Yokohama Flügels

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Yokohama Flügels
横浜フリューゲルス
logo
Full name Yokohama Flügels
Founded 1964 (as All Nippon Airways FC)
Dissolved 1999
Ground Mitsuzawa Stadium, Yokohama
(Capacity 15,046)
Team colours Team colours Team colours
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Home colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
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Away colours

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 1999. The club was originally the company team of All Nippon Airways and played in the Japan Soccer League, before it became a professional club and joined the J. League. The club's name springs from the German word Flügel, meaning wing or wings ("Flügels" is an anglicised plural, which in the original German has only one form which can both represent singular and plural). The name points to the club's former sponsor.

Contents

[edit] History

Despite never winning either the JSL or J. League title, they were top contenders from the late 1980's 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, one of the team's primary sponsors, 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.

[edit] J. League results

Year Stage Place Pld W L D F A
1993 1st 7 18 8 10 24 21
2nd 7 18 8 10 20 30
1994 1st 5 22 13 9 36 27
2nd 8 22 9 13 31 33
1995 1st 13 26 9 17 42 54
2nd 11 26 11 15 36 57
1996 3 30 21 9 58 44
1997 1st 2 16 12 4 35 16
2nd 11 16 7 9 23 27
1998 1st 8 17 10 7 33 32
2nd 7 17 8 8 37 32
Total 228 117 111 375 373

[edit] Honours

[edit] Domestic

Emperor's Cup (2): 1993, 1998

[edit] International

Asian Cup Winners Cup (1): 1994-95
Asian Super Cup (1): 1994-95

[edit] Former players

[edit] See also

[edit] Trivia

  • In Japanese popular soccer manga Captain Tsubasa, one of the main characters Wakashimazu joined Flügels after he graduated from his high school.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading