VAR and contact guidelines will change look of J. League officiating
Under normal circumstances, the Japan Football Association would prefer that its referees be conductors, blending into the background and occasionally providing a guiding whistle as the players take center stage. But after a 2019 season that saw match officials thrust into the national spotlight, 2020 ...
Japan U-23 team to face South Africa, Cote d'Ivoire in Olympic warmups
The Japan Under-23 squad will warm up for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with friendlies against South Africa and Cote d'Ivoire in March, the Japan Football Association announced Thursday. Hajime Moriyasu's squad will face on South Africa at Kyoto's Sanga Stadium on March 27 before meeting ...
Ex-JFA chief Saburo Kawabuchi named head of athletes' village for 2020 Olympics
Former Japan Football Association President Saburo Kawabuchi has been appointed head of the athletes' village for the 2020 Olympics, Tokyo Games organizing committee chief Yoshiro Mori said Thursday. The 83-year-old, who Mori lauded as having "led the sports world in Japan," will deliver the welcoming ...
Urawa's ACL loss prompts reflection by Japanese soccer officials
For the Japanese soccer community, Urawa Reds' 3-0 aggregate defeat to Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal in the Asian Champions League final was unprecedented. That's because it was only the first time in five appearances in the final that a Japanese club has failed to clinch ...
JFA takes leap with new women's pro league
Eight years ago, Japan won the FIFA Women's World Cup and earned its place among women's soccer's elite nations. Now, as the sport known as "WoSo" packs stadiums in London, Madrid, Monterrey and Philadelphia, the country that introduced the likes of Homare Sawa and Saki ...
The Japan Football Association unveiled a new national team uniform on Wednesday, breaking from tradition with a patterned shirt incorporating five shades of blue representing different hues of the sky. The "Clear Sky Japan" kit was developed by Adidas Japan K.K. for representative sides including ...
JFA plans tactical changes for Nadeshiko Japan boss Asako Takakura's squad ahead of Olympics
Asako Takakura will remain as women's national head coach for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but she will be tasked with giving her team a new tactical direction, a Japan Football Association executive said Thursday. Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, JFA Women's Committee chairwoman Junko Imai ...
Former Japan manager Vahid Halilhodzic drops defamation suit against JFA
Former Japan manager Vahid Halilhodzic withdrew the lawsuit he filed against the Japan Football Association over his dismissal just two months before last year's World Cup finals on Wednesday. According to Halilhodzic's lawyer, the Bosnian will not go forward with his claim that the JFA ...
Japan Football Association President Kozo Tashima was re-elected to the FIFA Council on Saturday by the Asian Football Confederation. Tashima was one of the seven candidates up for election by the AFC Congress for five of its six seats on the FIFA council. The 61-year-old Tashima ...
The Japan national men's team will host an international friendly against Trinidad and Tobago on June 5, the Japan Football Association said Friday. The friendly at Toyota Stadium in Aichi Prefecture is likely to be the Samurai Blue's last match before departing for the Copa ...
The Japan Football Association on Tuesday named FC Tokyo midfielder Kento Hashimoto to replace the injured Hidemasa Morita on the men's national squad for upcoming international friendlies against Colombia and Bolivia. Kawasaki Frontale defensive midfielder Morita has withdrawn from the 23-man squad for the friendlies ...
Japan will warm up for this summer's FIFA Women's World Cup with a friendly against host France in April, the Japan Football Association said Tuesday. Nadeshiko Japan will face France on April 4 at Stade de l'Abbe-Deschamps in Auxerre. World No. 8 Japan has won ...
