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JEF United Chiba (ジェフユナイテッド千葉, Jefu Yunaiteddo Chiba), full name JEF United Ichihara Chiba (ジェフユナイテッド市原・千葉, Jefu Yunaiteddo Ichihara Chiba) and also known as JEF Chiba (ジェフ千葉, Jefu Chiba), is a Japanese professional football club that plays in the J2 League. On 1 February 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. Of its club name, JEF is taken from the JR East and Furukawa Electric companies and United is meant to represent the unity of the club and its home city. Also, JEF United is the only team in J.League which corporate name survived the transition from the JSL in 1992, as J.League mandated that "corporate teams are not allowed in the J.League", and that any corporate teams need to adapt a hometown.

JEF United Chiba
ジェフユナイテッド千葉

Full name	JEF United Ichihara Chiba
Nickname(s)	JEF, Inu (The Dogs)
Founded	1946; 76 years ago (1946) as Furukawa Electric SC
Ground	Fukuda Denshi Arena Chiba
Capacity	19,781
Owner	East Japan Railway Company (50%) Furukawa Electric (50%)
Chairman	Kou Morimoto
Manager	Yoshiyuki Kobayashi (from 2023)
League	J2 League
2022	J2 League, 10th of 22
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

History

Furukawa Electric SC (1946–1991)

The club 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.

The club was a founding member ("Original Eight"[lower-alpha 1]) of the Japan Soccer League (JSL) in 1965. Since the league's inception, the club had always played in the top flight in Japan and was the only Japanese club to never be relegated from the JSL Division 1, 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 FC 1–0 on aggregate in a two-legged playoff. The last place was not automatically relegated until the 1980 season.

JEF United Ichihara (1992–2004)

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. JEF United Ichihara was an original member ("Original Ten"[lower-alpha 2]) of the J.League in 1993. The club initially built itself around the former Germany national football team player Pierre Littbarski.

From 1998 to 2000, the club 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.

JEF United Chiba (2005–)

On July 16, 2006, Osim left the club to take over the coach of the Japan national team and was succeeded by Amar Osim, his son and assistant coach.. 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.

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 clubs considered lesser than them such as FC Gifu and F.C. Machida Zelvia, JEF played the playoffs, making their road to the final. They defeated Yokohama FC 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 J League 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. They are also joined by a third mascot named Mina, or Mina-chan. Her backstory was that she one day came to Soga Station (the railway station nearest to Fukuda Denshi Arena) and offered to work alongside Jeffy and Unity.[1] Her squad number is 12.

Slogan

JEF United considers its philosophy to be encapsulated in its tagline "Win By All" [2] since 2001.

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 and in 2011 they adopted the name Vonds Ichihara. Now separate from Furukawa Electric control, they aim to form its power base in Ichihara as JEF is now based in Chiba city.

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.

JEF United Chiba Ladies

Rivalries

Marunouchi Gosanke

Historically, JEF United's fiercest rivals have been Kashiwa Reysol and Urawa Reds, both close neighbors. The three were co-founders ("Original Eight") of the Japan Soccer League (JSL) in 1965, and spent most seasons in the top tier through the JSL era. Because of their former parent companies' headquarters being all based in Marunouchi, Tokyo, the three clubs were known as the Marunouchi Gosanke (丸の内御三家) and fixtures among them were known as the Marunouchi derbies.

Chiba derby

JEF United and Reysol first met in 1941 in ancient Kanto regional football league. The two clubs both now based in Chiba Prefecture, and their rivalry is known as the Chiba derby. They annually contest a pre-season friendly match well known as the Chibagin Cup (i.e., Chiba Bank Cup) since 1995.

