2015 Japan Football League

The 2015 Japan Football League (Japanese: 第17回日本フットボールリーグ, Hepburn: Dai Jūnana-kai Nihon Futtobōru Rīgu) was the second season of the nationwide fourth tier of the Japanese football, and the 17th season since the establishment of Japan Football League. The first stage of the season was played from 8 March to 7 June, and the second stage of the season from 20 June to 15 November, while post-season championship playoffs were held on 29 November and 5 December.[1]

Japan Football League
Season2015
ChampionsSony Sendai
1st JFL title
1st D4 title
PromotedKagoshima United
Matches played240
Goals scored614 (2.56 per match)
Top goalscorerKiichi Iga (17 goals)
Highest attendance8,656 (Kagoshima United vs Maruyasu Okazaki, 15 November)
Lowest attendance122 (Fagiano Okayama Next vs RK Dragons, 23 October)
Average attendance894
← 2014
2016 →

Clubs

Sixteen clubs will participate in this second season of Japan Football League. The list was announced on 16 January. A place for 2015 Emperor's Cup will be given to the winners of the first stage of the JFL 2015.[1]

Club Name Home Town Notes
Azul Claro Numazu Numazu, Shizuoka J. League 100 Year Plan club status holders, J3 license holders[2]
Fagiano Okayama Next Okayama, Okayama
Honda FC Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Defending champions of 2014
Kagoshima United Kagoshima, Kagoshima J. League 100 Year Plan club status holders, J3 license holders[2]
Honda Lock Miyazaki, Miyazaki
Maruyasu Okazaki Okazaki, Aichi
MIO Biwako Shiga Kusatsu, Shiga
Nara Club Nara, Nara Promoted from Kansai League Div. 1 after 1st place in 38th Regional Promotion Series
and J. League 100 Year Plan club status and J3 license holders[2]
FC Osaka Osaka, Osaka Promoted from Kansai League Div. 1 after 2nd place in 38th Regional Promotion Series
Ryutsu Keizai Dragons Ryūgasaki, Ibaraki Promoted from Kantō League Div. 2 after 3rd place in 38th Regional Promotion Series
SP Kyoto FC Mukō, Kyoto Formerly Sagawa Printing Kyoto
Sony Sendai Tagajō, Miyagi
Tochigi Uva Tochigi, Tochigi J. League 100 Year Plan club status holders
Vanraure Hachinohe Hachinohe, Aomori J. League 100 Year Plan club status holders
Verspah Oita Ōita, Ōita
Yokogawa Musashino Musashino, Tokyo

On 29 October SP Kyoto FC announced their withdrawal from JFL at the end of the season.[3]

Change in rules

The tournament will continue with the system introduced in 2014: Two single round-robin stages will be held, and winners of each stage will determine the champion in the post-season home and away championship playoffs. If the same team manages to win both stages, no playoffs will be held, and they will be automatically declared champions.[4]

The two worst teams by aggregated results of both stages were relegated to the Regional Leagues and replaced by the top two performers of the Regional League promotion series. However, if one or two teams would be admitted to J3 or withdrawn at the end of the season, the number of relegated clubs would be reduced accordingly. As a result of SP Kyoto FC's withdrawal, no club was relegated.

According to updated J.League Terms, the clubs must comply the following requirements to be promoted to J3 League:[5]

  • Play in JFL for at least one season before promotion
  • Hold a J. League 100 Year Plan club status
  • Finish in top 4 of the combined JFL table, and finish either 1st or 2nd among associate members.
  • Have an average home attendance of at least 2,000; with significant effort recognized toward reaching 3,000 spectators
  • Have an annual operating revenue of 150 million yen
  • Pass the J3 licensing examination conducted by J.League

