The , also known as the AS Flügels, was a Japanese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club that played in the J.League between

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

. The club was an original member ("Original Ten") of the J.League in 1993. In

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

, the club merged with local rivals Yokohama Marinos to become Yokohama F. Marinos. However, many Flügels fans refused to support the new combined effort and created their own club,

Yokohama FC is a Japanese professional football club based in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club was formed by fans of Yokohama Flügels as a protest against Flügels' merger with Yokohama Marinos in 1999, becoming th ...

History

The club was originally the company team of

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is a Japanese airline headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. ANA operates services to both domestic and international destinations and is Japan's largest airline, ahead of its main rival flag carrier Japan Airlines. the airline has approximate ...

. For a time they were billed as ''Yokohama TriStar SC'', but the aftermath of the Lockheed-ANA bribery scandal ensured that ANA stuck to their own name as they were pushing for promotion to the

Japan Soccer League ; JSL) was the top flight association football league in Japan between 1965 and 1992, and was the precursor to the current professional league, the J.League. JSL Cup, JSL was the second national league of a team sport in Japan after the professi ...

from the regional Kanto Football League in the early 1980s. They were promoted to the JSL's Second Division in 1984 and immediately made an impact, being promoted to First Division as runner-up. Despite being relegated at the first attempt in 1985, they bounced back up again in 1987 and would never leave the top flight until their demise. The club's name, adopted upon professionalization for the J.League, sprang from the German word '' Flügel'', meaning ''wing'' or ''wings'' ("Flügels" is an

anglicised Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

plural, where the original German word has only one form which can both represent singular and plural). The name points to the club's former sponsor. For a time it was billed as AS Flügels, with the initials of both sponsors, ANA and Sato Labs, forming an initialism that resembled the Italian and French initials for "Sporting Association" (''Associazione Sportiva'' and ''Association Sportive''). Despite never winning either the JSL or J.League title, they were top contenders from the late 1980s through its last game, and won several accolades at home and abroad, including the

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or Japan FA Cup, and rebranded as The JFA Emperor's Cup from 2024 onwards, is a Japanese annual football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football tournament in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formatio ...

, the Asian Cup Winners' Cup and the Asian Super Cup. In 1998, Sato Labs announced that it was pulling its financial support of the club. However, instead of simply dissolving the club or finding another investor, ANA, the team's other chief sponsor, met with

Nissan Motors is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and '' Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house performance tuning ...

, the primary sponsor of crosstown rivals Yokohama Marinos, and announced that the two Yokohama clubs would merge, with Flügels players joining the Marinos. Although the "F" added to the new club name, "Yokohama F. Marinos" is meant to represent the merger of the two clubs, Flügels supporters rejected the merger. Instead, the supporter club followed the ''socio'' model used by

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and founded

, the first professional Japanese football club owned and operated by its members. On 1 January 1999, Flügels won their final match, the 1998 Emperor's Cup Final against

Shimizu S-Pulse is a Japanese professional association football, football club located in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka (city), Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture. S-Pulse is going to compete in the J1 League for the 2025 Season, after winning promotio ...

, 2–1. Due to their merger, however, Shimizu took their place in the 1999 Japanese Super Cup and the subsequent Asian Cup Winners' Cup, with S-Pulse winning the latter against Iraqi club Al-Zawraa 1–0. Flügels were the second club to withdraw from the Japanese top flight and fold and the first since

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

, when Eidai Industries from

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). ...

was closed down by its parent company due to rising costs of maintaining a top-flight team.

Record as J.League member

;Key *Pos. = Position in league *Attendance/G = Average league attendancë

Kit evolution

Honours

Mascot

Yokohama Flugels' mascot was a

flying squirrel Flying squirrels (scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini) are a tribe (biology), tribe of 50 species of squirrels in the family (biology), family Squirrel, Sciuridae. Despite their name, they are not in fact capable of full flight i ...

named Tobimaru. He currently is displayed in the Japan Football Museum after the Flugels were dissolved. He wore the team's kit, and had wings that were cyan and white. He also wore an aviator helmet.

Anthem

The Flugels' anthem was a remix and relyricing of the song Victory by Japanese rock band The Alfee.

History

Record as J.League member

Kit evolution

Honours

Mascot

Anthem

See also

Notes

References

Further reading