We would like to inform you that our club's U-23 team's withdrawal from the 2020 Meiji Yasuda J3 League has been approved by the J.League Board of Directors.
Reason for Declining Participation
・Stadium availability is difficult
There are limited stadiums available for use in the J3 League in Tokyo. Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection, sports activities will be resumed as a whole in the future. However, the J-League has been unable to hold a significant number of matches for approximately four months, including those affected by the Olympics and Paralympics. As a result, there is a need to play many matches in a short period of time. Additionally, there is a possibility that the schedule will be congested not only for the J-League but also for other organizations such as the Nadeshiko, social, university, and high school soccer. This may lead to a shortage of available stadiums.
In Tokyo, we are using AJINOMOTO FIELD NISHIGAOKA, Komazawa Olympic Park Stadium, and Yumenoshima Stadium, but it is anticipated that securing stadiums will become very difficult due to overlapping schedules with other sports organizations as well as the impact of the Olympics and Paralympics.
□ Comment from Naoki Okane, President and CEO
"Since the 2016 season, we have formed a U-23 team as a developmental club with the aim of accelerating development and bottom-up growth, and participated in the J3 League. This season was to be the final year, but due to the reasons mentioned above, we have decided to withdraw. Given the changes in schedules for various sports due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become difficult to secure stadiums, and although it is regrettable, we made this decision. We would like to continue to move forward without stopping as a developmental club. We sincerely apologize for the great inconvenience this has caused to all J3 clubs and related parties at this timing of our withdrawal.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to all the officials of the J.League and the officials of each club in J3 who approved our participation, even though it was a short period of four years.
