The long Japanese season is finally over, with the season-ending Emperor’s Cup final attracting a sell-out crowd of 44,066 to the National Stadium in Tokyo overnight.
Gamba Osaka were crowned champions of Japan’s oldest football tournament after they beat underdogs Kashiwa Reysol 1-0, with Ryuji Bando coming off the bench to score a dramatic winner deep into extra-time.
Gamba’s win means the Osakans can defend the AFC Champions League crown they lifted last November.
The Asian Football Confederation originally declined to offer the defending champions a place in next season’s Champions League, but Gamba became the fourth Japanese team to qualify by virtue of lifting their country’s premier domestic Cup competition.
Despite another colourful crowd flocking to the National Stadium – with a massive TV audience also tuning in to NHK’s national broadcast – the showpiece event failed to mask the slow decline of what was once Japan’s most beloved football tournament.
The Emperor’s Cup is a shadow of its former self, and football fans in Australia should take note of the mistakes made by the Japan Football Association in regard to the tournament’s scheduling.
To gain a better understanding of why the Emperor’s Cup has lost much of its magic, I emailed Ken Matsushima – editor of website The Rising Sun News and an authoratitive voice on the Japanese game.
For Ken, the downgrading of the tournament’s importance is one of the most disappointing developments in Japanese football.
“Though the J. League is the most profitable and well organised, I think you could still argue that the Emperor’s Cup was a higher profile event for people who didn’t follow football as a constant passion,” writes Ken.
“The changes that have been made have altered that, and I suppose from the J. League’s point of view, it’s mission accomplished.”
The changes that Ken alludes to are twofold.
Firstly, instead of playing the entire Emperor’s Cup as one long knock-out tournament towards the end of the season – as it was once played – the tournament’s early rounds now kick off in September, which robs the competition of its original continuity.
Worse still, the scheduling now heavily favours top flight clubs.
There’s no FA Cup-style romance here – until the quarter-finals the JFA forces lower-ranked teams to play fixtures away from home – robbing many amateur and semi-professional teams of a big pay-day at the gate, with minnows instead trudging out in front of empty stands at the home of a professional club.
Even more absurdly – and this is my pet peeve about Japanese football – there’s no consistency once the quarter-finals roll around.
When FC Tokyo knocked Shimizu S-Pulse out of the quarter-finals of this year’s tournament, the match took place in Sendai – about 300km from Tokyo and a shade under 500km from Shimizu. At the same time, J2 side Sagan Tosu lost to top flight outfit Yokohama F. Marinos at home!
The bizarre scheduling has wreaked havoc with attendance figures.
Only 19,843 fans turned out at the supposedly neutral National Stadium for the semi-final clash between Yokohama F. Marinos and Gamba Osaka – despite the fact that Yokohama is just a short train ride from the capital.
Even that overshadowed the crowd of 12,458 that showed up at Ecopa Stadium near Hamamatsu for the other semi-final between FC Tokyo and Kashiwa Reysol, in spite of the fact that FC Tokyo attracted the third-largest average attendance in the J. League this season.
Japanese fans are voting with their feet, and all indications suggest that they are unhappy with the tinkering of the tournament’s schedule to suit powerful J1 clubs.
It’s a scenario easily imagined in Australia – and that’s if a domestic Cup competition even managed to get off the ground – with the omnipotent FFA unlikely to look favourably upon a State League team damaging the A-League brand by springing a shock upset.
After Gamba Osaka taught Adelaide United a footballing lesson in the AFC Champions League final, some Australians clamoured to suggest that Japan should be the model for our domestic game.
But Australian fans should be wary.
The Japanese game is not all smiles and sunshine, and this season’s lacklustre Emperor’s Cup is proof of that.
Sam
Guest
NUMVFC Totally agree with your comments.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
I can recall George Negus saying something similar about the FFA frowning upon the prospect of a state league club defeating an A-League club in a cup comp - personally, I honestly can't see what the big deal is (of such an eventuality) - and judging by the pre-season games - it's not as if it will happen all that often.
NUFCMVFC
Guest
Very good article In the event of an FFA Cup, I think this should actually be oriented at the football fraternity quite specifically and not so much the greater Australian Public. It should be more about connecting the fanbase open to A League teams and the State League teams of ethnic based clubs that aren't follwoing A league in particular, therefore we have a national competition uniting the two, the former NSL clubs get a crack at a national competition, with the chance for continental football at the end of it. Most importantly it brings attention to the state of the grassroots and infrastructure facilities and money/revenue into the grassroots echelons. These would be fantastic events and who cares what Jon Smith thinks of A League brand if a State League team gets up over an A League team, a lot of Australians are familiar with romance of FA Cup anyway so would understand is as just that A League teams play pre-season games at regional and suburban grounds so there is no reason why suburban teams should be able to host A League teams in such a competiton As far as J League and JFA go, they are dong a good job with J League obviously but would do well not to piss the grassroots off, as they are ultimately what underpins the the J League and the development pathways
Lugs
Guest
I think it will be a couple of seasons until the J2 clubs are feelling the financial sting and there is a "rationalisation" of the minor clubs....all in all if it continues there will be less clubs...in these times all efforts are to be made to support the lower clubs who rely on gate fixtures as their main avenue to cash flows. This effort of course involves the local train systems and bus companies who in regional areas are privately owned and would be hurting from the change of fixtures. Football as the peoples game doesnt just involve the people playing or even the spectators but the whole community and if Japan continues to lose sight of this then woe betide them. Kepp the articles coming Mr Tuckerman......
Kazama
Roar Guru
Mike Tuckerman: "...until the quarter-finals the JFA forces lower-ranked teams to play fixtures away from home." I think this is perhaps the main reason for the tournament's decline. Even in Spain in the Copa del Rey the lower ranked teams get to play their games at home in the early stages. There have been suggestions that the Carling Cup in England should adapt a similar system. I think the problem is that the winner gets an ACL berth, and the JFA doesn't wish for a weak team to represent it in that competition. And if the JFA were to remove that ACL berth, the J. League teams would more than likely stop treating the cup seriously and it would turn into a second-string affair like the aforementioned Carling Cup. Mike Tuckerman: "...with the omnipotent FFA unlikely to look favourably upon a State League team damaging the A-League brand by springing a shock upset." That is one of the reasons why I feel that an all-inclusive cup competition will not happen for a very long time in Australia, if ever. IMO there are more important things to worry about for the development of Australian football right now, and while the Japanese may have made mistakes with their Emperor's Cup I still believe that they have had enough success for us to be studying how they have taken their football to the level it is at. At the very least, I think there should be some interaction between the FFA and JFA, as well as between the heads of A-League and J. League clubs. I am happy that Gamba get to defend their crown at least. I think Aurelio Vidmar can expect a few phone calls if Central Coast or Newcastle Jets draw them in their group! By the way Mike, I enjoyed your article on Soccernet.