets pretty blurry in the JFL. I think there are more than 4 pro teams but I haven't looked into it in ages.
True. I am not exactly saying that they are fully-pro. I am just wondering because of the above discussion about former J.League D2 clubs in the JFL and maybe beyond.
Yes, but the J League associate member ship is what is required to be promoted to the J Leagues; the plan for the JFA/JLeagues is that eventually all JFL teams will qualify for associate membership. As of right now only 5 do. According to the rules, the only teams that are allowed to be promoted from the JFL to J@ are those 5 teams and only if they win the JFL championship, if one of the 5 member teams finishes 2nd overall then they play a playoff game vs a J2 team. JFL is not amateur like NPSL and PDL (Well some NPSL/PDL teams do pay some of their players). Edit: Really JFL is more comparable with USLPRO than with PDL. So J1 - MLS (18 - 19) J2 - NASL (22 - 9) JFL- USLPRO (18 - 12) The qualifications for J league have more to do with stadium size, ownership requirements, etc. So not fully knowing I assume some JFL teams are pro, some are semipro and others may be amateur (but only 5 fully meet the promotion requirements). the requirements to be allowed associate member ship. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._League_Associate_Membership#Criteria_for_Membership
I already know all that. And actually, if I am not mistaken, some clubs who finish in 2nd are sometimes allowed to enter automatically. Even clubs lower. I think the club must finish in the top 4 or 5. It was done in 2011. As for the JFL vs. PDL in terms of professionalism. Agree. PDL is more amateur than the JFL which is all semi-pro. There are some clubs however that act as professional or semi-pro clubs in the JFL however. Austin for instance or the Bermuda Hodges.
You mean PDL, yes. But again PDL and NPSL are pretty much summer leagues for college kids (they make up what 80-90% of the PDL rosters). JFL is a full time league (in terms of how long, many players probably have second jobs). That is why comparing JFL to USLPRO is better. Now USLPRO also has some teams that meet the requirements to be promoted to NASL (and 1 or 2 maybe even MLS). So in that point JFL is similar to USLPRO. Now we could argue J1 and MLS are close to each other in quality, organization etc. (J1 slightly or more than that ahead). The biggest difference between the Japanese federation and the USA/Canada/some Caribbean organization really comes down to D2. J2 >>>>>> NASL in quantity, attendance, quality, economics, etc. Not sure if USLPRO and JFL would be equal, I know very little about JFL.
I usually watch JFL because many Japanese players who play in the I-League (Indian League) are signed from JFL clubs (and yes they do have 2nd jobs, the entire Honda FC side should have a job with Honda). In terms of quality. I would say that the JFL is higher standard by a long-way. You also cant compare J.League Division 2 and NASL. In terms of quality of play I give JL2 a higher rating but you can not say that JFL is higher than NASL. In my opinion from watching both leagues I would give this rating: 1-2) MLS 1-2) J.League 3) J.League Division 2. 4) NASL. 5) JFL. 6) USL Pro. 7) USL PDL. 8) Regional leagues of Japan. (I have never seen Regional League matches)
Really you rate MLS ahead of J1? Is a shame we no longer have the Pacific classic/Hawaii invitational. it was a pre-season tournament but it was the only way for K-league, J-league and MLS to play against each other.
I rate them the same. 1-2 and 1-2. I rate them equal. Both of them have their perks and both of them have their downsides but the overall play to me seems about equal. I dont notice the difference when I watched the 2012 J.League and the 2012 MLS. The main difference to me is the speed of the J.League and the skill attempted in the J.League. J.League leads in that. The game play is fast and it makes me think I am watching a game at 3:00 PM and not AM like I usually do when watching J.League and also during gameplay the teams will have different ways to create moments of brilliance using their skills... flicks, chops... you name it and most of the time it would be successful. In MLS you have a much more technical league. We use strategy when we play. We have a better passing technic, the defending is better in MLS (keeping a straight line, good at closing down space), and in terms of off the field: The atmosphere and that is mainly due to fans being near the field than in J.League.
DCU1996 looks like this will be Koreas first year with pro/rel back. New names K-league is now D2 and K-league classic is now D1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_League_Classic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_League_(Second_Division) (I know this is a comparative to J league, but I figure this would be better than a new thread).