Japan wants to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2031 to ignite the domestic game and cut the gap on Europe and North America, the country’s soccer chief told reporters on Monday.
In 2011 Japan won the competition, but they have since been overtaken, with women’s soccer booming in Europe in the past few years.
“We would like to raise the value of women’s football here,” Japan Football Association president Tsuneyasu Miyamoto said in an interview at the association’s headquarters in Tokyo, in front of a giant photograph of Japan’s World Cup-winning team.
Photo: AFP
Miyamoto was captain of the Japan men’s team when they cohosted the World Cup with South Korea in 2002, a tournament that helped spark huge interest in soccer among the Japanese public.
Now 47, he took over as head of the association this year and has similar hopes for the 2031 Women’s World Cup. The country has never hosted the event.
However, Japan is likely to face stiff competition for hosting rights, with a joint bid from the US and Mexico expected. England and China are also reportedly interested.
“We have the WE League, and it has been struggling to gather an audience,” Miyamoto said. “We would like to increase the number of women players here.”
The professional women’s WE League launched in 2021, but it has failed to attract anything like the attendances and revenue enjoyed by women’s leagues in Europe and the US.
Japan’s women have not gone beyond the quarter-finals at a world cup since they lost to the US in the 2015 final.
Miyamoto said that Japan “could have done better” to capitalize on the 2011 triumph, which triggered massive interest in women’s soccer before it quickly fizzled out.
The former defender wants Japan to develop a more passionate soccer culture, saying that his stint with Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg “inspired me a lot.”
“They have their own culture, they have football in their daily lives,” he said.
“We haven’t built that kind of community here in Japan. I’d like to make football our culture in Japan,” he added.
Miyamoto played 71 times for his country, captaining the side at the 2002 and 2006 world cups.
He spent most of his career in the domestic J. League, at a time when only a few Japan internationals played for European clubs.
Japanese players are now all over Europe and the national team has benefitted as a result, regularly appearing in the World Cup knockout rounds.
“It’s very normal for them to play in the Champions League,” Miyamoto said of the current generation of players. “When facing big teams like Germany or Spain ... they have no fear.”
The steady stream of players to Europe has helped Japan’s national team, but also posed problems for J. League clubs.
Miyamoto said that they need to keep producing talent, but argues that “transfer fees for Japanese players are low compared to players from South America.”
Brighton & Hove Albion paid just ￡2.5 million (US$3.24 million) to sign winger Kaoru Mitoma in 2021, while prolific scorer Kyogo Furuhashi joined Celtic for ￡4.5 million the same year.
“In Europe clubs are very strong, but in Japan clubs are not that strong,” Miyamoto said. “Players who only have six months left on their contract are still playing in official matches. After the season, they will be free to go anywhere, and in that case, clubs can’t get any money.”
Miyamoto wants to bring a new way of thinking to Japanese soccer.
He is a graduate of the FIFA Master sports executive program and also had a stint coaching J. League side Gamba Osaka.
He is the first Japan Football Association president to have played at a World Cup and the youngest since the end of World War II.
“Former players, especially players who played at a high level, know how the football world works,” Miyamoto said. “Forty-seven is not young as a person. Talking about leaders of national organizations, maybe 47 is young. Maybe a new generation might be able to bring something new into this world.”
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
CHANCE TO QUALIFY: Both teams now have three points from two games, and Taiwan sit ahead of Vietnam and behind Japan, who last night beat India 11-0 Taiwan yesterday defeated Vietnam 1-0 to move into second place in Group C at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup with one match remaining. Su Yu-hsuan scored the decisive goal in the 26th minute after Taiwan midfielder Saki Matsunaga’s shot hit the crossbar, leaving Su to nod the rebound into an empty net for the team which won the last of their three Asian Cup titles in 1981. It was a deserved victory for Taiwan, 2-0 losers to Japan on Wednesday, who created several chances to extend their lead. Vietnam, the 2022 quarter-finalist, beat India in their opener, but struggled to
RSS