San Francisco Frontiers - Japan eyes Premier League parity by aligning calendar with Europe

Japanese teams have sold a steady stream of players to Europe, including Brighton's Kaoru Mitoma, but the sums involved are only a fraction of the billions sloshing around the global transfer market.

J. League chairman Yoshikazu Nonomura wants to change that and he believes he has taken the first step by ditching the traditional February-to-December season to align with Europe.

A shortened interim competition lasting until June begins on Friday, before a full league campaign kicks off after the World Cup.

Nonomura believes that will allow J. League clubs to take full advantage of European summer spending sprees and make up ground on the world's top leagues.

"If we do well on the business side, it wouldn't be a surprise if 20 years from now there was a different situation to what we have now, where the five biggest leagues are all in Europe," he said.

"We're always laying the groundwork for Japan to be part of a global market, and it could be alongside, say, England, Spain, Germany and the US."

Mitoma joined Brighton from Kawasaki Frontale for just £2.5 million in 2021 and his value skyrocketed after arriving in the Premier League.

Nonomura believes the calendar switch means Japanese clubs can start demanding "the proper amount" for their players.

"To make us conscious of competing and growing in the global market, it's very important to operate under the same conditions, aligning transfer windows, maximising transfer fees from Europe and going all out to beat them whenever we meet on the pitch," he said.

- Power play -

More Japanese players are moving to Europe at an early age, preferring to learn their trade in Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal instead of the J. League.

Nonomura wants to "convince players that they can develop here", and believes switching the calendar to avoid Japan's punishingly hot summers will help.

He is also hopeful that bigger revenue can attract overseas stars to the J. League, which has been devoid of big names since Spanish World Cup winner Andres Iniesta left in 2023.

"What we're trying to do is raise our top-line revenue to a level comparable with the Premier League, Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain, and Germany," said Nonomura.

"If we can raise our top-line revenue and become a league of that financial scale, good players will naturally come to us."

The J. League quickly became one of Asia's strongest leagues when it launched in 1993 but its spending power has been eclipsed by Saudi Arabia, which has signed a host of top players from Europe.

That has brought the Saudis success on the field, with three of last season's Asian Champions League semi-finalists coming from the desert kingdom.

- Solid foundations -

Kawasaki Frontale were the only non-Saudi team in the last four and they went on to reach the final, giving Nonomura hope that Japanese teams can remain competitive in Asia.

"A Japanese team has reached the final for the last three years, so it's not like we have no chance of winning," he said.

"Even if things carry on the way they are, Japanese teams have the quality to compete. And if we are able to bring in more money, the gap on the pitch will shrink."

Saudi investment has changed the Asian football landscape but there was a similar shift when Chinese clubs started spending big money in the 2010s.

Stars such as Carlos Tevez and Didier Drogba had lucrative stints there but it all came crashing down when team owners went bust as the Chinese economy fizzled.

Nonomura says the J. League's stability is its strength.

"Japanese clubs don't invest as much as Saudi clubs do but they have a very solid base," he said.

"The overall attendance in the J. League last season was the biggest ever. Our fundamentals are more solid than any other country in Asia so I don't think the J. League is going to decline."

R.Moore--SFF