A taste from a great piece from Vince Rugari (you can read the full thing here):
It can all be traced back to 1999, six years after the launch of the J.League, when the competition’s governing body unveiled a 100-year plan for football. Their vision: to have 100 professional clubs in Japan by 2092, which would be the league’s 100th season, and for those clubs to stitch themselves into the fabric of their local communities.
Twenty-five years in, they are ahead of schedule: they have 60 professional clubs across three tiers of football, connected through promotion and relegation, underpinned by a thriving high school and university system in full alignment, largely unchallenged by any sports aside from baseball, which remains Japan’s undisputed number one sport. It has created a phenomenal strength in depth to the point where Japan’s B and C teams would probably be in the mix for World Cup qualification through Asia, if they could enter multiple sides.
Meanwhile, the A-League launched in 2005 with eight clubs (one based in New Zealand). Now it has 13 (with a second Kiwi outfit, Auckland FC, beginning this season), and still nothing below it; the radio silence continues over Football Australia’s plans for a national second division next year. And even if it happens, there won’t be promotion and relegation for at least another decade.
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