Team Name: Team Logo & Mascot: Home Stadium* *RKU plays its home matches at a number of venues in the greater Tokyo area, though Ryugasaki Stadium hosts more than any other

As a general rule, club in the JFL fall into one of two categories, in terms of their organisation and financing. On the one hand, there are the corporate teams, which are bankrolled and staffed by the parent company, whether it be Honda FC, Mitsubishi Mizushima or members of the Sagawa Group. These teams receive their backing, as well as most of their players, from a parent company from which they may or may not be legally independent. Alternatively, there are what one might describe as "community-based" sides such as Tochigi SC, SC Tottori and FC Kariya, whose development depends on their success in attracting support from the local area, including relationships with local government and sponsorship from a range of local business organizations. Built into the playoff system which selects clubs for promotion to the JFL, however, is the possibility for a third type of team to find a place among the elite teams in Japan's semi-professional league. In most years, the All-Nippon University Football Association nominates a candidate from amongst its members to participate in the Annual Nationwide Regional League Championship Tournament, alongside eleven teams from the nine Regional Leagues (though this did NOT happen at the end of 2005). Previous examples of university sides that have made it into the JFL are Shizuoka Industrial University and the Tokyo-based Kokushikan University. In 2004, after participating in the JFL for nearly a decade, Kokushikan U. brought disgrace to itself, and to the JFL by association, when several members of the team were arrested and later convicted for an incident which, effectively, amounted to gang-rape. The JFA (which administers the JFL) took immediate action, banning the University from all competitions, and tossing them unceremoniously out of the JFL. At the time, there was serious discussion of eliminating University participation in the JFL altogether. However, before this idea could gain momentum, another University club followed rather unexpectedly in the footsteps of Kokushikan U.

Ibaraki-based Ryutsu Keizai University (University of Transportation Economics), or RKU for short, advanced to the JFL not through the regular Prefectural and Regional League structure, but via the parallel structure of college football, which is administered independently by the All-Nippon University Football Association . The university leage is generally separate from the Prefectural and Regional league structure, up to the point of the nationwide play-offs. Indeed, apart from Japan Soccer College, a sports-education school affiliated with Albirex Niigata, there is only one current example of a University team taking part in the Regional Leagues: Chukyo University, in the Tokai League.

RKU was formed in 1965, and entered the Ibaraki Prefecture University League, but it was not until the late 1990s that things really started to happen for the club. The appointment in 1998 of former Mito Hollyhock boss Yuji Nakano was the catalyst got RKU's develpment, and later in the same year, his team gained promotion to the Kanto University League Division 2. They were immediately relegated back to prefectural level, but by the end of 2001 RKU had battled their way through the playoffs into the Kanto University League once again.

Nakano's outfit quickly adjusted to their second taste of regional football. Just two years later, in 2003, they won the Division 2 title and were promoted to Division 1, and at the end of their first successful season in Division 1, RKU were put forward by the All-Nippon University FA as the University League representative in the playoffs for a JFL spot. In the First Round of the playoffs, corporate side TDK Akita and the military men of the Kanto League's MSDF Atsugi Markus proved no match for the students from Ibaraki, and the following week, after a 3-1 win in their final match against Luminozo Sayama, RKU had earned a surprise promotion.

Making their JFL debut in 2005, RKU picked up most of their points in matches with fellow strugglers Mitsubishi Mizushima, Honda Lock and Denso. The highlight of their season was a 3-2 win in October over the wildly inconsistent FC Horikoshi. But for the majority of the year, the team were rooted to thirteenth position - fourth from bottom and a long way behind the next weakest team, SC Tottori. The problem, looking ahead, is that several of these clubs are likely to have the resources to put in improved performances. Moreover, the three newly-promoted sides will all have the resources to cope far better with the higher standard of football than did the newcomers of 2005. The task for Ryutsu Keizai University -- slogan: "Better Luck Next Time" -- is simply to try to remain competitive at this level, as the make up of the JFL changes around them.

Though the memory of the Kokushikan scandal has faded somewhat, there are still many powerful people in JFA and J.League circles who would prefer to make a clear division between schoolboy football and the amateur / quasi-amateur leagues. As noted above, there was no University League candidate in the Annual Nationwide Regional League Championship Tournament at the end of 2005 (a lingering reprecussion from the Kokushikan scandal), and there has been pressure from some quarters to eliminate this path to the JFL altogether. In that sense, RKU is carrying the flag for all universities. Only if the team continues to perform reasonably well, both on and off the field, is there a chance that the JFA will preserve this traditional opportunity for university teams to take part in the JFL. This suggests that RKU needs to avoid relegation for another year or two, at the least. Considering the level of competition they now face, that could prove to be too great a challenge for the Ibaraki schoolboys.

