Hi everybody,
first a long sorry that I have not written anything in almost a year. This is mainly due to the fact that I haved moved countries and have been busy with University.
But now to my newest post. In the recent months I have began to follow the J-League. The J-League is Japans premium football league. It was founded in 1992 and the first season began in 1993. The league was at first centred around old-stars from Europe and South America. Players like Guido Buchwald, Dunga, or Jorginho played in Japan in the early 90s. The model however was abandoned in the late 1990s due to the recession that hit Japan.
The J-League realized that it could no longer be just sustained by large companies. It therefore abandoned the franchise system, and remodeled the league after European standards. This included the introduction of promotion and relegation. The J-League 2 was created in 1999, along with a 100 year plan to create sustainable football in Japan. The idea was to give smaller clubs in smaller communities a chance to compete in the J-League 2. Those clubs could either grow and move up to the J-League 1 or provide high caliber football to small prices in the J-League 2. The J-League 2 is to be filled up to 22 clubs, once that is achieved the goal is the professionalization of the Japanese Football League (JFL). The JFL is to be envisioned to be the cornerstone of football in Japan.
The J-League has also heavily invested in infrastructure, such as football fields for smaller communities. Clubs playing in the J-League and J-League 2 are also required to invest into youth systems, similar to what is the case in the Bundesliga. Today the J-League is the best league in Asia. This is evident as 4 Japanese teams play in the AFC.
The J-League should also be considered an interesting model for leagues such as the Major League Soccer (MLS) in the USA, and Canada. The MLS has persued the idea of creating a franchise system league. This however has caused problems since none of the clubs own their players. Rather the players are contracted to the league. The current MLS also has the problem that is not sustainable. The backbone of football in Europe has always been small community football and the idea that you could rise through the leagues. This is what Japan is trying to emulate succesfully. The J-League is the only league that has been created and is not a playing tool of rich buisnessmen who want a sports club on their CV.
