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 this article through and become familiar with the various activities held across the country.
This time is the first of four-article series to introduce activities related to “Class 2”.

Activities of Class 2 (Gifu Football Association)

KAWAGISHI Jun, Vise-chairman of Class 2 Committee of Gifu Prefectural Football Association

‘Transformation of the Gifu youth league (U-18), 10 years since the G League has started’ 

The ‘G1 League’ was established by the eight teams of the first division as Gifu youth league (U-18) in 2004, using the initial ‘G’ of Gifu prefecture as its name. The following year, ‘G2 League’ was formed as a second division, followed by ‘G3 League’ as a third division in 2007. The league has now been operating for 10 years.

In the beginning, since the league format was not well known yet, the league doubled up as the qualifying round for the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament, in order to attract as many teams as possible. This method was rare in the country, but it worked very well for the early stage of the league. In 2008 multiple-teams entering from one organisation were allowed and by 2012 the league format has gradually spread. So we disconnected the league from the qualifying round and adopted some changes, such as allowing combined teams in the league. Fortunately, the number of teams has increased after the league’s independence rather than just staying as it was. This was especially thanks to the fact that each organisation could enter multiple-teams. 61 teams, including 59 high schools, a tertiary college and a club team, currently belong to class 2. Among those, 71 teams, including 56 high schools, a tertiary college, a club team, a combined team, 14 multiple-teams and one prince team, play the league matches.

Ten teams in the G1 League play in the double round-robin tournament. Every match is held on natural or artificial turf pitch. The G2 League consists of 16 teams, which are divided into two groups of eight teams. There is the group league, followed by the post- season and the consolation final. The games between teams of a similar level are very important to improve the players as well as the coaches. On the other hand, the G3 League, which is being promoted at the moment, consists of six groups with seven or eight teams each from schools in the neighbouring areas. It has the G2 play-off match for the top two teams after the group league, and the late stage of the league with the rest of the teams.

In terms of the referees, generally they are sent from the Gifu Football Association for the G1 League. Recently the number of the youth referees has increased, with 17 youth referees for class 3 and 565 ones for class 4 in our prefecture. We will continue to put effort into training youth referees and use them at our leagues. (Photo: youth referees at the G League)

As the schedule is very tight throughout the year, we keep readjusting the league formation and so on. There are still many issues to be fixed. We’d like to improve the quality of the football for the young generation in Gifu, by improving our youth leagues much more.