1997 Japan Football League

Japan Football League
Season	1997
Champions	Consadole Sapporo; 1st JFL title; 3rd D2 title
Promoted	Consadole Sapporo
Relegated	Fukushima; Seino Transportation (both were folded after the season)
Matches played	240
Goals scored	765 (3.19 per match)
	← 1996 1998 →

Statistics of Japan Football League in the 1997 season.

Overview

It was contested by 16 teams, and Consadole Sapporo won the championship.

As a result of Cosmo Oil Yokkaichi's closure the previous year, Jatco and Mito HollyHock were promoted before the season.

Clubs

The following sixteen clubs participated in Japan Football League Division 1 during the 1997 season.

Personnel

Club	Head coach
Brummell Sendai	Branko Elsner
Consadole Sapporo	Hugo Fernández
Denso
Fukushima
Honda Motors	Kazuaki Nagasawa
Jatco
Kawasaki Frontale	Kazuo Saito
Mito HollyHock	Yuji Nakano
Montedio Yamagata	Nobuhiro Ishizaki
NTT Kanto	Norio Sasaki
Oita Trinity
Otsuka FC Vortis Tokushima
Sagan Tosu	Hiroshi Sowa
Seino Transportation
Tokyo Gas	Kiyoshi Okuma
Ventforet Kofu

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Non-visa foreign	Former players
Brummell Sendai	Slobodan Dubajić	Gerhard Schmidt	Peter Binkovski		Pierre Littbarski Ante Šimundža
Consadole Sapporo	Hugo Maradona	Pereira	Jorge Dely Valdés	Dido Havenaar David Soria Yoshinari
Denso
Fukushima	Gwak Kyung-keun
Honda Motors	Marcus Vinícius	Walter		Sandro
Jatco
Kawasaki Frontale	Betinho	Rafael Scheidt	Momodu Mutairu
Mito HollyHock
Montedio Yamagata	Angelo	Marquinho	Sidiclei		Aldro
NTT Kanto
Oita Trinity	Kim Byung-soo	Lee Woo-young
Otsuka FC Vortis Tokushima
Sagan Tosu	Mario López			Pak Yong-ho
Seino Transportation
Tokyo Gas	Amaral	Edwin Ifeanyi
Ventforet Kofu

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	PKW	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion
1	Consadole Sapporo (C, P)	30	24	2	0	4	77	26	+51	76	Promoted to 1998 J.League
2	Tokyo Gas	30	21	2	1	6	70	30	+40	68
3	Kawasaki Frontale	30	21	2	0	7	87	36	+51	67
4	Honda Motors	30	20	2	1	7	60	37	+23	65
5	Montedio Yamagata	30	18	1	0	11	57	36	+21	56
6	Ventforet Kofu	30	15	3	1	11	59	41	+18	52
7	Otsuka FC Vortis Tokushima	30	13	1	0	16	50	45	+5	41
8	Brummell Sendai	30	12	1	2	15	37	43	−6	40
9	NTT Kanto	30	11	3	0	16	48	49	−1	39
10	Fukushima	30	12	1	0	17	48	59	−11	38	Folded^[a]
11	Sagan Tosu	30	12	1	0	17	38	54	−16	38
12	Oita Trinity	30	7	4	0	19	42	64	−22	29
13	Denso	30	7	2	2	19	29	49	−20	27
14	Seino Transportation	30	5	0	0	25	24	67	−43	15	Folded^[b]
15	Jatco	30	2	1	3	24	25	70	−45	11
16	Mito HollyHock	30	3	0	1	26	24	69	−45	10

Updated to match(es) played on November 1997. Source: Montedio Yamagata website
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champion; (P) Promoted
Notes:

^ After the season, Fukushima has folded due to financial difficulties.
^ Seino Transportation were disbanded by parent company after the season.