Record as J.League member

Champions

Runners-up

Third place

Promoted

Relegated

Season	Division	Teams	Position	P	W (PKW / OTW)	D	L (PKL / OTL)	F	A	GD	Pts	Attendance/G	J.League Cup	Emperor's Cup
JEF United Ichihara
1992	–	–	–									–	Group stage	Quarter final
1993	J1	10	8th	36	14	-	22	51	67	-16	-	20,273	Group stage	Quarter final
1994		12	9th	44	19	-	25	69	85	-16	-	22,262	2nd round	2nd round
1995		14	5th	52	28 (0 / -)	-	20 (4 / -)	97	91	6	88	15,418	–	1st round
1996		16	9th	30	13 (0 / -)	-	16 (1 / -)	45	47	-2	40	12,008	Group stage	3rd round
1997		17	13th	32	6 (0 / 5)	-	17 (1 / 3)	43	66	-23	28	5,693	Quarter-final	4th round
1998		18	16th	34	8 (1 / 0)	-	20 (1 / 4)	49	75	-26	25	5,365	Final	3rd round
1999		16	13th	30	6 (0 / 4)	2	14 (0 / 4)	41	56	-15	28	5,774	2nd round	3rd round
2000		16	14th	30	8 (0 / 1)	2	14 (0 / 5)	37	49	-12	28	6,338	2nd round	Quarter final
2001		16	3rd	30	14 (0 / 3)	2	9 (0 / 2)	60	54	6	50	7,818	Quarter-final	Quarter final
2002		16	7th	30	12 (- / 1)	3	14	38	42	-4	41	7,897	Quarter-final	Semi-final
2003		16	3rd	30	15	8	7	57	38	19	53	9,709	Group stage	Quarter final
2004		16	4th	30	13	11	6	55	45	10	50	10,012	Group stage	4th round
JEF United Chiba
2005	J1	18	4th	34	16	11	7	56	42	59	35	Winner	5th round
2006		18	11th	34	13	5	16	57	58	-1	44	13,393	Winner	4th round
2007		18	13th	34	12	6	16	51	56	-5	42	14,149	Group stage	4th round
2008		18	15th	34	10	8	16	36	53	17	38	14,084	Quarter final	4th round
2009		18	18th	34	5	12	17	32	56	-24	27	14,730	Group stage	4th round
2010	J2	19	4th	36	18	7	11	58	37	21	61	11,689	Not eligible	4th round
2011		20	6th	38	16	10	12	46	39	7	58	9,680		Quarter final
2012		22	5th	42	21	9	12	61	33	28	72	9,281		Quarter final
2013		22	5th	42	18	12	12	68	49	19	66	10,004		3rd round
2014		22	3rd	42	18	14	10	55	44	11	68	9,333		Semi-final
2015		22	9th	42	15	12	15	50	45	5	57	10,725		3rd round
2016		22	11th	42	13	14	15	52	53	-1	53	10,292		3rd round
2017		22	6th	42	20	8	14	70	58	12	68	9,983		3rd round
2018		22	14th	42	16	7	19	72	72	0	55	9,858		3rd round
2019		22	17th	42	10	13	19	46	64	-18	43	9,701		2nd round
2020 †		22	14th	42	15	8	19	47	51	-4	53	2,778		Did not qualify
2021 †		22	8th	42	17	15	10	48	36	12	66	4,068		3rd round
2022		22	10th	42	17	10	15	44	42	2	61	5,775		2nd round
2023		22	TBA	42

Key

Honours

As Furukawa Electric SC (1946–1992), JEF United Ichihara (1992–2004), and JEF United Chiba (2005–present)

National

League

• JSL Division 1
  • Champions (2): 1976, 1985

Cups

• JSL Cup / J.League Cup
  • Winners (5): 1977, 1982, 1986, 2005, 2006
• Emperor's Cup
  • Winners (4): 1960, 1961, 1964 (shared), 1976
• Japanese Super Cup
  • Winners (1): 1977
• All Japan Works Football Championship
  • Winners (3): 1959, 1961, 1962 (shared)
• All Japan Inter-City Football Championship
  • Winners (4): 1959, 1960, 1961, 1964

International

• Asian Club Championship
  • Winners (1): 1986

League history

• Division 1 (JSL Div. 1): 1965–1992
• Division 1 (J1): 1993–2009
• Division 2 (J2): 2010–present

