Team Data: Ventforet Kofu
Team Name:
Team Logo & Mascot:  
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Home Uniform Away Uniform
 
Home Stadium
Seats 17,000
Team Data:
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Management Corporation: | Ventforet Yamanashi Sports Club Inc. | |
Established: | 7 February 1997
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President: | Kazuyuki Umino
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Investors: | Consortium 252 individuals, 85 organisations and companies, including Sannichi YBS Group,Yamanashi Prefecture, Kofu City and Nirasaki City | |
Address: | 2-6-10 Kitaguchi, Kofu City,
Yamanashi 400-8545 | |
Hometown Area: | 30 cities/towns including Kofu City and Nirasaki City, Yamanashi Prefecture | |
Home Stadium: | Kose Sports Stadium (capacity: 13,000) | |
Joined J. League: | 1999 |
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 | Van-kun
As we mention in our recap of the team's history, Ventforet did not have an official mascot when it first joined the league, and for a while, the role of mascot was taken by "Mr. Baghead". But after the team rebounded from the gloom of its early years in the J2, there was naturally a desire on the part of team officials to banish memories of Mr. Baghead once and for all. In 2006, the team finally unveiled an official mascot named "Van", based on a famous local breed known as a "Kai dog". Van seems to have caught on, and though some old-timers still have fond memories of Mr. Baghead, most supporters have gone to the dogs.
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The story of Ventforet Kofu, and its remarkable revival from J2 doormat and laughing stock of the J.League to Cinderella-like storybook heroes will occupy the annals of J.League history and folklore for decades. And though we still have no idea how the story will "end", the team's victory in the 2005 promotion-relegation series has already provided a climax that is as amazing and uplifting as any Steven Speilberg action thriller. The team that joined the J1 for the 2006 season not only comes from the smallest town to host a J.League franchise, but also "boasts" (by a huge margin) the smallest budget ever for a J1 team. As "valiant underdog" or "David & Goliath" stories go, you cant get any better than this one.
Ventforet Kofu spent the first three seasons of its existence in a purgatory of dismal on-field performance, dreadful finances and laughable levels of fan support. Those fans who did show up were a brave lot indeed, as the team remained dead last in the J2 league table for 30 consecutive months, setting records for most losses, worst goal difference, and lowest attendance ever for an official J.League match (351 sad supporters showed up for a match at Niirasaki Stadium, in 2001).
Ventforet Kofu got its start in 1965, when several former members of the Kofu High School football team formed a club team known as Kofu Soccer Club. The team entered the JSL second division, and registered a reasonably good performance over the years, gradually climbing into the first division of the former JFL. In 1995, the team name was changed to Ventforet Kofu, from the French for "windy forest". The team takes its name from a famous saying of the regional warlord Takeda Shingen, whose chose as his motto the characters which mean "wind, forest, fire, mountain". This was an abbreviation of a Chinese phrase taking from Sun Tsu's "The Art of War", describing the qualities possessed by the ideal warrior. Loosely translated it means "As elusive as the wind, as silent as the forest, as overwhelming as fire, as immovable as the mountain."
The choice of a famed 15th century warlord might be considered a brash and defiant statement. But then, one needs to remember that Takeda Shingen is best remembered for fighting an endless number of totally inconclusive battles against the most powerful foes of his time, creating lots of chaos and bloodshed, and yet never winning a single conclusive victory. He died of a lung ailment (possibly tuberculosis) on his way to the most important battle of his era, and following their subsequent defeat, his entire family was either forced to commit seppuku, or sold into slavery in the wilds of northern Hokkaido. True to this great legacy, Ventforet Kofu quickly became a paragon of valiant failure.
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Indeed, the embarassing performances of the team prior to 2002 earned Ventforet -- which did not have an official mascot at the time -- an unofficial fan mascot, in the so-called "baghead". When The Rising Sun News was preparing the team pages for each team, in 2001, we decided that if a team did not have an official mascot , we would fill the "mascot" spot in our Team Data section with an unofficial mascot of our own design (examples include not only Ventforet, but also Montedio Yamagata and Tokushima Vortis). Considering Ventforet's embarassingly poor performance, we could think of no better choice of mascot than the "baghead" -- a Ventforet fan with a paper bag over their head to avoid the shame of being seen supporting the pathetically poor team. Therefore, we included a picture of this "unofficial mascot" (right) at the top of our Ventforet Kofu team page. As it so happened, oOe group of local fans happened to see the Rising Sun News' "mascot", and enjoyed the self-mocking irony so much that they actually began showing up at matches with paper bags over their heads.
