Who is the J. league's Most Successful Club? 2010 Update

Barry writes:

Yes, we're all bored stiff of the closed season and waiting for the fixtures to come out, so in the mean time, here's a follow-up of my post two years back. The original post was inspired, as the subtitle "Debunking the Urawa Myth" suggests, by a stunningly inaccurate soundbite by Daily Yomiuri journalist Shintaro Kano.

Mercifully, his piece, in which he stated the Saitama Reds to be the most successful team in the J. League, has since been removed from the Yomiuri pages it blighted. But in it's wake it left my article and the points system I contrived as a gauge to success in Japanese club football.

Two years have passed since then, so it's time for an update to include 09 and 10's trophy distribution. As before, the system is as follows:

League title - 3 Points
League runner's up - 1 Point

Cup win - 2 Points
Cup runner's up - .5 Points

Continental cups are counted, but show-piece super cups aren't. So without further ado, here's the rankings of the top performing clubs since the professionalisation of the game in 1992:

1) Kashima Antlers 37.5
2) Jubilo Iwata 23
3) Yokohama F. Marinos 18
4) Tokyo Verdy 18
5) Urawa Red Diamonds 15
6) Gamba Osaka 13
7) S-Pulse 10.5
8) Nagoya Grampus 9
9) Kawasaki Frontale 4.5
10) JEF United 4.5
11) FC Tokyo 4
--) Shonan Bellmare 4

After this, we're into the realm of one-time cup winners, as per Oita Trinita.

So the biggest change, apart from Kashima extending their already substantial lead at the top, is the jump of Nagoya to 9 points from 5.5 following their league win and Emperor's cup silver medal.

S-Pulse sneak an extra .5 after yet another cup final failure, and Gamba Osaka continue their accumulation of points to make up ground on the historic powerhouses of Iwata and Verdy. Of the current top ten, I'd reckon no more than four are likely to win the league title any time soon, so give it a few years and some of the former big guns may finally be challenged.

It's probably not even worth mentioning, but Japan's "most successful club" neither managed a top two finish or made any cup finals in the last two years (nor did they in 2008).

Purely in terms of titles won, the top five teams read as follows:

1) Kashima Antlers 14
2) Tokyo Verdy 7
-) Yokohama F. Marinos 7 (Not including titles won by Flügels)
-) Jubilo Iwata 7
5) Gamba Osaka 6

So there you have it. Kashima Antlers still head, shoulders, and most other body parts ahead of the rest. I can only imagine how much fun their fans have had over the years. The legacy of Verdy still casts a big shadow over most teams, and Yokohama's glory years were such that few others can yet match them. Jubilo Iwata, to the chagrin of all right thinking people, are still at the higher reaches of both tables. Credit where it's due, they've won a shit load of stuff in the past. They're still scum though, obviously.

Be sure to tune back in next year to see how the slowest league table in football progresses!

Who is the Most Successful Club in the J. League? Debunking the Urawa Myth

Barry writes:

Ask 100 fans the above question, and, after factoring out personal allegiances which sway people's responses, you'll always get the answer Kashima Antlers.

Even newcomers to Japanese football will know how they last year defended their 2007 league title; a crown claimed along with the 07 Emperor's Cup. That alone paints a fairly clear picture of the modern J. League, but how about over the full course of the league's history?

Using a totally arbitrary system conceived by yours truly while down the gym, lets find out! Going back as far as the professionalisation of the game in 1992, teams are awarded:

League title - 3 Points
League runner's up - 1 Point

Cup win - 2 Points
Cup runner's up - .5 Points

Cup points count for both domestic and continental competitions. Show-piece games like super cups and so on aren't counted. So using that system, here we go:

Kashima Antlers 32.5
Jubilo Iwata 21
Yokohama F. Marinos 18
Tokyo Verdy 18
Urawa Red Diamonds 15
Gamba Osaka 10
S-Pulse 10
Yokohama Flugels 6.5
Nagoya Grampus 5.5
JEF United 4.5
Shonan Bellmare 4

Beyond that you start getting into the realms of (so far) one-off cup winners (Oita) or several time cup runners up (Cerezo).

No surprises at the top of the table, then. Kashima are head and shoulders above all comers. Jubilo are up next, and while their time came and went a few years ago, it reflects well the various J. League records they set and which still stand. Marinos always threaten to reclaim, at least in part, their glory days, but it's probably safe to say that Verdy are well past their best. S-Pulse come in far-too-far-below-Jubilo at 6th, joint with Asian Champions Gamba.

So anyway, what made me want to spell out the above? Most people don't need proof for what's self evident. Some people however, a good example being Shintaro Kano of The Daily Yomiuri, seem to be living on another planet.

In an article bemoaning the lack of fight of many Japanese fans, Kano signs off with this absolute gem:

"Is it a coincidence that the fans of Urawa Reds, the most successful club in the J.League, are the toughest to please?"

Is this a well disguised tongue-in-cheek dig at the perpetual Urawa hype-machine, or does he actually believe it? We've already seen it isn't the case, but worse that that, it's not anywhere close to reality. Even if you dispense with my convoluted points system and look at titles won, Kashima come in first with 12, Verdy and Marinos next with 7, followed by Jubilo with 6. Only then do you get to Urawa, sitting level with Gamba at 5.

Average league placings put Kashima first (3.3), Jubilo next (4.5), then Marinos (4.9). S-Pulse pull in a respectable 6.8, and it's only after this that you get to Reds. Last year's finish of 7th should be no big surprise; it's perfectly in keeping with their J1 average - also 7th.

I think what Kano meant to write was:

"...fans of Urawa Reds, the most successful club in the J.League in 2005 and 2006 (but don't look either side of these years as other teams were winning more), are the hardest to please?"

The problem is, that doesn't back up his underlying point of unforgiving fans = successful team, so he seemingly plucked something out of thin air to lend credence to the theory.

Urawa are a big, strong team. They have more money than anyone else, and they've had the potential to deliver for years. This is all common knowledge, but save for a brief burst a few seasons ago, they've consistently failed to produce. Given everything, you'd have to be pretty blind to keep peddling the myth of "most successful team".

Shintaro Kano is guilty of lazy, not to mention entirely inaccurate, "journalism". Re-writing history to suit your own ends? That's how dictators get started, you know.