JEF United Ichihara Chiba

JEF United
ジェフユナイテッド市原・千葉
	logo
Full name	JEF United Ichihara Chiba
Nickname(s)	JEF, Inu (The Dogs)
Founded	1946; 78 years ago (Furukawa Electric SC)
Ground	Fukuda Denshi Arena; Chiba, Chiba
Capacity	19,781
Owner	East Japan Railway Company（50%）; Furukawa Electric（50%）
Chairman	Akira Shimada
Manager	Takashi Sekizuka
League	J. League Division 2
2015	9th
Website	Club home page
Home colours	Away colours

File:JREastFurukawaFC.png

old crest

JEF United Ichihara Chiba (ジェフユナイテッド市原・千葉, Jefu Yunaiteddo Ichihara Chiba^?) is a Japanese professional football club that plays in J. League Division 2. On February 1, 2005, the club changed its name from JEF United Ichihara to the current name after Chiba city had joined Ichihara, Chiba as its hometown in 2003. The club name, JEF -taken from JR East and Furukawa Electric- and United, represents the unity of the team and its home town. The club is also known as JEF United (ジェフユナイテッド千葉, Jefu Yunaiteddo Chiba^?) or JEF Chiba (ジェフ千葉, Jefu Chiba^?).

History.

The team began as the company team, Furukawa Electric Soccer Club (古河電気工業サッカー部^?) in 1946. As the company team, it won the Japan Soccer League twice, the Emperor's Cup four times and the JSL League Cup three times. Furukawa also won the 1986-87 Asian Club Championship, the top club honor in Asia; they were the first Japanese club to do so.

Since the league's inception in 1965, the team had always played in the top flight in Japan and was the only Japanese team to never be relegated from the JSL1, a record they kept into the J1 years. They did finish the 1978 season in a relegation position (last of 10) but stayed up after beating Honda F.C. 1-0 on aggregate in a two-legged playoff. The last place was not automatically relegated until the 1980 season.

In 1991, it merged with the JR East's company team to become East Japan JR Furukawa Football Club (東日本ジェイアール古河サッカークラブ^?) and rebranded itself as JEF United Ichihara upon the J. League's founding in 1993. The team initially built itself around the former Germany national football team player Pierre Littbarski.

From 1998 to 2000, the team struggled to stay in the J. League and it began a series of efforts to be a competitive team. Since the hiring of Ivica Osim in 2003, JEF United has contended for the league title each year despite limited resources and struggling attendance.

On July 16, 2006, Osim left the team to take over the coach of the Japan national team and was succeeded by Amar Osim, his son and assistant coach.[1]. On December 5, 2007, it was announced that Amar Osim had been sacked after the club's lowly 13th-place finish in the 2007 season.[2]

After 13 games in the 2008 season Josip Kuže was sacked as team manager. On 8 May 2008 it was announced that the new manager was Alex Miller. Miller was First Team Coach at Liverpool F.C. alongside Rafael Benítez prior to joining JEF United.

The Furukawa Electric is no longer the main sponsor of the club, a job these days taken over by Fuji Electric.

On November 8, 2009, JEF United Chiba was relegated to J2 after 44 seasons in the Japanese top division; since 2010, JEF United Chiba is playing in J. League Division 2.

JEF United Chiba was close to being promoted to J. League Division 1 during the 2012 season. The club was considered one of the favorites to be directly promoted to J1. However, after defeats to teams considered lesser than them such as F.C. Gifu and F.C. Machida Zelvia, JEF played the playoffs, making their road to the final. They defeated Yokohama F.C. by 4-0, but lost the final match to Oita Trinita by 1-0, at Tokyo National Stadium.

In the 2013 season they played in the promotion to J1 playoffs. They lost the semi final match to Tokushima Vortis by 1-1(Chiba was 6th place and Tokushima was 3rd place in the league, regulation decides up high club can go final even draw.)

In the 2014 season they played in the promotion playoffs to J1 again. The club did not have to play in the semi-final(Chiba was 4th place but the 3rd place club named Giravanz Kitakyushu had a Jleague original stadium problem so Kitakyushu could not go to the promotion play off). In the final against Montedio Yamagata, they lost by 0-1, at Ajinomoto Stadium.

Symbols

Stadiums

It had played its home matches at Ichihara Seaside Stadium, but has since moved to the larger, football-specific and more conveniently located Fukuda Denshi Arena, which opened in Chiba during the 2005 season. The club had initially practiced at Urayasu, Chiba planning to base itself in Narashino, Chiba before opposition by those living around Akitsu Stadium forced it to be based in Ichihara. Since 2000, training has been held at Footpark Anesaki in Ichihara in normally. Since 1 October 2009, they made new practice place UNITED PARK near the Fukuda Denshi Arena.

Mascot

JEF United Ichihara's mascot characters are Akita Inu brothers named Jeffy and Unity. The squad number of Jeffy is 2 and that of Unity is 9.

Affiliated clubs

Furukawa Electric Chiba

This was JEF's reserve team during the JSL years. They were formed in 1967 and were first promoted to the JSL Second Division in 1975. They still exist, although they are no longer affiliated on paper, and play in the Kanto Regional League. In 2008 they renamed themselves S.A.I. Ichihara

JEF Reserves

JEF's reserve team played until 2011 in the Japan Football League, the third tier of Japanese football. But in 2011, the club announced the end of the B team because of financial problems.

Record as J. League Member

Season	Div.	Tms.	Pos.	Attendance/G	J. League Cup	Emperor's Cup
1992	–	–	–	–	Group Stage	Quarter-final
1993	J1	10	8	20,273	Group Stage	Quarter-final
1994	J1	12	9	22,262	2nd Round	2nd Round
1995	J1	14	5	15,418	–	1st Round
1996	J1	16	9	12,008	Group Stage	3rd Round
1997	J1	17	13	5,693	Quarter-final	4th Round
1998	J1	18	16	5,365	Final	3rd Round
1999	J1	16	13	5,774	2nd Round	3rd Round
2000	J1	16	14	6,338	2nd Round	Quarter-final
2001	J1	16	3	7,818	Quarter-final	Quarter-final
2002	J1	16	7	7,897	Quarter-final	Semi-final
2003	J1	16	3	9,709	Group Stage	Quarter-final
2004	J1	16	4	10,012	Group Stage	4th Round
2005	J1	18	4	9,535	Winner	5th Round
2006	J1	18	11	13,393	Winner	4th Round
2007	J1	18	13	14,149	Group Stage	4th Round
2008	J1	18	15	14,084	Quarter-final	4th Round
2009	J1	18	18	14,730	Group Stage	4th Round
2010	J2	19	4	11,689	–	4th Round
2011	J2	20	6	9,680	–	Quarterfinals
2012	J2	22	5	9,281	–	Quarterfinals
2013	J2	22	5	10,004	–	3rd Round
2014	J2	22	3	9,333	–	Semifinals
2015	J2	22	9	10,725	–	3rd Round

Key

Tms. = Number of teams
Pos. = Position in league
Attendance/G = Average league attendance
Source: J. League Data Site

Honours

Furukawa Electric

Japan Soccer League.: (2) 1976, 1985
JSL Cup.: (3) 1977, 1982, 1986–87
Emperor's Cup.: (4) 1960, 1961, 1964 (shared), 1976
Japanese Super Cup.: (1) 1977
All Japan Works Football Championship.: (3) 1959, 1961, 1962 (shared)
All Japan Inter-City Football Championship.: (4) 1959, 1960, 1961, 1964
Asian Club Championship.: (1) 1986