First stage
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Vanraure Hachinohe (Q) 15 10 4 1 21 8 +13 34 Qualification to championship play-offs
2 Sony Sendai 15 10 4 1 22 11 +11 34
3 Honda FC 15 10 3 2 31 9 +22 33
4 Kagoshima United 15 9 3 3 20 11 +9 30
5 FC Osaka 15 9 2 4 26 11 +15 29
6 Azul Claro Numazu 15 8 4 3 17 12 +5 28
7 Nara Club 15 6 5 4 14 13 +1 23
8 SP Kyoto FC 15 7 1 7 24 14 +10 22
9 Honda Lock 15 5 4 6 16 21 −5 19
10 MIO Biwako Shiga 15 4 6 5 18 17 +1 18
11 Verspah Oita 15 5 3 7 21 27 −6 18
12 Yokogawa Musashino 15 5 2 8 15 18 −3 17
13 Ryutsu Keizai Dragons 15 3 1 11 16 31 −15 10
14 Maruyasu Okazaki 15 2 3 10 10 26 −16 9
15 Tochigi Uva 15 2 2 11 12 27 −15 8
16 Fagiano Okayama Next 15 1 1 13 7 34 −27 4
Updated to match(es) played on 7 June 2015. Source: JFL website (in Japanese)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4th) head-to-head results; 5th) disciplinary points; 6th) draw
(Q) Qualified to the phase indicated.

Second stage
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Sony Sendai (Q) 15 11 4 0 26 10 +16 37 Qualification to championship play-offs
2 Honda FC 15 11 2 2 42 13 +29 35
3 Kagoshima United 15 9 3 3 26 14 +12 30
4 SP Kyoto FC 15 7 7 1 27 12 +15 28
5 Azul Claro Numazu 15 8 2 5 19 16 +3 26
6 Vanraure Hachinohe 15 7 4 4 15 13 +2 25
7 Nara Club 15 7 2 6 19 15 +4 23
8 Honda Lock 15 6 3 6 15 16 −1 21
9 Verspah Oita 15 5 4 6 19 20 −1 19
10 MIO Biwako Shiga 15 5 1 9 18 24 −6 16
11 Fagiano Okayama Next 15 5 1 9 18 25 −7 16
12 FC Osaka 15 4 3 8 19 24 −5 15
13 Yokogawa Musashino 15 3 4 8 16 22 −6 13
14 Maruyasu Okazaki 15 4 0 11 17 35 −18 12
15 Tochigi Uva 15 3 2 10 17 34 −17 11
16 Ryutsu Keizai Dragons 15 3 2 10 11 31 −20 11
Updated to match(es) played on 15 November 2015. Source: JFL website (in Japanese)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4th) head-to-head results; 5th) disciplinary points; 6th) draw
(Q) Qualified to the phase indicated.

Championship play-offs

The championship play-offs will be held after the season between two winners of each stage. Vanraure Hachinohe, the winners of the first stage, hosted the first leg on 29 November, and Sony Sendai who won the second stage hosted the second leg on 5 December.[1][6]

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Vanraure Hachinohe 1–1 (4–5 p) Sony Sendai 1–0 0–1
Vanraure Hachinohe1 – 0Sony Sendai
Nakasuji  69' Report
Gonohe Hibarino Park Athletics Stadium, Gonohe, Aomori
Attendance: 1,635
Sony Sendai1 – 0 (a.e.t.)Vanraure Hachinohe
Murata  69' Report
Penalties
5–4
Attendance: 1,715

Overall table

This table was used to determine J3 promotion candidates. To qualify for promotion, a club must hold a 100 Year Plan status, obtain J3 license (marked in bold in the table), and finish both in the top 4 of the JFL, and either 1st or 2nd among the promotion-eligible clubs.

On 25 September J.League has awarded J3 licenses for 2016 season. Among JFL clubs, only Kagoshima United, Azul Claro Numazu, and Nara Club received the licenses.[2]

On 17 November J.League officially promoted Kagoshima United to next year's J3 League.[7]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion or relegation
1 Sony Sendai (C) 30 21 8 1 48 21 +27 71
2 Vanraure Hachinohe 30 17 8 5 36 21 +15 59
3 Honda FC 30 21 5 4 73 22 +51 68
4 Kagoshima United (P) 30 18 6 6 46 25 +21 60 Promotion to 2016 J3 League
5 Azul Claro Numazu 30 16 6 8 36 28 +8 54
6 SP Kyoto FC 30 14 8 8 51 26 +25 50 Withdrawn
7 Nara Club 30 13 7 10 33 28 +5 46
8 FC Osaka 30 13 5 12 45 35 +10 44
9 Honda Lock 30 11 7 12 31 37 −6 40
10 Verspah Oita 30 10 7 13 40 47 −7 37
11 MIO Biwako Shiga 30 9 7 14 36 41 −5 34
12 Yokogawa Musashino 30 8 6 16 31 40 −9 30
13 Maruyasu Okazaki 30 6 3 21 27 61 −34 21
14 Ryutsu Keizai Dragons 30 6 3 21 27 62 −35 21
15 Fagiano Okayama Next 30 6 2 22 25 59 −34 20
16 Tochigi Uva 30 5 4 21 29 61 −32 19
Updated to match(es) played on 15 November 2015. Source: JFL website (in Japanese)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4th) head-to-head results; 5th) disciplinary points; 6th) draw
Winners of each stage will be ranked 1st and 2nd based on the championship results regardless of their total points.
(C) Champion; (P) Promoted.