Players

Current squad

As of 19 August 2022.[3]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Shota Arai (vice-captain) 4 MF  JPN Taishi Taguchi (vice-captain) 5 MF  JPN Yusuke Kobayashi 6 DF  JPN Ikki Arai 8 MF  JPN Koya Kazama 9 FW  JPN Kengo Kawamata 10 MF  JPN Tomoya Miki 11 DF  JPN Koki Yonekura 13 DF  JPN Daisuke Suzuki (captain) 14 MF  JPN Shuto Kojima 15 DF  KOR Jang Min-gyu 17 MF  JPN Takaki Fukumitsu 18 MF  JPN Andrew Kumagai 20 FW  JPN Toshiyuki Takagi 21 MF  JPN Yosuke Akiyama (on loan from Vegalta Sendai) 22 DF  JPN Shogo Sasaki 23 GK  JPN Ryota Suzuki 25 MF  JPN Rui Sueyoshi

No. Pos. Nation Player 26 DF  JPN Shunsuke Nishikubo 27 FW  BRA Tiago Leonço 28 MF  JPN Tomoya Shinohara 29 FW  JPN Taichi Sakuma 30 DF  JPN Shuto Tanabe (on loan from Kawasaki Frontale) 31 GK  JPN Sota Matsubara 32 MF  JPN Issei Takahashi 33 DF  BRA Daniel Alves (on loan from Palmeiras) 34 GK  JPN Ryuto Miyake Type 2 35 FW  BRA Ricardo Lopes 37 FW  JPN Keita Buwanika 40 FW  JPN Solomon Sakuragawa 41 FW  JPN Hiiro Komori DSP 45 DF  JPN Shuntaro Yaguchi Type 2 47 MF  JPN Ryuta Shimmyo Type 2 48 DF  JPN Soshiro Tanida Type 2 50 MF  JPN Kota Kuwabara Type 2

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 19 FW  BRA Saldanha (at Chengdu Rongcheng until 31 December 2022) — FW  JPN Raito Saito (at ReinMeer Aomori until 31 January 2023)

International capped players

JFA Yuki Abe Takayuki Chano Toshiya Fujita Naotake Hanyu Nozomi Hiroyama Shoji Jo Kengo Kawamata Naoya Kondo Teruaki Kurobe Seiichiro Maki Tadatoshi Masuda Koki Mizuno Shigeyoshi Mochizuki Takayuki Morimoto Shinji Murai Eisuke Nakanishi Takafumi Ogura Tomoyuki Sakai Yuji Sakakura Hisato Sato Yuto Sato Daisuke Suzuki Takayuki Suzuki Taishi Taguchi Nobuhiro Takeda Michihiro Yasuda Koki Yonekura

AFC/ CAF/ OFC Matthew Bingley Jason Geria Mark Milligan An Byong-jun Kim Dae-eui Choi Yong-Soo Owusu Benson Wynton Rufer

UEFA Mario Haas Edin Mujčin Mirko Hrgović Ilian Stoyanov Ivan Hašek Pavel Řehák Pierre Littbarski Frank Ordenewitz Nenad Maslovar Peter Bosz Gabriel Popescu Rade Bogdanovic Nenad Đorđević Ľubomír Moravčík Željko Milinovič Nejc Pečnik

CONMEBOL Kléber Eduardo Aranda

Coaching staff

Position	Name
Manager	Yoshiyuki Kobayashi
Assistant Manager	Vacant
First Team coach	Masataka Sakamoto Masashi Owada
Goalkeeper coach	Motoki Kawahara
Physical coach	Ryota Mizuguchi
Technical staff	Daisuke Matsumoto
Doctor	Keiji Kobayashi Yohei Kobayashi Hiroki Nakajima Masashi Nagao Yasumasa Momoi Takanori Wakayama
Chief trainer	Tomoaki Nakao
Athletic trainer	Yuya Okamoto Toshifumi Goto Naoki Akiyoshi
Interpreter	Chin Hee-Kyun Fabricio
Competent	Yuma Fukushima
Side affairs	Kosuke Tomitani
Kit	Toshiya Goto
General Manager[4]	Takehito Suzuki

