2012.01.21
League announced first home matches for each clubs

The league format follows;

J1
18 clubs home-and-away league from spring to winter 2012.
J1 match is mostly played on Saturday .

FC Tokyo, Sagan Tosu, and Consadore Sapporo are protemoted from J2 to play 2012 J1 league.

Champions will be qualified to 2012 FIFA Club World Cup as the host coutry champion.

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place club will be qualified to 2013 ACL.
16th, 17th, and 18th place club will be relegated to 2013 J2.

J2
Expanded 22 clubs home-and-away league from spring to winter 2012.
J2 match is mostly played on Sunday .

Machida Zelvia and Matsumoto Yamaga FC joined to J.League from JFL.

Top two clubs and a winner play-offs* will promote to 2013 J1 and upto two clubs will be relagated to lower division** .

* J1 promotion play-offs:
A knock out tournament to decide the 3rd J1 promotion seat from four clubs. Semifinals will be 3rd vs 6th (3rd's home) and 4th vs 5th (4th's home). The final is on the neutral place.

** Relegation to lower division:
As J2 clubs reached to the limit 22, the relagation from J2 is newly introduced from this season. Upto two clubs will be relagated to JFL. J2 22nd team is automatigally relagated and 21st goes to the test match against JFL 2nd to decide the one to play in J2.

2012.01.10
Sawa and Sasaki triump at FIFA Ballon d'Or 2011

Pep Guardiola, the Spanish coach of FC Barcelona, and Japan's women's national team coach Norio Sasaki were the respective winners of the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football and FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football.

Messi's and Guardiola's FC Barcelona side concluded 2011 with victory in the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, sealing another fine year which also included the UEFA Champions League, La Liga, Spanish Super Cup and UEFA Super Cup titles.

Japan's women's team, known as the Nadeshiko, memorably claimed their maiden FIFA Women's World Cup with a thrilling performance, twice coming back from behind to eventually defeat the USA on penalties after extra time.

These awards were decided after a poll in which the captains and head coaches of the men's (for the two men's football awards) and women's (for the two women's football awards) national teams, as well as international media representatives selected by French football magazine France Football, voted for candidates in each of the four categories. Each group's votes represented one third of the final result.

Lionel Messi won the FIFA Ballon d'Or after polling 47.88 of the votes, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (21.6)%) and Xavi (9.23%).

Sawa, winner of the FIFA Women's World Player of the Year award, led Japan to the title at the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 in Germany, where she also won the adidas Golden Ball as the best player of the competition and the adidas Golden Boot for her five goals. She collected 28.51% of the votes, ahead of Brazil's Marta and Abby Wambach from the USA, who received 17.28% and 13.26% respectively.

Pep Guardiola secured the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football award with 41.92% of the votes, ahead of Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson, who received 15.61%, and Jose Mourinho, the Portuguese coach of Real Madrid (12.43%).

Meanwhile, Norio Sasaki led the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football category with 45.57% of the votes, ahead of Pia Sundhage, the Swedish coach of the USA women's national team (15.83%), and France's women's team coach Bruno Bini (10.28%).

FIFPro, the world players' union, had invited 50,000 professional players from all over the world to select their best team of 2011, the FIFA/FIFPro WORLD XI. The honours went to the following all-star squad: Iker Casillas (Spain) in goal; Dani Alves (Brazil), Gerard Pique (Spain), Sergio Ramos (Spain) and Nemanja Vidic (Serbia) in defence; Xabi Alonso (Spain), Andres Iniesta (Spain) and Xavi (Spain) in midfield; and Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Lionel Messi (Argentina) and Wayne Rooney (England) up front.

The FIFA Puskas Award for the "most beautiful goal" of the year as voted for on FIFA.com and francefootball.fr by more than 1.5 million fans was also handed out. This prize, created in honour and in memory of Ferenc Puskas, the captain and star of the Hungarian national team during the 1950s, went to Brazil's Neymar for his fantastic goal in the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A match between Santos FC and Flamengo in Sao Paulo on 27 July 2011.

Sir Alex Ferguson received the FIFA Presidential Award from President Joseph S. Blatter for his outstanding dedication, commitment and service to football. On 6 November 2011 Sir Alex Ferguson completed 25 years as manager of Manchester United. During that period the club have won over 30 different trophies, including 12 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, two UEFA Champions Leagues and the FIFA Club World Cup.

The FIFA Fair Play Award was given to the Japanese Football Association, who had to endure many hardships following the earthquake which struck their country in March 2011, and during which many people lost their lives. The team showed great courage to make it to the final of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011, ultimately lifting the trophy for the first time. The award was collected by the President of the Japan FA, Junji Ogura, and by the captain of the team, Homare Sawa.

Sawa, Sasaki, and Messi



Sawa, after the World Cup Final

2012.01.09
Homare Sawa claimed FIFA Women's World Player of the Year

Homare Sawa claimed FIFA Women's World Player of the Year

2012.01.03
2012 Japan Football Calendar

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaattles. 91st Emperor's Cup Art