Top scorers
Rank Scorer Club Goals
1 Kiichi Iga Honda FC 17
2 Hiroki Kurimoto 13
Yu Kijima Verspah Oita
4 Daiki Kagawa Honda FC 12
5 Yuya Yamada Kagoshima United FC 11
6 Jun Arima Sony Sendai 10
Ryota Nakamura FC Osaka
8 Taiki Kato SP Kyoto FC 9
Noriaki Fujimoto
Makoto Kawanishi FC Osaka

Updated to games played on 15 November 2015
Source: JFL Stats & Data - Ranking:Goals (in Japanese)

Attendance
Pos Team Total High Low Average Change
1 Kagoshima United 39,361 8,656 1,093 2,624 +43.8%†
2 Azul Claro Numazu 32,970 8,337 558 2,198 +23.7%†
3 Nara Club 27,250 3,466 812 1,817 +52.2%†
4 Honda FC 16,067 3,317 495 1,071 +5.6%†
5 Vanraure Hachinohe 14,610 1,493 555 974 +27.7%†
6 MIO Biwako Shiga 13,414 2,541 388 894 +38.8%†
7 Yokogawa Musashino 12,255 2,305 438 817 +10.6%†
8 FC Osaka 10,386 1,568 291 692 +31.6%†
9 Sony Sendai 8,015 967 258 534 +3.3%†
10 Verspah Oita 7,327 1,226 210 488 +46.5%†
11 Tochigi Uva 6,842 1,208 277 456 −15.6%†
12 Ryutsu Keizai Dragons 5,476 511 226 365 n/a†
13 SP Kyoto FC 5,454 918 203 364 −7.8%†
14 Honda Lock 5,341 785 183 356 −5.6%†
15 Maruyasu Okazaki 5,191 787 223 346 −3.6%†
16 Fagiano Okayama Next 4,634 475 122 309 −31.5%†
League total 214,593 8,656 122 894 +5.5%†

Updated to games played on 15 November 2015
Source: Japan Football League (1st stage, 2nd stage) (in Japanese)
Notes:
† Team played previous season in Regional Leagues.

Promotion from Regional Leagues

Due to SP Kyoto's resignation and Kagoshima's promotion, two promotion slots were available for the winners of the Regional League promotion series. In the final group tournament that took place from 21 to 23 November ReinMeer Aomori and Briobecca Urayasu finished first and second, respectively, and won promotion to 2016 JFL.

References
  1. "第１７回日本フットボールリーグ大会方式のお知らせ！" [Announcement on format change of the 16th Japan Football League]. Japan Football League. 20 January 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  2. "２０１６シーズン　Ｊ３クラブライセンス判定結果について （Ｊ３入会を希望するクラブ）" [Licenses for 2016 J3 participation announced.] (in Japanese). J. League.
  3. "【ＪＦＬオフィシャルサイト】ＳＰ京都フットボールクラブ（ＳＰ京都ＦＣ）、ＪＦＬからの退会について" [SP Kyoto FC to withdraw from JFL] (in Japanese). Japan Football League. 29 October 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  4. "鹿児島）ＪＦＬ鹿児島、百年クラブに　Ｊ３昇格へはずみ" [Kagoshima United becomes a 100-Year Plan club]. Asahi Shimbun. 24 February 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  5. 第１７回 日本フットボールリーグ(2015) [J. League Terms] (in Japanese), Japan Football League, February 2015, retrieved 1 April 2015
  6. "17th JFL Championship" (in Japanese). Japan Football League. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  7. Ｊリーグ入会審査（Ｊ３）結果について [About J.League admission examination (J3) results] (in Japanese). J.League. 17 November 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
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