Team Data: Tokyo Verdy
Team Name:
Team Logo & Mascot:  
Team Flag:
Home Uniform Away Uniform
 
Home StadiumTokyo Soccer Stadium
Seats 50,100
Tokyo Verdy Blog
Team Data:
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Management Corporation: | Nippon Television Football Club Co., Ltd. | |
Established: | 1 October 1991
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President: | Nobuhisa Sakata
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Investors: | Nippon Television Network Corp., Shimizu Corp., Keio Agency, Inc., Sanwa Corp, Inagi City | |
Address: | 3294 Yanokuchi, Inagi City,
Tokyo 206-0812 | |
Hometown Area: | Tokyo City | |
Home Stadium: | Tokyo Stadium (capacity: 50,000) | |
Joined J. League: | 1992 | |
Major Titles: | J.League Champions: 1993, 1994
Nabisco Cup: 1992, 1993, 1994
Emperor's Cup: 1996
Xerox Super Cup: 1994, 1995 |
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 | Verdao
Verdy's mascot has remained unchanged through the team's move from Kawasaki to Tokyo, its transition to new ownership, and even a stylistic makeover of the other logo marks. Originally, the choice of a vulture might have seemed like a clever (if a bit morbid) choice, signifying that the team picks off opponents as easy prey. But since Verdy's slump into division 2, some people are having second thoughts. Already, some cynically witty fans are starting to ask if the Verdy vulture signifies that the team is starting to resemble a lifeless corpse.
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The story of Tokyo Verdy is one of those dramas that could only happen in Japan, though some of the elements of the team's travails were rather "unJapanese". Greed and mismanagement turned the team from a dominant powerhouse into the whipping boy of the league, and despite a bold effort to try to rebuild itself, the team has basically opted to try to relive past glories rather than really focusing on the future.
The team was founded by Yomiuri, the newspaper and media company that also owns the Yomiuri Giants baseball team, in 1969 (Hence the full official name: Tokyo Verdy 1969). Yomiuri Club was extremely successful in the JSL, winning a number of league titles and Emperor's Cup championships in the late 1970s and 1980s. By the end of the 1980s Yomiuri Club rivalled Nissan Motor FC for the status of most successful team in Japanese football. At the time the J.League was founded, Yomiuri Club boasted some of the top players in the country, including core members of the national team like Tetsuji Hashiratani, Kazu Miura and Ruy Ramos. With a strong collection of talent and the financial backing of Yomiuri, the team swept into the J.League with a roar. Verdy Kawasaki -- a deliberate misspelling of the Italian word for "green" to match the color of their uniforms -- captured the first two J.League championships, in 1993 and 1994, as well as three consecutive Nabisco (league) cups. By 1995, Verdy seemed to be almost synonyous with success.
But the facade of success was very thin, as would soon be revealed. Despite the J.League's objective of developing strong local franchises with ties to their home town community, Verdy (or rather, Yomiuri) wanted to set itself up as "Japan's team", much as the Yomiuri Giants are in baseball. The team used its influence to coerce broadcasters to carry its games as opposed to those of rival teams, and neglected its local fans in an effort to build a nationwide base. As the club soon discovered, football fans are a different breed from baseball fans. The local character and grassroots efforts of teams like Kashima Antlers, Yokohama Marinos and Flugels, Urawa Reds and Shimizu S-Pulse won them fanatically loyal followings. Although Verdy did succeed in attracting a huge number of "visitors" during the first few years, its base of true "fans" turned out to be very small. When the fad success of the J.League passed, the crowds evaporated, and Verdy's ticket sales plummetted faster than those of any other team.
Verdy faced other problems as well. Although the team spent lavishly on talent, it generally picked up mature players with strong reputations, high salaries and huge egos. As the league started to retrench, Verdy found itself with a lot of aging stars whose performances no longer matched their high salaries, and who seemed to want to party and preen for photographers more than play football. By 1996, the team was faltering under the weight of serious debt, yet failing to hold its own in the standings with teams like Antlers, S-Pulse and Marinos. Furthermore, the egos of the Yomiuri management set them in conflict with the League bureaucracy. The J.League wanted clubs to be free from the dictates of corporate boardrooms (a problem which always has, and continues to plague Japanese baseball). One of the rules they introduced was a ban on corporate logos or the use of corporate names in the team name. But as late as 1996, Verdy was still billing themselves on posters and in advertisements as "Yomiuri Verdy", openly flouting the regulations. Some other clubs had been trying to bend the rules as well, but none as blatantly as Verdy. By 1996, the J.League had had enough, and was threatening to fine the club for further violations. Clearly, the situation was dire.
In 1998 the collapse finally came. Verdy finished the second stage in 17th place out of 18 teams, and racked up astronomical losses. Not surprisingly, they received no sympathy from anyone. The club was forced to do a thorough housecleaning. All of the high-priced veterans were given their walking papers and the club started rebuilding around a group of rookies and young transfers from the JFL. At first, this seemed to work. In 1999, Verdy surprised many by performing quite well despite having no household names in the lineup. More importantly, the team returned to an exciting, aggressive style of football that was more appealing to fans.
But while the team seemed to be reforming on the outside, the situation beneath the surface was as rotten as ever. One of the most ill-advised moves of all came at the end of 1999. With ticket sales falling, and a truly grassroots-based team (Frontale) emerging as a rival for fans in Kawasaki, Verdy made the decision to move its "home town" to Tokyo, to try to attract more support, and distance itself from nearby Yokohama. The team applied to the J.League to change its home town from Kawasaki to Tokyo. In late 1999, the team won approval for its move, and at the end of the 2000 season the team changed its name from Verdy Kawasaki to "Tokyo Verdy 1969" (the 1969 refers to the date of the original team's founding, perhaps in an effort to recall "the glory years"). In 2001, Verdy moved to a new town, and took up residence at a magnificent new stadium in western Tokyo.
