2016 Japan Football League

The 2016 Japan Football League (Japanese: 第18回日本フットボールリーグ, Hepburn: Dai Jūkyūhachi-kai Nihon Futtobōru Rīgu) was the third season of the nationwide fourth tier of the Japanese football, and the 18th season since the establishment of Japan Football League.

Japan Football League
Season2016
ChampionsHonda FC
PromotedAzul Claro Numazu
RelegatedFagiano Okayama Next (withdrew)
Matches played240
Goals scored628 (2.62 per match)
Top goalscorerMakoto Kawanishi
(FC Osaka)
(21 goals)
Highest attendance4,675
Lowest attendance158
Average attendance817
← 2015
2017 →

Clubs

Sixteen clubs participated in this season of Japan Football League. The list was announced on 9 December 2015.[1] A place for 2016 Emperor's Cup will be given to the winners of the first stage of the 2016 JFL.[2]

Club Name Home Town Notes
Azul Claro Numazu Numazu, Shizuoka J.League 100 Year Plan club status holders, J3 license holders[3]
Briobecca Urayasu Urayasu, Chiba Promoted from Kantō League Div. 1 after 2nd place in 39th Regional Promotion Series
Fagiano Okayama Next Okayama, Okayama
Honda FC Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Honda Lock Miyazaki, Miyazaki
Maruyasu Okazaki Okazaki, Aichi
MIO Biwako Shiga Kusatsu, Shiga
Nara Club Nara, Nara J.League 100 Year Plan club status and J3 license holders[3]
FC Osaka Osaka, Osaka
ReinMeer Aomori Aomori, Aomori Promoted from Tohoku League Div. 1 after 1st place in 39th Regional Promotion Series
Ryutsu Keizai Dragons Ryūgasaki, Ibaraki
Sony Sendai Tagajō, Miyagi Defending champions of 2015
Tokyo Musashino City Musashino, Tokyo Formerly Yokogawa Musashino FC,[4] J.League 100 Year Plan club status holders
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

Change in rules

The tournament continued with the system introduced in 2014: Two single round-robin stages are held, and winners of each stage 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.[5]

The two worst performing teams by aggregated results of both stages are relegated to the Regional Leagues and replaced by the top two performers of the Regional League promotion series. However, if one or two teams are admitted to J3 or withdrawn at the end of the season, the number of relegated clubs are reduced accordingly.

According to updated J.League Terms, the clubs must comply the following requirements to be promoted to J3 League:[6]

  • 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 Ryutsu Keizai Dragons 15 11 2 2 30 14 +16 35 Qualification to championship play-offs
2 FC Osaka 15 10 2 3 28 14 +14 32
3 Azul Claro Numazu 15 9 2 4 21 11 +10 29
4 Honda Lock 15 7 5 3 18 10 +8 26
5 Vanraure Hachinohe 15 7 4 4 19 10 +9 25
6 Honda FC 15 7 4 4 21 16 +5 25
7 Sony Sendai 15 6 5 4 24 15 +9 23
8 MIO Biwako Shiga 15 7 1 7 19 23 −4 22
9 Briobecca Urayasu 15 6 1 8 19 22 −3 19
10 Tokyo Musashino City 15 5 4 6 10 14 −4 19
11 ReinMeer Aomori 15 4 5 6 15 17 −2 17
12 Maruyasu Okazaki 15 5 2 8 10 15 −5 17
13 Verspah Oita 15 3 7 5 13 18 −5 16
14 Nara Club 15 3 5 7 17 25 −8 14
15 Tochigi Uva 15 3 1 11 19 42 −23 10
16 Fagiano Okayama Next 15 2 0 13 10 27 −17 6
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

Second stage
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Honda FC 15 11 3 1 31 13 +18 36 Qualification to championship play-offs
2 Sony Sendai 15 11 1 3 32 12 +20 34
3 Honda Lock 15 10 3 2 28 13 +15 33
4 Azul Claro Numazu 15 9 3 3 26 13 +13 30
5 ReinMeer Aomori 15 9 1 5 20 16 +4 28
6 FC Osaka 15 8 2 5 24 17 +7 26
7 Nara Club 15 7 2 6 24 23 +1 23
8 Vanraure Hachinohe 15 6 3 6 15 17 −2 21
9 Ryutsu Keizai Dragons 15 5 4 6 23 24 −1 19
10 MIO Biwako Shiga 15 4 6 5 19 22 −3 18
11 Briobecca Urayasu 15 5 2 8 20 25 −5 17
12 Tokyo Musashino City 15 4 4 7 19 24 −5 16
13 Verspah Oita 15 3 6 6 17 24 −7 15
14 Maruyasu Okazaki 15 2 7 6 13 23 −10 13
15 Tochigi Uva 15 2 0 13 15 35 −20 6
16 Fagiano Okayama Next 15 0 1 14 9 34 −25 1
Updated to match(es) played on 13 November 2016. 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

Championship play-offs

The championship play-offs were held after the season between two winners of each stage. Ryutsu Keizai Dragons, the winners of the first stage, hosted the first leg on 26 November, and Honda FC who won the second stage hosted the second leg on 4 December.[2][7]

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Ryutsu Keizai Dragons 2–3 Honda FC 2–2 0–1
Ryutsu Keizai Dragons2 – 2Honda FC
Report
Attendance: 1,131
Honda FC1 – 0Ryutsu Keizai Dragons
Report
Attendance: 1,596

Overall table

This table is 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.

