Osaka, Nara and Fukui will be a great addition. Meanwhile, here's the final JFL attendance numbers + three promotion contenders as a bonus: TeamGPTotalHighLowAverage2013 avgY/y change Renofa Yamaguchi 13 29,856 4,568 701 2,297 1,450 +58%Kagoshima United 13 23,722 3,542 483 1,825 450+242 +164% Azul Claro Numazu 13 23,096 2,968 309 1,777 804 +121% Honda FC 13 13,186 3,116 324 1,014 754 +34% Vanraure Hachinohe 13 9,918 1,604 230 763 598 +28% Yokogawa Musashino 13 9,613 1,227 335 739 770 −4% MIO Biwako Shiga 13 8,374 1,713 224 644 543 +19% Tochigi Uva 13 7,017 1,474 215 540 604 −11% Sony Sendai 13 6,724 920 268 517 643 −20% Fagiano Next 13 5,865 759 249 451 ? Sagawa Printing Kyoto 13 5,133 626 234 395 405 −2% Honda Lock 13 4,895 546 222 377 513 −27% Maruyasu Okazaki 13 4,662 1176 145 359 ? Verspah Oita 13 4,332 842 154 333 333 — JFL totals 182 156,393 4,568 145 859 1,322 −35% Saurcos Fukui 7 10,615 4,126 804 1,516 714 +112% Nara Club 7 8,356 1,657 400 1,194 825 +45% FC Osaka 7 3,679 1,200 200 526 357 +47% Both Saurcos and Nara appear to be on par with other J3 candidates, and if they get the usual post-promotion attendance bump, both should exceed 2k.
The thing is I think Club Dragons are a much darker horse than anyone considers. Officially they play in Kanto League 2, but both in the Shakaijin Cup and in the Regional Playoffs, they surprised. My stomach feeling says theres a realistic chance that they can beat Fukui. Afterall Club Dragons can in theory get players from a much higher level. Nara and FC Osaka will not mess up, especially Nara has Okayama Kazunari as their glue. Btw with Fukui there attendance numbers are extra good as they took money for their matches while Nara matches were free this season.
The schedule for JFL Championship released today; Honda as 1st Stage winner will be the host of the 1st leg at November 23 and Sagawa Printing for 2nd leg at November 29.
It seems that 1st. stage winner of JFL will for 2015 get the only seeded JFL spot in the emperors cup while J3 clubs are still gonna play through prefectural cups before they can enter Emperors Cup.
And that means that 1-3 and not 1-2 of the final4 in the regional playoffs will go to JFL (which will be played from this friday to sunday).
The JFL final first leg is a draw. The final leg should be webcast for free this weekend: http://www.jfl.or.jp/jfl-pc/view/s.php?a=813
And just decided, assuming no JFA involvement, your new 2015 JFL teams are: Nara Club FC Osaka Club Dragons Nara Club could have rolled over with subs to give Saurcos Fukui a JFL appt at the expense of Club Dragons, but chose to blow them out instead.
Damnit, Saurcos What makes me sad the most is that their fate was decided in the penalty shootout that they lost to Dragons.
The problem for Fukui was they lost on Penalty to Club Dragons. Really Club Dragons has been much better than their place in Kanto League 2. But I think the whole promotion methods are questioned the way Club Dragons go up. OK Club Dragons team are technically another than the 2 other Ryutsu Keizai U teams, however we really doesnt know anything else. Next year will we see a completely new team play for JFL (Club Dragons are the first year team for RKU) or will this promoted team keep on and RKU move the new 1 year players to another entity etc..... The whole University setup just doesnt fit with the senior League system. Also technically only Nara and Osaka are promoted, the rest is up to JFA.
Hm, the regulation says that the third promoted team will be determined by JFL. So there is a chance that they might prefer Saurcos over Dragons?
Technically there is, but apparently unlikely. http://www.fukuishimbun.co.jp/localnews/saurcos/58085.html Only the top 2 places earn automatic promotion, but finishing 4th makes it almost impossible.
The big question here will be what JFL focusses on their meeting. Economically Ryutsu Keizai University is more sound than Fukui and thats what JFL wants, but the whole problem is letting Club Dragons in creates a lot of questions, like use of teamstaff from the other 2 RKU teams, and player transfers. The whole essential problem is that Club Dragons are considered a shakaijin club while still being a team composed by the universitys 1.st year palyers. JFL will have to look if this team can manage to act like a skakaijin club are just a university club. The situation is still defferent to last time RKU played JFL because RKU werent organised like this at that time but after how good they were, more like 1st. team, 2nd teams etc.
Yeah, what I wonder about is the financial standards for JFL admission - will Club Dragons have to submit financial statements independent of the university? I'm sure the school wouldn't mind subsidizing expenses as they see fit, but curious to see how the league handles regulatory issues.
Tidbits from the great north's lower leagues. Rookies Sapporo Motomo Club won the Sapporo block on their very first try, beating Nippon Express by only one point in which is usually the most balanced out of the five groups. The tight difference allows the runner-ups to qualify to the promotion round as best second-placed team. Yet another unlucky season for Blackpecker Hakodate- the well-supported (at least on BigSoccer) club from Southern Hokkaido had to settle for second place as Tomakomai-based Toyota Motors Hokkaido won the Donan block. Toyota won this block back in 2011, gained promotion to the Hokkaido League but fell back here after two seasons in the top tier. Blackpecker, who are the first Hokkaido League winners and one of the most estabilished clubs in Southern Hokkaido are missing from the top tier since 2011. A rather balanced edition of the Doo block saw Iwamizawa-based Fc Menino emerging victorious for the second season in a row- making it three titles in four seasons (although the 2011 one was in the Northern block). They have always missed out on promotion though... and who knows what might happen next year as former pushovers such as Avanzare Kitahiroshima and Cherry Blossom put together a decent performance this season. Verdelazzo Asahikawa makes it 10 wins out of 10 to win the Dohoku block for the second season in a row. Eternal contenders at FC Naie only came in fifth place, while Wakkanai FC- a club based in Japan's northernmost city- put together a very good performance, coming in second place- a very good result for the Soya area, which had had no representative in the block leagues between 2012 and 2013. Last but not least Shintoku FC won their very first Doto league, becoming only the second winner of the Eastern block not to come from the two major cities in the area (i.e. Obihiro and Kushiro), the first since 2005. Another outsider performing very well was Abashiri FC, which by coming in second put together what I believe is the best performance ever by a team coming from the Okhotsk district. In the promotion series, the five winners + Nippon Express were put in two 3- teams groups. Shintoku FC won Group A thanks to a PK win over Sapporo Motomo- otherwise both teams had defeated Menino. Group B saw Nippon Express defeating both Toyota Motors and Verdelazzo to take the remaining spot.
Does away goals count in the JFL-final? If Sagawa - Honda ends 1-1, will SAgawa win on aggregate since they managed 2-2 away?
Exactly my thoughts. I am pretty sure Club Dragons will play in JFL next year, but there seems to be really alot of issues the system not be able to handle proper in there case. If someone in JFA questions this a lot as i do we could see Fukui get the last spot, but 95% chance of Club Dragons in JFL next year.
btw. Kagoshima United applied for 100 years vision club status the 29th. november. http://kagoshimaunited.com/information/news/j.html
Is there any connection between Waseda United & Waseda University? They got the promotion to Kanto League Division 2.