The 18th All Japan University Futsal Championship will be held over three days from Friday 26 August. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the tournament will be held for the first time in three years. The university champion will be decided at Kishiwada City Gymnasium in Osaka.

The tournament will feature a total of 12 teams, including one team from each of the nine regional football associations, one team from the host prefecture (Osaka), and two additional teams from the Kanto region, which produced the winner and runners-up of the 15th tournament.

Since the 12th edition held in 2016, teams from the Kanto region has won four consecutive titles and three teams from Kanto have been selected to participate in this year's tournament: Tokyo International University Football Club (Kanto 1/Saitama), defending champions Tama University Futsal Club (Kanto 2/Tokyo) and University of Tokyo Futsal Club Sampatti Sensei (Kanto 3/Tokyo).

The tournament has produced many F.League and Japan Futsal National Team players. ARAKI Tatsuya, who has won the national championship in his first year at college and is also set to play for Shinagawa City FC after graduation, is registered under Tama University.

HASHIMOTO Reira is another notable player, who played a key role in Japan’s championship campaign at the AFC U-20 Futsal Championship held in Iran in 2019. He will be entering the tournament for Osaka Seikei University Futsal Club (Host/Osaka) coached by former member of the Japan Futsal National Team Sato Ryo.

First-time entrant Tokyo International University is led by coach SAKAI Daisuke, who was the first coach of Vasagey Oita, and is expected to make great strides in its first national tournament. It is also interesting to see how Kanazawa University Football Club (Hokushinetsu/Ishikawa) and Tokaigakuen University Junge Blatter (Tokai/Aichi), who normally play football, fare in the competition.

Of the teams that finished in the top four in the tournament held three years ago, runners-up Toin Yokohama University Futsal Club were eliminated in the Kanto qualifier, but third-place finisher Hokkaido University Esperanza (Hokkaido) secured their place in this year's tournament by capturing their seventh consecutive title in the Hokkaido Regional Championships. Tohoku University Futsal Club D-GUCCI (Tohoku/Miyagi), who suffered a disappointing loss at last year’s Tohoku Regional Championships, will also be aiming to make a deep run in back to back national competitions.

Many of the players competing in this year's tournament know the disappointment of their upper classmen who were not given the opportunity to compete at the national stage. They will certainly be putting their three years’ worth of passion into this competition, enjoy playing futsal, and showcase intense battles to be crowned the number one university in Japan.

The 18th All Japan University Futsal Championship

Tournament dates: Fri. 26 - Sun. 28 August 2022
Tournament venue: Kishiwada City Gymnasium (Osaka)

Tournament information