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Honda FC (C) 30 18 7 5 52 29 +23 61
2 Ryutsu Keizai Dragons 30 16 6 8 53 38 +15 54
3 Azul Claro Numazu (P) 30 18 5 7 47 24 +23 59 Promotion to 2017 J3 League[lower-alpha 1]
4 Honda Lock 30 17 8 5 46 23 +23 59
5 FC Osaka 30 18 4 8 52 31 +21 58
6 Sony Sendai 30 17 6 7 56 27 +29 57
7 Vanraure Hachinohe 30 13 7 10 34 27 +7 46
8 ReinMeer Aomori 30 13 6 11 35 33 +2 45
9 MIO Biwako Shiga 30 11 7 12 38 45 −7 40
10 Nara Club 30 10 7 13 41 48 −7 37
11 Briobecca Urayasu 30 11 3 16 39 47 −8 36
12 Tokyo Musashino City 30 9 8 13 29 38 −9 35
13 Verspah Oita 30 6 13 11 30 42 −12 31
14 Maruyasu Okazaki 30 7 9 14 23 38 −15 30
15 Tochigi Uva 30 5 1 24 34 77 −43 16
16 Fagiano Okayama Next 30 2 1 27 19 61 −42 7 Withdrew after the season[8]
Updated to match(es) played on 13 November 2016. 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
(C) Champion; (P) Promoted.
Notes:
  1. 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.

Top scorers
Rank Scorer Club Goals
1 Makoto Kawanishi FC Osaka
21
2 Jun Arima Sony Sendai
19
3 Koki Takenaka Briobecca Urayasu
17
4 Taira Shige Nara Club
15
5 Takuma Sonoda Azul Claro Numazu
12
6 Yuta Uchino Sony Sendai
11
Kazuki Sakamoto MIO Biwako Shiga
Kengo Kubo MIO Biwako Shiga
Toshihiko Uchiyama Tochigi Uva
10 Seiya Murakami Vanraure Hachinohe
10
Tatsuya Furuhashi Honda FC
Takanori Yokochi Ryutsu Keizai Dragons

Updated to games played on 13 November 2016.
Source: JFL Stats & Data - Ranking:Goals (in Japanese)

Attendance
Pos Team Total High Low Average Change
1 Azul Claro Numazu 34,975 6,874 848 2,332 +6.1%†
2 Vanraure Hachinohe 26,317 5,028 792 1,754 +80.1%†
3 Nara Club 22,620 2,620 1,140 1,508 −17.0%†
4 FC Osaka 13,446 1,416 511 896 +29.5%†
5 Tokyo Musashino City 12,789 1,653 302 853 +4.4%†
6 Honda FC 11,908 1,517 438 794 −25.9%†
7 Sony Sendai 10,963 4,675 278 731 +36.9%†
8 ReinMeer Aomori 10,564 1,518 350 704 +207.4%†
9 MIO Biwako Shiga 10,195 1,810 253 680 −23.9%†
10 Verspah Oita 7,324 928 206 488 0.0%†
11 Briobecca Urayasu 7,217 952 211 481 n/a†
12 Tochigi Uva 6,025 1,043 151 402 −11.8%†
13 Ryutsu Keizai Dragons 5,813 851 193 388 +6.3%†
14 Maruyasu Okazaki 5,733 634 243 382 +10.4%†
15 Honda Lock 5,576 741 178 372 +4.5%†
16 Fagiano Okayama Next 4,653 517 158 310 +0.3%†
League total 196,118 6,874 151 817 −8.6%†

Updated to games played on 13 November
Source: Japan Football League (1st stage, 2nd stage)
Notes:
† Team played previous season in Regional Leagues.

Promotion from Regional Leagues

FC Imabari and Veertien Mie

References
  1. "Announcement on teams participating in the 18th Japan Football League" (in Japanese). Japan Football League. 9 December 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  2. "Announcement on format change of the Japan Football League" (in Japanese). Japan Football League. 20 January 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  3. "Licenses for 2016 J3 participation announced" (in Japanese). J.League. 24 September 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  4. "Yokogawa Musashino will be renamed "Tokyo Musashino City"" (in Japanese). 9 December 2015.
  5. "Kagoshima United becomes a 100-Year Plan club". Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese). 24 February 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  6. "J.League Terms" (in Japanese). Japan Football League. February 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  7. "18th JFL Championship" (in Japanese). Japan Football League. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  8. "ファジアーノ岡山ネクスト、JFLからの退会について" (in Japanese). JFL. 25 June 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
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