2020 Japan Football League

Japan Football League
Season	2020
Dates	July 18 - November 28
Champions	Verspah Oita
Promoted	Tegevajaro Miyazaki
Relegated	none (for season 2020 only)
Matches played	120
Goals scored	330 (2.75 per match)
Top goalscorer	Tatsuma Sakai (Matsue City); Kazuki Sakamoto (MIO Biwako Shiga); 9 goals;
Highest attendance	Tegevajaro Miyazaki v Iwaki FC; 2,203; (Nov. 29, 2020);
Lowest attendance	23 games played with; zero attendance due to Covid-19
Average attendance	442
	← 2019 2021 →

The 2020 Japan Football League (Japanese: 第22回日本フットボールリーグ[第22回 JFL 2020], Hepburn: Dai Nijūnikai Nihon Futtobōru Rīgu [Dai Nijūnikai JFL 2020]) was the seventh season of the nationwide fourth tier of Japanese football, and the 22nd season since the establishment of Japan Football League.

Postponement of the beginning of the season

On February 27, the opening game and match day 2 were postponed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[1]

On March 16, it was announced match day 3 would be postponed.^[2] On March 25, it was announced Match day 4, Match day 5 would be postponed.^[3]

On April 7, it was announced Match day 6 would also be postponed.^[4]

On April 15 it was finally decided that only the second half of the season would be played beginning on the scheduled date, July 18. No relegations happened and the winners and runners-up of the Japanese Regional Series were automatically promoted, meaning that the 2021 season would be held with 17 clubs.^[5]

On June 24, the JFL announced new dates. The league match for this season started on July 18. Match days 16 and 17, and each home game opening game were held as a without spectator match.^[6]

Clubs

JFL map 2020

Sixteen clubs featured in this season of Japan Football League. There were some changes: FC Imabari got promoted to J3, after finishing third in 2019, while Ryutsu Keizai Dragons was relegated after playing for five seasons at this level.^[7]^[8] Matsue City FC, who finished second-last place, were fated to go back to Japanese Regional Leagues as well, but avoided the drop thanks to FC Imabari going up to J3 League.

There are two new clubs in the JFL, debuting at this level after finishing in the top two in the 2019 Japanese Regional Series: Iwaki FC dominated the final stage, while Kochi United SC overcame the other two teams – Ococias Kyoto AC and Fukui United FC – to get the final spot for this seasons JFL.^[9]^[10]

Club Name	Home Town	Position	Notes
Honda FC	Hamamatsu, Shizuoka	1st	2019 Champions
Honda Lock	Miyazaki, Miyazaki	6th
Iwaki FC	Iwaki, Fukushima	RPS 1st	Winners of TSL and 43rd RPS, 100 Year Plan-status and J3 license holders
Kochi United SC	Kōchi, Kōchi	RPS 2nd	Winners of SSL and runners-up of 43rd RPS
Maruyasu Okazaki	Okazaki, Aichi	11th
Matsue City FC	Matsue, Shimane	15th
MIO Biwako Shiga	Kusatsu, Shiga	9th	Applied for 100 Year Plan-status
Nara Club	All cities/towns in Nara^[a]	14th	100 Year Plan-status and J3 license holders
FC Osaka	Higashiōsaka, Osaka	8th	100 Year Plan-status and J3 license holders
ReinMeer Aomori	Aomori, Aomori	13th	100 Year Plan-status and J3 license holders
Sony Sendai	Tagajō, Miyagi	2nd
Suzuka Point Getters	Suzuka, Mie	12th	Applied for 100 Year Plan-status
Tegevajaro Miyazaki	Miyazaki & Shintomi, Miyazaki	5th	100 Year Plan-status and J3 license holders
Tokyo Musashino City	Musashino, Tokyo	4th	No more 100 Year Plan-status, withdrew J3 license
Veertien Mie	All cities/towns in Mie^[b]	10th	100 Year Plan-status and J3 license holders
Verspah Oita	Yufu & Ōita, Ōita	7th

