The was the seventh season of the nationwide fourth tier of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, 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 The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. On March 16, it was announced match day 3 would be postponed. On March 25, it was announced Match day 4, Match day 5 would be postponed. On April 7, it was announced Match day 6 would also be postponed. 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. 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.

Clubs

Sixteen clubs featured in this season of Japan Football League. There were some changes:

FC Imabari FC Imabari (''FC今治'') is a Japanese football club based in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture. They play in the J3 League. History The club was founded in 1976 and were promoted to the Shikoku Football League in 2001. From 2009 to 2011 they were own ...

got promoted to J3, after finishing third in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, while Ryutsu Keizai Dragons was relegated after playing for five seasons at this level. Matsue City FC, who finished second-last place, were fated to go back to

Japanese Regional Leagues are a group of parallel association football leagues in Japan that are organized on the regional basis. They form the fifth tier of the Japanese association football league system below the nationwide Japan Football League. Overview Japan is ...

as well, but avoided the drop thanks to FC Imabari going up to

J3 League or simply J3 is the third division of . It was established in 2013 as the third-tier professional association football league in Japan. The third-tier nationwide league is a relatively recent development in Japanese football with a first attempt ...

. 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 is a football (soccer) club based in Iwaki, a city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The club will play in J2 League from 2023 season, which is the 2nd level in the Japanese football pyramid. History Founder Club Iwaki FC was founded in 20 ...

dominated the final stage, while Kochi United SC overcame the other two teams –

Ococias Kyoto AC Ococias Kyoto AC ( ja, おこしやす京都AC) is a Japanese football club based in Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture. The club split off from the original ''Kyoto Shiko Club'' when it professionalized and became today's Kyoto Sanga FC. The club now f ...

and

Fukui United FC is a football (soccer) club based in Fukui, the capital city of Fukui Prefecture in Japan. They play in the Hokushinetsu Football League, which is part of Japanese Regional Leagues. They were founded in 2019 to take the place of their dissolved ...

– to get the final spot for this seasons JFL.

Personnel and kits

League table

Top scorers

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

on November 24, 2020, after Miyazaki finished in the top four positions. Miyazaki ultimately finished runners-up.

FC Tiamo Hirakata is a football (soccer) club based in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture in Japan. They currently play in the Japan Football League, the Japanese fourth tier of football league. History Founded in 2004 by the will of three former Gamba Osaka player ...

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

23 games played with no spectators due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

worldwide pandemic

References

External links

Official website
{{Japanese Club Football, group=fourth Japan Football League seasons 3 JFL