This article is part of an introduction to the policies and activities of each Prefectural Football Association divided into 12 categories: ‘Seniors’, ‘Class 1’, ‘Class 2’, ‘Class 3’, ‘Class 4’, ‘Kids’, ‘Women’, ‘Futsal’, ‘Beach Soccer’, ‘Referees Committee’, ‘Facilities Committee (Environmental Maintenance)’ and ‘Technical Committee’. We hope you read through this article and become familiar with the various activities held across the country.
This is the second article of four, in which we introduce ‘Beach Soccer’ activities.

*This article has been published in the ‘REGIONAL NEWS‘ section of the December issue of JFA news.

Activities of Beach Soccer – Nagano Football Association

NARITA Kazuhiko, Vice Chairman of Referee and Futsal/Beach Soccer Committee of Nagano Football Association
「Transform your gratitude in to your motivation」

Komagane Kogen is situated in the foot of the Central Alps and it can enjoy the beautiful view of the South Alps. “Forest and Water Outdoor Experiencing Space” in Komagane has beach soccer facilities and this is the only beach soccer venue available in Nagano.

Shinshu beach soccer started here in July 2011. Since then, we have had four prefectural championships which were qualifying rounds for Japan Beach Soccer Championship and more than 10 beach soccer events. This year, we had another regional championship in Kitasinetsu and one of the prefectural qualified team “Shinshu BSF Komakappers” got second place. They played in the national championship held in Okayama.

In Nagano, we don’t have any beaches. So what we had to do at first was finding a beach soccer pitch. Soon we found Komagane Kogen where beach volleyball is played, but we still needed to take some time to get permission to use the venue for beach soccer. Even after finding the pitch and starting PR, the responses we got back from the public were not so positive. We kept working to raise people’s interest and finally we could hold the first “Nagano Beach Soccer Championship”.

Here I have to mention “cross-border issue”, which was getting serious in Japan’s beach soccer. Some teams register in a “developing” prefecture, away from their local prefecture where there are lots of strong teams, so they have more change to qualify for the national championship. In fact, the first winner of our prefectural championship is from another prefecture, beating our local teams and then played in the national championship. The winning team attracted a lot of criticism and we had to in future consider more carefully as the organiser. Our passion to launch beach soccer here was not welcome at first because of this cross-border issue and it was very bitter experience for us.

Shinshu beach soccer had to go through some bitter experiences, but now we can get many supporters from inside and outside of Nagano. For the past 2 years, 4 local teams have joined in the prefectural championship. This motivated our local beach soccer teams to register officially and now we gained one more team which can go on to the national championship; it used to be only 1 team but now 2 local teams are allowed to join from Nagano prefecture. Considering Shinshu BSF Komakappers’s advancement in the national championship, we appreciate all the local teams and supporters who have been involved in our championships.

What we say to each other amongst Shinshu beach soccer people is “We’ll make this sand and Komagane more beautiful than it was before we came here”. I believe that the charm of beach soccer is its “simplicity”; people chase and kick the ball with bare feet. I know that there will be various challenges, but we want to keep working hard to boost beach soccer in Nagano. It is such a joy for me to chase and kick the ball with my bare feet in a prefecture where there are no beaches.