Okinawa Kariyushi F.C (Japan)
Founded in 1999 by the Kariyushi Hotel
Group, a group located in Okinawa, Okinawa Kariyushi FC was born. Their aim was
simple. To become a J-League football club within the next few years and
establish themselves amongst the elite in the Japanese game. The club wore
orange and marine blue as their home colours, which were deemed the colours of
Okinawa. White was worn as their away colours and occasionally they wore green
for their third kit. They played their home games at Naha City in Okinawa.
Originally put in the Okinawa Prefecture Division 3, they won that while also
Okinawa Prefecture Social League Games TV Cup. The challenge to get to the J-League
wasn’t
going to be an easy one, but in 2002 they won the Kyushu Football League,
winning all 18 of their games, although won game was won by a penalty
shoot-out. There are no draws in the Kyushu league and if a game ended level by
the end of the 90 minutes it was decided by a penalty shoot-out. This title win
enabled them to move to the regional league final tournament, which gave them a
chance to get promoted to the JFL. It was all looking promising, with the of
Ruy Ramos as a player and technical director secured just a few seasons before.
The club were building up something positive, or so it seemed.
The first set back came when they were
knocked out the preliminary round of the regional league final tournament,
stopping their progress of making it to the JFL for another year. The Regional League
Final Tournament, or what is now known as the Japanese Regional Champions
League tournament, was set-up as a pathway for football clubs from nine
different regions in Japan to try and enter the JFL and subsequently the
J-League. There are nine different leagues that take part. They are the
Hokkaido Soccer League, the Tohoku Member-of-Society Soccer League, the Kanto
Soccer League, the Hokushinetsu League, the Tokai Adult League, the Kansai
Soccer League, the Chugoku Soccer League, the Shikoku Soccer League and the
Kyushu Football league, one of which Kariyushi took part in.
That was just the beginning of the bad
news, as Ramos left the club at the end of that season after having a
disagreement with board members over the in which direction the club was
heading. Not only did Ramos leave but he took most of the playing squad with
him, and created a whole new club, FC Ryukyu, a club who still play their
football in the Japan’s
J” League. The club
looked to be on the brink of folding. This all happened, despite the club
winning the Kyushu Championship once again,
2003 was a year the club used to recruit
and rebuild, on and off the field. They hired director Hisaku Kato and a whole
new playing squad. Their aim was still to join the JFL and get to the dizzy
heights of the J—League.
It was a successful one once again in the Kyushu League, with the club once
again winning the title, winning sixteen games, two of which were by penalty
kicks, while the two games that they did lose were both in penalty shoot-outs. They failed to win the Kyushu League for a
third time in a row, finishing runner-up that season, winning fourteen (One
courtesy of a penalty shout-out) and losing three. It was a remarkable feat
considering what was happening to the club. In 2004, the club started to show
off-field cracks again and the club’s director, Kato, announced that the sponsorship deal
Kariyushi had was discontinued. It meant the club was unable to pay its players
anymore and they put all the 27 players on the transfer market, effectively for
free for other clubs to pick up. They continued to play in National football
championship, finishing off the season, which to the club was seen as a
victory. The dream of playing in the J-League was further away than it had ever
been. But the club decided it would not give up, and once again, it dusted
itself down and made another attempt to make it to the big time.
In 2005 the club competed in the Kyushu
league once again, but this campaign was far from a decent one, with the club
finishing 8th out of the ten clubs competing in the league that year
winning just three games, one by penalties, and losing twelve, losing two by
penalties. They were nowhere near the club they were only a few seasons ago,
and it was clear that the policy of using players from their youth academy was
going to have take patience if it was going to pay off. The next two seasons
saw a slight improvement, with the club finishing 5th, in 2006,
winning nine and losing seven. The 2007 season saw a change in management and
in came Nakamoto Hiroshi. While dropping once place in the table in the 2007
campaign, finishing 6th, winning nine and losing eight, one of those
a penalty shoot-out, the club seemed to stabilise and signs of improvement
where evident.
It was in 2008 when things seemed to get back on track for the club that had won the Kyushu League twice already. They won the title that year, winning fifteen game, one penalty shoot-out and losing only two games. This meant the club once qualified for the Regional League’s Final Tournament, but once again they failed to progress past the preliminary round. The good times seemed to be back and to prove it wasn’t just a flash in the pan, the club replicated their title success in the 2009 campaign, winning twelve, courtesy of three penalty shoot-out wins and only losing once all season. Again, they qualified for the Japanese Regional League Final Tournament and again they failed to get past the preliminary round. That was to be the end of Okinawa Kariyushi’s attempt to break into the JFL. In fact, it was the end of the club, as on the 10th of December 2009, the club announced they would be dissolving by the end of January 2010. The project that they started back in 1999 only lasted 11 years, but it became clear that it was no longer financially sustainable. Quotes from the president, Shigeru Yuanaga stated the club were paying around 60 million yen a year on expenses that included players wages and the operating of the club in general. (423,240.00 Euro or 444,480 US Dollar in todays exchange). He also made comments that he felt some of the players they had signed were just using the club as a holiday home, whilst not being good enough to gain promotion to the JFL, the main aim of the club when the club was founded.
So many of todays football clubs that we are
familiar with started off as a factory team or a company of some sort. The most
modern example of this is Red Bull, who have turned it into a success.
Unfortunately, the Kariyushi Hotel Group couldn’t emulate these types of
results and never reached the heights they set their ambitions to. There were
plenty of reasons why it didn’t succeed, one was the fact they weren’t good
enough on the field to gain promotion to the Japanese Football League,
something they were given the opportunity to do on four separate occasions. The
other was the financial side of things, which eventually caught up with them
and ensured they would dissolve. This too me was the most surprising aspect of
the story, as I would have thought being created by a business such as a hotel
group, they would have somewhat an idea of how to run things in a financially
stable way. However, as we all know, football doesn’t work like a normal
business and therefore maybe all the best financial planning could still not
avoid the inevitable. It also shows that success on the field is sometimes the
only thing that matters, especially when you don’t have such a big following.
The area of Kariyushi is still represented by football clubs, including the
breakaway club FC Ryukyu still playing to this day. It’s worth noting that
Kariyushi finished their existence as champions of their league which is
another strange part of this story. The word ‘Kariyushi’ means ‘Happiness’ in
the local dialect, something which the club did bring their fans for a limited
amount of time, being champions four times of the Kyushu League. However, their
motto, ‘chiiki no hitoya no yume to kibou wo mezashi katsuryoku wo ataeru cheam wo mezashi masu’, which when translated
into English means, ‘We will aim for the local people’s dreams and hopes, and
aim for a team to give vitality’, is something that maybe represents the clubs’
ambitions as being somewhat unrealistic in the end. Hindsight is a great thing
though and few could begrudge them for giving it a go. They came, they failed,
but they will still be remembered as a part of Japanese football history as
being one of their ‘Forgotten Clubs’.