Managerial history

Manager	Nationality	Tenure
Yoshikazu Nagai	Japan	1992–1993
Eijun Kiyokumo	Japan	1994–1995
Yasuhiko Okudera	Japan	1996
Jan Versleijen	Netherlands	1997–1998
Gert Engels	Germany	1999
Nicolae Zamfir	Romania	1999–2000
Sugao Kambe (interim)	Japan	2000
Zdenko Verdenik	Slovenia	2000–2001
Sugao Kambe (interim)	Japan	2001
Jozef Vengloš	Slovakia	2002
Ivica Osim	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2003–2006
Amar Osim	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2006–2007
Josip Kuže	Croatia	2008
Shigeo Sawairi (interim)	Japan	2008
Alex Miller	Scotland	2008–2009
Atsuhiko Ejiri	Japan	2009–2010
Dwight Lodeweges	Netherlands	2011
Sugao Kambe	Japan	2011
Takashi Kiyama	Japan	2012
Jun Suzuki	Japan	2013–2014
Kazuo Saito (interim)	Japan	2014
Takashi Sekizuka	Japan	2014–2016
Shigetoshi Hasebe (interim)	Japan	2016
Juan Esnáider	Argentina	2017–2019
Atsuhiko Ejiri	Japan	2019
Yoon Jong-hwan	South Korea	2020–2022
Yoshiyuki Kobayashi	Japan	2023–

Kit and colours

The club colours of JEF United Chiba are yellow, green and red.

Kit evolution

Home
1993 - 1996	1997 - 1998	1999 - 2000	2001	2002
2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
2018	2019	2020	2021	2022 -

Away
1993 - 1995	1996	1997 - 1998	1999 - 2000	2001 - 2002
2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
2018	2019	2020	2021	2022 -

Other Kits -3rd
2012 3rd	2015 10th Anniversary of Fukuda Denshi Arena	2016 25th Anniversary	2018 15th Anniversary of Hometown Expansion	2019 Factory Night View Ver.

Notes

References

External Links.

• Official website (in Japanese)

Achievements
Preceded by Daewoo Royals	Champions of Asia 1986–87	Succeeded by Yomiuri

На других языках

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[de] JEF United Ichihara Chiba

JEF United Ichihara Chiba (japanisch ジェフユナイテッド市原・千葉 .mw-parser-output .Latn{font-family:"Akzidenz Grotesk","Arial","Avant Garde Gothic","Calibri","Futura","Geneva","Gill Sans","Helvetica","Lucida Grande","Lucida Sans Unicode","Lucida Grande","Stone Sans","Tahoma","Trebuchet","Univers","Verdana"}Jefu Yunaiteddo Ichihara Chiba), kurz: JEF United, ist ein japanischer Profi-Fußballverein aus der Stadt Ichihara (Präfektur Chiba). Der Verein, der bis Februar 2005 nur JEF United Ichihara hieß, ist Gründungsmitglied der Profiliga J. League Division 1 und in Deutschland vor allem durch den ehemaligen Spieler, den Weltmeister von 1990 Pierre Littbarski, bekannt. Seit dem Abstieg am Ende der Saison 2009 spielt der Verein in der J2 League.

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- [en] JEF United Chiba

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[es] JEF United Ichihara Chiba

JEF United Ichihara Chiba (ジェフユナイテッド市原・千葉, Jefu Yunaiteddo Ichihara Chiba?) es un equipo de fútbol profesional japonés que juega en la J2 League. Anteriormente fue conocido como JEF United Ichihara, hasta que el 1 de febrero de 2005 el club cambió de nombre al actual cuando Chiba se unió a Ichihara como localía del equipo en el 2003.

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[ru] ДЖЕФ Юнайтед Итихара Тиба

«ДжЕФ Юнайтед Итихара Тиба» (яп. ジェフユナイテッド市原・千葉 Дзэфу Юнайтэддо Итихара Тиба, англ. JEF United Ichihara Chiba) — японский футбольный клуб из города Тиба, префектура Тиба.

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