Yokohama Flügels

Yokohama Flügels
横浜フリューゲルス
Full name Yokohama Flügels
Founded 1964 (as All Nippon Airways FC)
Dissolved 1998
Ground Mitsuzawa Stadium, Yokohama
Ground Capacity 15,046

Yokohama Flügels (横浜フリューゲルス Yokohama Furyūgerusu) was a Japanese football club that played in the J. League between 1993 and 1998. In 1999 the club was officially merged with local rivals Yokohama Marinos and the two teams became known together as Yokohama F. Marinos.

History

The club was originally the company team of All Nippon Airways. For a time they were billed as Yokohama TriStar SC, but the aftermath of the Lockheed-ANA bribery scandal ensured that ANA stuck to their own name as they were pushing for promotion to the Japan Soccer League from the regional Kanto Football League in the early 1980s.

They were promoted to the JSL's Second Division in 1984 and immediately made an impact, being promoted to First Division as runner-up. Despite being relegated at the first attempt in 1985, they bounced back up again in 1987 and would never leave the top flight until their demise.

The club's name, adopted upon professionalization for the J. League, sprang from the German word Flügel, meaning wing or wings ("Flügels" is an anglicised plural, where the original German word has only one form which can both represent singular and plural). The name points to the club's former sponsor. For a time it was billed as AS Flügels, with the initials of both sponsors, ANA and Sato Labs, forming an initialism that resembled the Italian and French initials for "Sporting Association" (Associazione Sportiva and Association Sportive).

Despite never winning either the JSL or J. League title, they were top contenders from the late 1980s through its last game, and won several accolades at home and abroad, including the Emperor's Cup, the Asian Cup Winners Cup and the Asian Super Cup.

In 1998, Sato Labs announced that it was pulling its financial support of the club. However, instead of simply dissolving the club or finding another investor, ANA, the team's other chief sponsor, met with Nissan Motors, the primary sponsor of crosstown rivals Yokohama Marinos, and announced that the two Yokohama clubs would merge, with Flügels players joining the Marinos.

Although the "F" added to the new club name, "Yokohama F. Marinos" is meant to represent the merger of the two clubs, Flügels supporters rejected the merger. Instead, the supporter club followed the socio model used by FC Barcelona and founded Yokohama F.C., the first professional Japanese football club owned and operated by its members.[1]

On January 1, 1999, Flügels won their final match, the Emperor's Cup final against Shimizu S-Pulse, 2-1.

Flügels were not the first club to withdraw from the Japanese top flight and fold; in 1976, Eidai Industries from Yamaguchi Prefecture had been closed down by its parent company due to rising costs of maintaining a top-flight team.

Record as J. League member

Season Div. Tms. Pos. Attendance/G J. League Cup Emperor's Cup Asia
1992 - - - - Group Stage 2nd Round - -
1993 J1 10 6 15,464 Semi-final Winner - -
1994 J1 12 7 19,438 2nd Round 2nd Round - -
1995 J1 14 13 15,802 - 2nd Round CWC Winner
1996 J1 16 3 13,877 Group Stage 4th Round - -
1997 J1 17 6 10,084 Semi-final Final - -
1998 J1 18 7 15,895 Group Stage Winner - -
Key

Honours

Domestic

International

Notable former players

Japan:

Argentina:

Brazil:

El Salvador:

Paraguay:

Portugal:

Russia:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Maurer, Harry (2000-12-11). "As Fans Build a Team of Their Own...Yokohama Readies for the World Cup". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2007-01-16.

Further reading

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