Home \ Away	BRU	CON	DEN	FRO	FFC	HOL	HON	JAT	MON	NTK	OVT	SAG	SET	TGA	TRI	VEN
Brummell Sendai		0–1	1–0	2–3	0–1	1–0	1–1^{PK 3–4}	2–0	1–3	0–3	2–0	2–0	2–1	3–1	3–0	2–0
Consadole Sapporo	3–0		1–0	4–3^OT	2–0	6–1	1–0	1–0	3–0	1–0	5–1	4–0	3–0	2–1	2–1	3–0
Denso	1–0^OT	1–6		1–4	0–1	1–0	0–3	4–3	2–1	0–0^{PK 4–3}	1–5	1–3	2–0	1–3	3–3^{PK 5–4}	0–2
Kawasaki Frontale	3–0	3–4^OT	1–0		3–1	1–0	1–3	4–0	2–1	2–1	1–0	5–0	3–0	3–0	4–0	2–3
Fukushima	1–0	2–5	1–0	2–6		1–2	0–1	3–1	2–1	2–3	3–1	2–0	0–1	1–2	4–3^OT	2–2^{PK 3–4}
Mito HollyHock	1–2	0–2	0–1	2–1	0–2		0–3	0–0^{PK 5–6}	0–4	2–3	1–6	0–2	2–0	1–3	1–2	1–5
Honda Motors	4–0	2–1	2–1	2–4	5–0	3–2		1–5	3–0	1–0	2–0	2–1	1–2	3–2	4–0	2–1
Jatco	2–2^{PK 1–4}	0–3	0–1	0–6	0–1	1–0^OT	1–2		0–3	0–3	1–3	1–1^{PK 4–1}	0–1	1–4	0–1^OT	0–3
Montedio Yamagata	3–1	4–1	2–1	1–2^OT	2–1	2–0	1–0^OT	2–1		1–2^OT	2–1	2–1	3–0	1–0	1–2	2–3
NTT Kanto	0–3	3–5	1–2^OT	0–1	2–0	3–2	0–1	3–2	0–2		2–1^OT	2–0	2–1	0–3	3–2^OT	0–1
Otsuka FC Vortis Tokushima	1–0	0–2	1–0^OT	0–1^OT	3–0	2–1	1–2	5–1	2–1	1–5		1–1^{PK 3–5}	3–0	1–2	1–2^OT	3–0
Sagan Tosu	2–1	0–2	0–0^{PK 3–1}	0–3	4–1	1–1^{PK 3–5}	3–0	1–2	0–1	4–1	0–1		2–1^OT	0–2	1–0	2–0
Seino Transportation	1–3	1–2	0–3	1–5	0–2	4–1	2–3^OT	1–1^{PK 2–4}	1–4	1–2	0–3	2–1		1–2	1–2	1–4
Tokyo Gas	5–0	0–0^{PK 6–5}	2–1	4–3^OT	1–0	1–0	5–0	4–1	2–1	3–1	1–0	5–2	2–0		3–2^OT	3–0
Oita Trinity	1–2^OT	1–2	1–0	1–7	1–2	4–2	1–2	2–1^OT	0–1	2–1	2–3	2–3^OT	1–0^OT	0–4		2–0
Ventforet Kofu	1–1^{PK 3–4}	2–0	2–1^OT	3–0	3–0	2–1^OT	1–2^OT	3–0	2–5	3–2	4–0	2–3^OT	3–0	1–0^OT	3–1

Updated to match(es) played on November 1997. Source: Montedio Yamagata website
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Promotion and relegation

Because Fukushima and Seino Transportation were disbanded, no relegation has occurred. At the end of the season, the winner and runner-up of Regional League promotion series, Sony Sendai and Albirex Niigata were promoted automatically.

[table_note_res_F0.24669629067494-1] After the season, Fukushima has folded due to financial difficulties.

[table_note_res_D0.24669629067494-2] Seino Transportation were disbanded by parent company after the season.

[a]

[b]