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After winning just 20 matches in its first three years, and finishing dead last in the league every time, with a combined goal difference (over 120 matches) of MINUS 166, Ventforet was on the brink of financial collapse. The city council of Kofu held a meeting to decide whether or not to bail out the team, and by a margin of just a single vote, agreed to offer financial support to the club, provided it could move to at least the middle of the league table within two years.
But in 2002, things began to change rapidly. After three years of paper bags, Ventforet finally started to show signs of becoming a . . . well . . . . a rather mediocre team. Picking up financial support from (of all places) a professional magician named "Princess Tenko", Ventforet began to display some magic on the football pitch as well. Though the team remained small and poorly funded, former NT assistant coach Takeshi Oki introduced a strategy that sought to use constant pressure and tireless ball pursuit to help neutralise the team's disadvantage in technical skill. The gritty determination of the players and rising levels of local support began to transform the tiny club into something of a real contender. Furthremore, Shimizu S-Pulse began farming out young prospects and borderline players to Kofu, in what has begun to resemble a "farm team" relationship, giving Ventforet the talent needed to make a run at some of the big clubs.
With their team suddenly looking respectable, fans took the paper bags off their heads, and began to offer Ventforet some of the most enthusiastic and vocal support in the J2. The small size of their home town limited the actual numbers, but few other teams could match the local fan clubs for their fanaticism and "noise ratio". In both 2003 and 2004, Ventforet put on a strong run early in the season, based on the sheer athletic energy of its core players and the scoring contributions of one or two talented strikers (Marcelo "Baron" Polanczyk, Takafumi Ogura and "Bare" Spindler have each filled the position of "designated scorer" at one time or another). Both times, Ventforet ultimately collapsed down the stretch to finish around the middle of the table, but the valiant effort, even in defeat, began to reflect very much the character of Kofu's departed warlord, Takeda Shingen.
The 2005 season began very much like the previous two. Ventforet's aggressive and tireless running allowed them to pile up some wins early in the season, and the scoring of Bare Spindler allowed the team to even capture some points from top opponents. As the year-end approached, the team still had an outside chaince of claiming a promotion spot. The entusiasm among both players and local fans was infectious, and the longer their hopes remained alive, the harder the players ran. With three matches remaining, though, it looked like their dream was about to die once again. Needing three points to keep their chances of claiming third-place alive, Ventforet found themselves one goal down to Consadole, at Sapporo Dome, and the clock was winding down towards the 90 minute mark.
But in true storybook fashion, the team claimed an equaliser just as the clock moved into extra time. Rushing against the clock, they put the ball back in play and remarkably scored the winner a few seconds later. The Cinderella story continued, and the enthusiasm was palpable. In the final match of the season, a victory over J2 champions Kyoto Purple Sanga clinched third place, and put Ventforet into a promotion-relegation series against Kashiwa Reysol. Once again, the combination of enthusiasm, tireless pressure and the potent scoring ability of Bare carried the underdogs to victory, and in heroic fashion, Ventforet earned promotion to the J1 in 2006.
Once the remarkable success of 2005 is in the history books, the team was forced to assume what seemed like an even more impossible task. Ventforet simply does not have a large enough budget to afford the talent that most J1 clubs take for granted. Indeed, the team's budget for 2006 -- about 1.5 billion yen -- was less than half that of the second smallest J1 team. Like the ill-fated Takeda family of the 15th century, Ventforet was forced to go into battle against the strongest warlords in the land with a vastly outnumbered army. Considering their situation, Ventforet was hard-pressed just to avoid relegation. But the never-say-die attitude of players and fans alike surprised a lot of people, and the team earned grudging respect from neutral fans and the mainstream press. Against the odds, the team managed to escape the drop in 2006, while the increasing their crowds and revenues from ticket receipts as well. Unfortunately, the 2007 season brought the result that everyone assumed wold befall the team in 2006. Outmanned though never outhustled, Ventforet fought an unsuccessful battle against relegation, and returned to the J2 in 2008.
While they are still a clear underdog, even in the J2, the fighting spirit of Takeda Shingen certainly is alive in Yamanashi, and with a bit of luck, the team will be able to reorganize and prepare for another charge at promotion. Though it still lacks any meaningful corporate support, now that the team has attracted a stronger local following, they may have the finances required to compete against some of the other top promotion candidates.
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National Team
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