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The story
Former Japan national team midfielder Keisuke Honda posted his views on X (formerly Twitter) calling for better treatment of referees, after J2 side Fujieda’s manager Tomoaki Makino showed anger toward a referee. Responding to Honda’s claims that “referees should get paid more” and that “the budget to cut is the money spent on coaching licenses,” posters on 5ch repeatedly questioned the credibility of criticism coming from Honda himself, who doesn’t hold a coaching license — and the discussion expanded into distrust over Honda’s apparent fixation on becoming Japan’s national team manager and his past conduct.
“Let referees get paid more” — Keisuke Honda shares his take on soccer’s referee problem: “The budget to cut is the money spent on pro coaching licenses”
Former Japan national team midfielder Keisuke Honda (40), who now plays for FC Jurong in the Singapore Premier League, updated his X (formerly Twitter) account on the 25th.
The post appeared to reference the J2 match between Fujieda and Tokushima on the 24th, in which Fujieda manager Tomoaki Makino openly showed his anger at a J2 referee.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
"Ref" (レフリー)?
Technically it'd be pronounced something like "Reh-feh-ria" (joking about how to transliterate the word)
You can get a pro coaching license in like 3 years though
Matchday 8: Sunderland v Leeds, 10/26 [Premier League]
[Japanese commentary] Play-by-play: Yasuo Kurashiki / Analysis: Keisuke Tsuboi
Mon, Oct 26 — streaming starts 1:00 AM | kickoff 1:30 AM
https://video.unext.jp/livedetail/LIV0000015552
Zero credibility
Wasn't Hiroshima's youth academy supposed to prioritize academics?
Just put a microchip in the jerseys and let AI make the calls
If AI handled VAR too, that'd cut down on staff
There's also that weird guy in sunglasses who left soccer behind — Japan's national team sure produces a lot of oddballs as its "face" lol
The J.League already raised referee allowances last year
It's like some delinquent saying, "I keep failing the written test, but I've been driving around unlicensed for years, so my skills are plenty — just hand me the license already."
In racing, that type does occasionally show up though — like Max Verstappen, a genius
Do that, and calls for him will naturally pick up on their own.
If he's going to boast that he doesn't need a license, he should show talent on that level.
If he can't even pull that off, then winning a World Cup under manager Honda is a pipe dream.
Nah, everyone's already well aware
Honda doesn't have the talent for soccer
Yeah, he used World Cup TV broadcasts to relentlessly campaign for the national team manager job
And as always, the media kept running fabricated stories about this nonexistent "Honda is popular, people want him as manager" narrative
Re: #107
Honda only thinks about his own rise to the top
Anyone who gets in the way of that, he sees as an enemy doing him harm — and that's why he grows to hate them
What is it about licenses that he hates so much
There are just too many teams to begin with
It goes all the way down to J3 now — the pool's widened and there are more J-League teams and matches than before, but hasn't the number of referees shrunk in relative terms?
Low pay and getting complained at on top of it… What Makino did wasn't really a protest anymore, it was basically harassment — he was saying stuff like the refs are low-level.
That's ridiculous — are pro baseball umpires all perfectly accurate with zero complaints then?
It's less about the number of teams and more that there's an obvious limit to what the human eye can judge
Does he really want the manager job that badly
Honda really does have a stalker-ish streak
With AC Milan, he kept pestering them even after being turned away over and over, and eventually got in through the back door
And apparently he called Halilhodžić every single day trying desperately to pull him onto his side
This time too, to force through becoming Japan manager without a license or paying his dues, he'll probably keep pushing by any means necessary
It's less that he wants to be a manager and more that he just wants the title "Japan national team manager" on his résumé
He's said he has no interest in managing a club or developing youth/age-group teams — only the senior national team
It doesn't feel like he wants to make Japan stronger, just that he wants to be the one on top
If he hadn't become a soccer player, he probably would've turned out dangerous
Basically: "In Japan, I'm a special case like Zico or Maradona, so treat me specially."
Correct me if I'm misremembering, but I think Honda actually said licenses are necessary for coaching kids, and that for the pros, it should just be left to each club to responsibly choose its own manager
His original gripe is dissatisfaction with the level of Japanese managers
He thinks the fastest way to raise that level is to increase the number of candidates and build up competition
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Keisuke Honda has a history of questioning Japan’s coaching license system, and this latest post is an extension of that stance. The JFA-certified S-class coaching license takes several years of training and screening to obtain, and license holders must also pay ongoing fees to maintain it. On the other hand, there have long been complaints that the number and treatment of referees haven’t kept pace with the growth in club numbers from J1 down to J3, and Fujieda manager Tomoaki Makino’s protest was also rooted in frustration with the quality of officiating. What divided the thread was the credibility of criticism coming from Honda himself, who doesn’t hold a coaching license — supporters argued that “the point he’s raising is valid regardless,” while critics countered that “he should get the qualification before talking” and that “his obsession with becoming national team manager is showing through.” The discussion also brought up Honda’s history of repeatedly pushing himself onto AC Milan and contacting Vahid Halilhodžić, with suspicion over his underlying motives becoming the central focus of the debate.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Soccer] Keisuke Honda shares his views on the referee issue: “Referees should get paid more” / “The budget to cut is the money spent on coaching licenses”.”
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