Not only that. You might be breaking and entering, seeing they don’t play in the winter over there.
im sure they do tours in the off season. I got to see Anfield in the off season.
Really keen for an East or SE Asian Cup tournament host again. Four of five around the gulf over 20 years is ridiculous.
Surprised one of the Stans haven’t had one either? Seems odd given how many junior tournament’s they’ve seemed to have.
J.League promotion playoff final, Tokyo Verdy vs Shimizu S-Pulse.
S-Pulse leading 1-0 until a Verdy penalty in the 95th minute sees the game all square.
It finishes 1-1, and with J.League playoff rules, the higher placed team is promoted in the case of the draw, so Tokyo Verdy, the original Japanese football powerhouse, are back in the top flight next season, ending 15 years in the wilderness.
1 Like
Suwon relegated.
1 Like
Kawasaki Frontale defeated Kashiwa Reysol 8-7 on penalties to win the Emperor’s Cup.
It’s their second time lifting this trophy, previously winning in 2020.
The top flight trophy winners for 2023 are
J1 League - Vissel Kobe (1st)
J.League Cup - Avispa Fukuoka (1st)
Emperor’s Cup - Kawasaki Frontale (2nd)
Love seeing some new names on the honours list in football.
1 Like
Big changes coming to J.League, announcing now so they can get everything smoothly organised for the transition to winter season I suppose.
Wow, did they say how they will manage the gap between the end of the 2025 season and the August start of 26/27?
As far as I have seen, this was the first announcement about things, so more to come I guess.
I hear those Festivals of Football do well
Except over there it would probably be really good.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they had an interim competition of sorts that just had everyone play each other once. They’ll think of something.
With J.League moving to winter season, and ACL now also an Autumn to Spring comp, does that make it less likely Australia will move to a southern hemisphere winter comp?
We would be more out of step with the major leagues and competitions of the region in addition to fighting for space and airtime with bigger sporting codes.
I would say so. I don’t think moving the A-League to winter was ever really going to happen though.
We would be mad to change now, considering the Asian continental football calendar has actually moved to using the business year schedule as opposed to calendar year. I still think the on-field product would be better if we played in winter, but playing out of kilter with the continental football schedule was one little thing (of many) that counted against Aussie teams in the ACL.
Not when we have enough issues with playing surfaces as it is in summer.
In winter, do we really want to try and play football after the Waratahs and the Roosters have been trampling all over the field.
I’ve seen freshly ploughed paddocks with a smoother surface and more grass coverage than what Suncorp in Brisbane does after half a season, and I can’t see AAMI park fairing too well either, given Western would have to move pretty much full time into AAMI given the AFL teams in all the other stadiums they play in wouldn’t dare give them the time of day.
Western will be playing from their own training facility soon enough, so that won’t be a problem for them. During COVID, when we had to play during the winter, the playing surfaces held up surprisingly well. I think it would be less an issue than expected.
The Phillipines league has increased for next season from 7 to 15 teams.
1 Like
What’s the biggest pro sport over there? Basketball?
For now, i guess is the hope.
1 Like