JEF United Chiba

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.

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.

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.

On 16 July 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.[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 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.

The club will play their 14th consecutive season at the J2 on 2023.

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.

Akitas and Mina

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.[3] Her squad number is 12.

JEF United considers its philosophy to be encapsulated in its tagline "Win By All" [4] since 2001.

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'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.

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.

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.

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

• 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

• Asian Club Championship
  • Winners (1): 1986

As of 26 August 2023.[5] 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) 2 MF  JPN Issei Takahashi 4 MF  JPN Taishi Taguchi (vice-captain) 5 MF  JPN Yusuke Kobayashi 6 DF  JPN Ikki Arai (vice-captain) 8 MF  JPN Koya Kazama 9 FW  JPN Hiroto Goya 10 MF  JPN Tomoya Miki (vice-captain) 11 DF  JPN Koki Yonekura 13 DF  JPN Daisuke Suzuki (captain) 14 MF  JPN Naoki Tsubaki 16 FW  JPN Kazuki Tanaka (on loan from Kyoto Sanga) 17 MF  JPN Takaki Fukumitsu 18 MF  JPN Andrew Kumagai 20 FW  JPN Toshiyuki Takagi 22 DF  JPN Shogo Sasaki

No. Pos. Nation Player 23 GK  JPN Ryota Suzuki 24 DF  JPN Shuntaro Yaguchi 26 DF  JPN Shunsuke Nishikubo 28 MF  JPN Tomoya Shinohara 31 GK  JPN Sota Matsubara 33 GK  JPN Issei Kondo 36 DF  JPN Riku Matsuda 39 FW  JPN Ryuta Shimmyo 40 DF  BRA Mendes 41 FW  JPN Hiiro Komori 47 MF  JPN Cojiro Higashi Type 2 48 DF  JPN Soshiro Tanida Type 2 52 DF  JPN Ryota Kuboniwa DSP 65 MF  JPN Hisatoshi Nishido (on loan from FC Tokyo) 67 MF  JPN Masaru Hidaka 77 FW  BRA Dudu

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 25 MF  JPN Rui Sueyoshi (at Fagiano Okayama until 31 January 2024) 37 FW  JPN Keita Buwanika (at Mito HollyHock until 31 January 2024) — FW  JPN Raito Saito (at ReinMeer Aomori until 31 January 2024)

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  BRA Saldanha (at Partizan until 31 December 2023) — FW  JPN Solomon Sakuragawa (at Fagiano Okayama until 31 January 2024) — FW  JPN Taichi Sakuma (at Vanraure Hachinohe until 31 January 2024)