J. League soccer executives agreed Tuesday to return to the single-stage system for the first division next season, putting an end to the current two-stage system after two seasons.

They came to the accord at a joint meeting of executive committees of the first to third divisions, and the decision will be formalized at a board of directors meeting on Oct. 12, league officials said.

The J. League has been using the two-stage system followed by a championship playoff for the top flight since last year in the hope of boosting sponsorship revenues.

But the current system has faced opposition, with some criticizing it as lacking in fairness and others arguing that holding the championship playoff leads to tight scheduling.

"We were aware that there are arguments both for and against the two-stage system," said Mitsuru Murai, the J. League chairman. "We arrived at this decision (to return to the single-stage system) due to increased difficulties in scheduling."

Members of the executive committees also affirmed their plan to invest generously into J1 as part of efforts to improve its international competitiveness, using funds from a 10-year, ¥210 billion (about $2 billion) deal to sell digital online broadcasting rights to British-based Perform Group.

The J. League is set to increase prize money for top clubs and launch a new allocation of funds believed to total more than ¥1 billion to the winning squad to help it work on strengthening the team.

It also plans to ease regulations for registering foreign players and utilize the League Cup tournament as a stage to train young Japanese players for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.