Team Data: Yokohama FC
Team Name:
Team Logo & Mascot:  
Team Flag:
Home Uniform Away Uniform
 
Home StadiumYokohama Mitsuzawa Stadium
Seats 15,050
Team Data:
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Management Corporation: | Yokohama Fulie Sports Club Co., Ltd. | |
Established: | 12 December 1998
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President: | Yasuhiko Okudera
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Investors: | Nisso Corp., Sekido Co., Ltd..,Bosch K.K., SSK Corp. | |
Address: | Green Bill Kozukue 3F,
2565-2 Kozukue-cho, Kohoku-ku,
Yokohama, Kanagawa 222-0036 | |
Hometown Area: | Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture | |
Home Stadium: | Yokohama Mitsuzawa Stadium (capacity: 15,046) | |
Joined J. League: | 1992 | |
Major Titles: | J.League Champions: 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001
Nabisco Cup: 1997, 2000, 2002
Emperor's Cup: 1997, 2000
Xerox Super Cup: 1997, 1998, 1999
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 | Tobimaru Returns?
At present, Yokohama FC does not have a mascot. However, since the Flugels were disbanded there has been a fairly large contingent of former Flugels fans who treasure the belief that the team's original mascot, "Tobimaru" would be resurrected once the team returned to the J1. The team's promotion to the J1 in 2007 completes the recovery that began in 1999, and this may be a moment of reckoning. Many newer fans have no sentimental attachment to the old wing-capped beagle, and there could be a clash of "generations" in the debate over whether to bring Tobimaru back. Only time will tell
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Yokohama FC have chosen an apt symbol as their team mark. Like the phoenix, this team really did arise from the ashes to live again. Yokohama FC was reformed in 1998 by the fan club of the former Yokohama Flugels, a relatively successful J.League team that was suddenly abandoned by its corporate sponsors. The Flugels were a very popular team, and ranked fairly high in the standings of the J.League. The team featured such well-known players as Cesar Sampaio and Zinho, as well as national team goalkeeper Seigo Narazaki and past national team members Atsuhiro Miura, Hideki Nagai and Motohiro Yamaguchi.
Yet despite its great tradition, in 1998 the team's sponsors, Sato Kogyo and All Nippon Airways, announced suddenly that they were disbanding the team and selling all of the players to cross-town rival Yokohama Marinos.It is hard to describe the shock and anger of the Flugels fans, who were asked by the clueless corporate bosses (with a straight face) to switch their support to the Marinos. Perhals the best comparison would be if Tottenham Hotspur fans were suddenly asked to convert to being Arsenal supporters, or long-time fans of the New York Mets being asked to root for the Yankees.
It goes without saying that the fan clubs revolted. However, the backlash was far more powerful and emotional than anyone could have expected, particularly in traditionally peaceful, stoic Japan. Flugels fans vented their fury on the team sponsors, and even briefly took over the corporate offices of ANA while demanding that the team be revived. The national news media woke up to the story with as much shock as the corporate suits, but the story had momentum and soon the Flugels fan club revolt was all over the airwaves.
In the end, despite the powerful grassroots support for the team, the best the fan clubs were able to achieve was to convince the Japan Football Association to register them as a new JFL franchise. Fortunately, the team had won widespread popularity and publicity as a result of the fan revolt. Many of the players who were not good enough to get big contracts with J.League clubs, but were nevertheless good enough to play in the J2 or as reserve players on a J1 squad opted to stay with the team instead. Former German World Cup captain Pierre Littbarsky agreed to serve as coach, and a cable TV channel offered to broadcast all of their matches. The combination of fan loyalty and high publicity was enough to support a team that was far above JFL standards.
League rules demand that a JFL team finish in second place or better for two seasons in a row in order to win promotion to the J2. For this reason, the road back to the J.League has been long and slow for Yokohama FC. However, the team has not wasted its opportunities. Yokohama FC not only won the league championship in its first two years in existence, but in 2000 the team finished undefeated, with 19 wins and two draws for the season. As a result, the team won promotion to the J2 for the 2001 season.
Unfortunately, that was the end of the Phoenix fable. Since rejoining the J2, Yokohama FC have struggled to remain competitive, and in 2002 the team finished dead last in the division. Fan support could only remain stalwart for so long, and with so little to cheer about, the team's supporters are slowly beginning to drift away. In 2004, Pierre Littbarsky returned to coach the team for a second stint, and his presence offered enough of a boost to morale that they moved into the upper half of the league table for a while, and were even in position to claim one of the three potential promotion slots. But the phoenix burned out too soon, and slipped to a disappointing eighth place in the final standings. Since then, things have deteriorated even further
Yokohama FC now find themselves in a difficult spot: as the permanent second-best team in Yokohama, its fan base is slowly disappearing. It was never going to be easy for a second division club to compete for loyalties in the same city the J1 champions, but there have been many self-inflicted wounds as well. Yokohama FC has virtually no hope of winning matches unless the team can start attracting fans and thus making money. But it is hard to attract fans unless the team is winning.
One idea that the team is now trying out involves the signing of players who were big stars in their heyday, but who have now reached the point where no other team wants to offer them a contract. During the course of 2005, Yokohama signed Kazu Miura -- a move that attracted both media interest from the fanboy contingent and scorn from football purists -- as well as Yasunori Takada, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki, Motohiro Yamaguchi and Tetsuro Uki. With Shoji Jo and Kazuki Sato already on the roster, the team is beginning to look like the guest list for a reunion of players from the1994 national team. Ten years ago, this lineup would have had an outside chance of finishing near the top of the J1, but the uestion was whether they still had the energy, a decade later, to produce a J2 promotion run. At first, things did not look good, with the team losing its opening match of 2006 and immediately firing the coach. But over the course of the season, the addition of a few youngsters to provide the energy tho go with the veterans' experience, Yokohama FC finally achieved its goal, and will return to the J1 in 2007, after a nine-year "resurrection"
Naturally, the dramatic history that underlies Yokohama FC earned the team a lot of sympathy, and the Rising Sun News is certainly a strong supporter of the "old guard" of former Flugels fans. But the reality is that the "Resurrected Flugels" saga ended when Yokohama FC regained a spot in the J2. Many of the team's supporters today are people with no real memory of the Flugels era, and we think there may be a bit of a "tug of war" for the team's soul, over the coming years. Despite the thrill of finally achieving promotion in 2007, and an even greater celebration when FC defeated the Marinos in the first Yokohama Derby match since the reorganization, the team simply did not have the quality required to compete in the top-flight, and they clinched relegation in record time.
As they return to the J2 in 2008, we suspect that the team will be starting an entirely new chapter, leaving memories of the former Flugels behind, once and for all. The last remaining players from the Flugels era, Motohiro Yamaguchi and Atsuhiro Miura, have hinted at retirement, which would draw a line under the Flugels saga as anything other than a historical curiosity. Nevertheless, Yokohama FC have proven that they can thrive in Yokohama, even in the shadow of the Marinos, so perhaps it is for the best that they turn their gaze away from the past and towards a new future as Yokohama's "second team".
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National Team
Overseas Players