This proved to be an enormous mistake. FC Tokyo had already built a strong following in western Tokyo, so Verdy was not able to escape the problem of having a popular competitor right on its doorstep. On the contrary, the move alienated both former fans from Kawasaki and people who had already begun supporting FC Tokyo. To this day, FC Tokyo supporters jeer their local rivals with epiphets such as "pretender" and "fake", while carrying huge banners which proclaim "The REAL Tokyo FC". The situation was compounded by the impression that Verdy gave, of a team trying to "live in the past'. This was exacerbated by coach Yasutaro Matsuki's efforts to bring back "the old gang", who had been a part of the team in its championship years, rather than developing the talented youngsters who were starting to emerge from the team's youth program.
By the middle of 2001 season, Verdy were floundering in the depths of the J.League basement, and it was clear that the attempt to relive the past was failing. Coach Matsuki made a quick and ignominious exit, and the team spent the first few weeks of the second stage grasping desperately for another strategy. Fortunately, there was enough money left in the Verdy coffers to lure one last star to the team in hopes of a rescue. Brazilian bad-boy Edmundo "The Animal", who was in the bad graces of most clubs in his home country, needed a new start and a clean slate. The match seemed to fit perfectly.
With an entirely new team leader on the field, Verdy finally seemed to escape from its golden, yet tarnished past. In the final week of the 2001 season, Verdy managed a hairs-breadth escape from relegation. Once again, there were suggestions that the team had turned the corner, and was "on its way back". Coach Ossie Ardilles took over in 2003, and jettisoned many of the older players in favour of youngsters like Kazuki Hiramoto, Seitaro Tomizawa, Masayuki Yanagisawa and Hayuma Tanaka. But the front office was still addicted to "stardom". and this would eventually prove deadly. After Edmundo's contract expired in 2003, Verdy lacked the money to keep him, so they tried to achieve similar results with another veteran striker, Cameroon national team captain Patrick Mboma. But Mboma was past his prime and spend most of 2003 in the rehabilitation room. By 2004, the team was starting to produce decent results even without such stars, but it still was more a collection of individuals than a true "team. Ossie Ardilles may have allowed such problems to fester, due to his laid-back and quiet nature. What the team really needed was someone to whip them into shape.
2005 proved to be the watershed year for the team, which essentially replayed the team's entire history -- a journey from the pinnacle of success to the depths of defeat in a mere nine months. Verdy started the season by winning the Emperor's Cup, on New Year's Day. Though clearly an upset win, Verdy played very well and seemed to have captured a team spirit which had been lacking up to that point. They followed this up with a victory in the Xerox Super Cup -- the exhibition match which kicks off the season.
It was all downhill from there. Verdy plumbed depths rarely seen in Japan before, including a string of stunning losses -- 7-0, 7-1, 6-0 . . . essentially, the team unravelled in full view of the public, and they never were able to find their way back. By the end of 2005, the team that had dominated the League in its first three years was relegated to division 2.
The question that everyone was asking in early 2006 was "is this the bottom, or does Verdy still have farther to fall?". Following relegation, Verdy seemed to turn its back on its veterans. Players who had stuck with the team for as long as ten years were left to swing in the wind, as Verdy asked them to accept huge pay cuts or else look for another team. There were indications that the back office was still as conceited and self-deluding as ever, for example, asking nine-year veteran Takuya Yamada to just swallow an 80% pay cut without complaint. By the time the team sorted itself out, they had neither the talent nor the cohesion to claim promotion at the first try, and they finished in a disappointing seventh-place in 2006.
Even then, it was not clear that Verdy had reached he end of its dramatic decline. We had predicted that they would probably have difficulty regaining a J1 spot in a single season, but even we were surprised by the finish. As we noted at the start of the 2007 season, "there are still six more places to fall before they hit "rock bottom". For a while, it looked like they were headed in that direction, and after two months their mid-table position temporarily threatened the job of head coach Ruy Ramos. But at last, Verdy seemed to find their feet. After signing a truckload of veterans widely derided as "The the team obviously had the talent needed to win the J2. It was only their mental and emotional fitness that was lacking. The key was clearly to understand that nothing can be taken for granted in sports, and that you must set out to EARN every victory and success you achieve. By the end of the 2007 season Verdy had rediscovered this intensity, and with a week remaining in the season, climbed at last into the top spot. A J2 title was beckoning -- their first league title since 1994 -- if they could just win the final match.
But once again, Verdy took too much for granted, and wer overtaken by Consadole Sapporo to finish in second place. Most of the players consoled themselves that at least they had regained a spot in the J1. However, coach Ramos apparently reaslized that coaching a football team requires different talents from playing in one, and he may be lacking in at least some of these. Following the 2007 season he wisely moved into the back office, where his connections and sparkling personality can benefit the team most, without his shortcomings detracting from performances on the pitch. It is clear that the team has a large supply of talented youngsters who are gaining skill and experience. Many of the team's top players are still in their teens or early twenties. But their prospects for 2008 are far from optimistic. The team needs a far more serious work ethic if they hope to survive in the increasingly competitive J1. Only time will tell whether the Green Buzzards can begin to soar, once again, over the playing fields of western Tokyo.
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