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer
Honda FC	Hiroyasu Ibata	Yuya Suzuki	Umbro
Honda Lock SC	Shinya Shirakawa	Naoya Oyama	Kappa
Iwaki FC	Yuzo Tamura	Masaru Hidaka	Under Armour
Kochi United SC	Akihiro Nishimura	Tsubasa Yokotake	bonera
Maruyasu Okazaki	Ryuji Kitamura	Teruyuki Moniwa	ATHLETA
Matsue City FC	Noriaki Sanenobu	Yuzuru Tabira	GAViC
MIO Biwako Shiga	Hiroshi Otsuki	Ryo Nishiguchi	JOGARBOLA
Nara Club	Maiki Hayashi	Shinichi Mukai	SQUADRA
FC Osaka	Shinya Tsukahara	Tomoyuki Iwamoto	bonera
ReinMeer Aomori	Tatsuya Mochizuki	Kanta Takahashi	Umbro
Sony Sendai FC	Gen Nakamura	Kenta Ogihara	Umbro
Suzuka Point Getters	Milagros Martínez Domínguez	Kohei Fujita	ATHLETA
Tegevajaro Miyazaki	Keiji Kuraishi	Kenta Ishii	Penalty
Tokyo Musashino City	Hisayuki Ikegami	Koji Ishihara	Yonex
Veertien Mie	Nobuhiro Ueno	Hitoshi Nishimura	Puma
Verspah Oita	Shigemitsu Sudo	Kosei Uryu	YASUDA

^ centering on Nara
^ centering on Kuwana & Yokkaichi

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion
1	Verspah Oita (C)	15	10	2	3	27	16	+11	32
2	Tegevajaro Miyazaki (P)	15	8	4	3	26	15	+11	28	Promotion to 2021 J3 League^[a]
3	Sony Sendai	15	8	2	5	25	22	+3	26
4	Honda FC	15	5	7	3	20	12	+8	22
5	Suzuka Point Getters	15	6	3	6	23	19	+4	21
6	Veertien Mie	15	6	3	6	17	16	+1	21
7	Iwaki FC	15	6	3	6	24	24	0	21
8	FC Osaka	15	6	2	7	24	24	0	20
9	MIO Biwako Shiga	15	6	2	7	23	27	−4	20
10	Matsue City FC	15	6	2	7	18	24	−6	20
11	Tokyo Musashino City	15	5	4	6	15	17	−2	19
12	Honda Lock	15	5	4	6	19	25	−6	19
13	Nara Club	15	5	3	7	21	21	0	18
14	Kochi United SC	15	4	4	7	17	20	−3	16
15	ReinMeer Aomori	15	4	4	7	17	26	−9	16
16	Maruyasu Okazaki	15	4	3	8	14	22	−8	15

Source: JFL website (in Japanese)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Head-to-head results; 4) Goals scored; 5) Disciplinary points; 6) Number of wins; 7) Lottery ^[11]
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted
Notes:

^ 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

As of matches played November 29, 2020.^[12]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Tatsuma Sakai	Matsue City FC	9
1	Kazuki Sakamoto	MIO Biwako Shiga	9
3	Motoki Fujiwara	Sony Sendai FC	7
3	Jin Shioya	Veertien Mie	7
5	Shoma Mizunaga	Tegevajaro Miyazaki	6
5	Kaima Akahoshi	Kochi United SC	6
7	8 players		5

Promotion and relegation

Despite the JFL announcing that there would be no promotion or relegation of clubs, the J. League agreed to admit Tegevajaro Miyazaki to the J3 League on November 24, 2020, after Miyazaki finished in the top four positions. Miyazaki ultimately finished runners-up.

FC Tiamo Hirakata and FC Kariya were promoted from the Regional Leagues as Regional Promotion Series champions and runners-up respectively. Kariya returned to the JFL after being relegated back in 2009.

Attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Average	Change
1	FC Osaka	2,846	993	712	−35.2%^†
2	Honda FC	2,054	941	411	−49.8%^†
3	Honda Lock	800	272	200	−42.0%^†
4	Iwaki FC	9,005	1,828	1,286	n/a^†
5	Kochi United SC	4,741	1,151	677	n/a^†
6	Maruyasu Okazaki	716	170	143	−63.0%^†
7	Matsue City FC	3,934	971	656	−6.2%^†
8	MIO Biwako Shiga	2,479	832	413	−19.3%^†
9	Nara Club	3,685	959	614	−69.6%^†
10	ReinMeer Aomori	2,429	726	405	−21.1%^†
11	Sony Sendai FC	1,249	303	178	−62.0%^†
12	Suzuka Point Getters	1,965	413	281	−49.2%^†
13	Tegevajaro Miyazaki	4,698	2,203	671	+66.5%^†
14	Tokyo Musashino City	3,658	907	610	−65.9%^†
15	Veertien Mie	6,476	1,741	925	−11.1%^†
16	Verspah Oita	1,531	509	306	−47.4%^†
	League total	52,266	2,203	436	−53.6%^†

Updated to games played on 29/11/2020
Source: JFL

23 games played with no spectators due to COVID-19 worldwide pandemic

References

^ "新型コロナウイルスの影響による、開幕戦延期のお知らせ" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. February 27, 2020. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
^ "新型コロナウイルスの影響による、第３節延期のお知らせ" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. March 16, 2020. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
^ "新型コロナウイルスの影響による、第４節、第５節の開催可否について" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. March 16, 2020. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
^ "新型コロナウイルスの影響による、第６節の開催可否について" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. April 7, 2020. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
^ "第22回日本フットボールリーグ日程及び大会方式の変更のお知らせ" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. April 15, 2020. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
^ "【ＪＦＬオフィシャルサイト】第２２回ＪＦＬ試合日程【リモートマッチ（無観客試合）】対象試合）" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. June 24, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
^ "FC今治、来季J3昇格が正式決定！理事会で承認、四国4つめのJクラブに". Football Channel (in Japanese). November 18, 2019.
^ "【レビュー転載】天皇杯茨城県予選準決勝つくばFC×流通経済大学ドラゴンズ龍ケ崎（2019/04/21）". Note (in Japanese). November 11, 2019.
^ "【いわきＦＣ・ＪＦＬへの軌跡】実力Ｊリーグレベル！16チーム". Minyu-Net (in Japanese). November 27, 2019.
^ "お知らせ「第２２回日本フットボールリーグ新入会チームについて」" (in Japanese). JFL. December 5, 2019.
^ "第22回開催に伴う事項について" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. June 24, 2020. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
^ "日本フットボールリーグオフィシャルWebサイト【得点Ｒ】".

External links

Official website (in Japanese)

[11] tering on Nara

[12] tering on Kuwana & Yokkaichi

[table_note_res_P0.72610600000532-13] 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.

[1] "新型コロナウイルスの影響による、開幕戦延期のお知らせ" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. February 27, 2020. Retrieved April 4, 2020.

[2] "新型コロナウイルスの影響による、第３節延期のお知らせ" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. March 16, 2020. Retrieved April 4, 2020.

[3] "新型コロナウイルスの影響による、第４節、第５節の開催可否について" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. March 16, 2020. Retrieved April 4, 2020.

[4] "新型コロナウイルスの影響による、第６節の開催可否について" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. April 7, 2020. Retrieved April 8, 2020.

[5] "第22回日本フットボールリーグ日程及び大会方式の変更のお知らせ" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. April 15, 2020. Retrieved April 15, 2020.

[6] "【ＪＦＬオフィシャルサイト】第２２回ＪＦＬ試合日程【リモートマッチ（無観客試合）】対象試合）" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. June 24, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2020.

[7] "FC今治、来季J3昇格が正式決定！理事会で承認、四国4つめのJクラブに". Football Channel (in Japanese). November 18, 2019.

[8] "【レビュー転載】天皇杯茨城県予選準決勝つくばFC×流通経済大学ドラゴンズ龍ケ崎（2019/04/21）". Note (in Japanese). November 11, 2019.

[9] "【いわきＦＣ・ＪＦＬへの軌跡】実力Ｊリーグレベル！16チーム". Minyu-Net (in Japanese). November 27, 2019.

[10] "お知らせ「第２２回日本フットボールリーグ新入会チームについて」" (in Japanese). JFL. December 5, 2019.

[14] "第22回開催に伴う事項について" (Press release) (in Japanese). 日本フットボールリーグ. June 24, 2020. Retrieved July 5, 2020.

[15] "日本フットボールリーグオフィシャルWebサイト【得点Ｒ】".

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