Ryutsu Keizai University -- Team Roster for 2008

.	Pos.	Name	Birth Date	Height	Weight	Birthplace
1	GK	Akihiro Hayashi	1987/05/07	192	82	Chiba
2	DF	Jiro Kamata	1985/07/28	179	68	Tokyo
3	MF	Yuta Someya	1986/09/30	183	71	Tokyo
4	DF	Masaki Iida	1985/09/15	185	80	Ibaraki
5	DF	Hideyuki Akai	1985/05/02	172	62	Chiba
6	DF	Tomohiko Miyazaki	1986/11/21	172	64	Tokyo
7	MF	Akihito Kusunose	1986/12/04	171	61	Kochi
8	MF	Hironori Nishi	1987/02/25	168	58	Kumamoto
9	FW	Kei Ikeda	1986/10/20	178	72	Ibaraki
10	MF	Ryoki Hiraki	1986/10/17	173	67	Chiba
11	FW	Hideaki Takeda	1985/05/22	168	65	Gunma
12	FW	Yohei Tamura	1986/04/02	170	62	Tokyo
13	MF	Takanori Chiaki	1987/07/19	165	60	Tokyo
14	MF	Jun Kinkubo	1987/07/26	170	62	Ibaraki
15	FW	Takayuki Funayama	1987/05/06	170	64	Chiba
16	DF	Masahiko Sawaguchi	1985/07/22	174	74	Ibaraki
17	MF	Yuta Mikado	1986/12/26	174	68	Ibaraki
18	DF	Hiroki Kato	1986/07/31	192	72	Kanagawa
19	MF	Kota Gima	1985/05/27	165	58	Okinawa
20	FW	Jang Ju-ku	1987/08/10	184	82	Korea
21	GK	Wataru Iizuka	1985/07/31	183	70	Shizuoka
22	GK	Yusuke Fujita	1985/04/27	181	75	Shizuoka
23	DF	Takuya Takei	1986/01/25	177	68	Saitama
24	FW	Naoaki Takihara	1985/10/16	181	75	Hyogo
25	MF	Takashi Sato	1986/04/05	174	65	Chiba
26	DF	Yang Sok-Won	1985/05/19	192	84	Chiba
27	DF	Daitoku Ishikawa	1988/01/06	170	63	Ibaraki
28	DF	Kunihiro Yamashita	1986/05/29	182	82	Chiba
29	MF	Ryuta Hosogai	1988/01/18	174	66	Chiba
30	DF	Sho Konishi	1987/07/01	172	64	Mie

Match Schedule for 2008

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Mar 16	RKU	vs	Mitsubishi Mizushima	Kashima Stadium
Mar 20	Gainare Tottori	vs	RKU	Tottori Bird Stadium
Mar 23	RKU	vs	TDK SC	Kashima Stadium
Mar 29	Sagawa Printing	vs	RKU	Nishikyogoku Stadium
Apr 5	RKU	vs	Sony Sendai	Hitachidai Stadium
Apr 13	RKU	vs	Mio Biwako	Hitachinaka Stadium
Apr 20	JEF Club	vs	RKU	Hitachidai Stadium
Apr 27	RKU	vs	Tochigi SC	Kashima Stadium
May 3	Yokogawa Musashino	vs	RKU	Musashino Stadium
May 6	RKU	vs	Honda FC	Ryugasaki Stadium
May 11	Kataller Toyama	vs	RKU	Gofuku Stadium
May 18	RKU	vs	Sagawa Shiga	Ryugasaki Stadium
May 25	New Wave Kitakyushu	vs	RKU	Honjo Stadium
Jun 1	RKU	vs	Fagiano Okayama	Ryugasaki Stadium
Jun 7	Arte Takasaki	vs	RKU	Gunma Stadium
Jun 15	RKU	vs	FC Ryukyu	Ryugasaki Stadium
Jun 22	FC Kariya	vs	RKU	Kariya Stadium
Jun 29	Mitsubishi Mizushima	vs	RKU	Kasaoka Stadium
Jul 6	Mio Biwako	vs	RKU	Konan Stadium
Jul 13	RKU	vs	JEF Club	Ryugasaki Stadium
Jul 19	Tochigi SC	vs	RKU	Tochigi Green Stadium
Jul 27	RKU	vs	Yokogawa Musashino	Ryugasaki Stadium
Aug 2	Honda FC	vs	RKU	Miyakoda Stadium
Aug 10	RKU	vs	Kataller Toyama	Ryugasaki Stadium
Aug 17	Sagawa Shiga	vs	RKU	Sagawa Moriyama Std.
Sep 7	RKU	vs	New Wave Kitakyushu	Ryugasaki Stadium
Oct 5	Fagiano Okayama	vs	RKU	Tsuyama Stadium
Oct 19	RKU	vs	Arte Takasaki	Ryugasaki Stadium
Oct 26	Sony Sendai	vs	RKU	Shichigahama Stadium
Nov 1	RKU	vs	Sagawa Printing	Ryugasaki Stadium
Nov 9	TDK SC	vs	RKU	Nikaho Stadium
Nov 16	RKU	vs	FC Kariya	Ryugasaki Stadium
Nov 23	FC Ryukyu	vs	RKU	Kitaya Stadium
Nov 30	RKU	vs	Gainare Tottori	Ryugasaki Stadium

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