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The story
FC Osaka was unable to secure a schedule at its home venue, Hanazono Rugby Stadium, forcing the club to hold its December 12 J3 Matchday 22 clash with SC Sagamihara outside Osaka Prefecture altogether — at “BASIC Stadium Toin” in Toin, Inabe District, Mie Prefecture. President Yusuke Kondo apologized both for the delay in deciding the venue and for giving up on a hometown fixture, and revealed that the club would be unable to meet the J.League regulation requiring at least 80% of home games to be played in its designated hometown of Higashiosaka. On 5ch, discussion spread to whether there are actual penalties for violating the rule, the fact that Hanazono prioritizes rugby use, and broader assessments of the club’s management.
On the 12th, the J.League announced the previously undecided schedule for the 2026/27 Meiji Yasuda J3 League Matchday 22 fixture between FC Osaka and SC Sagamihara.
The match will be held on Saturday, December 12 at 3:00 PM at “BASIC Stadium Toin (Basuta)” in Toin, Inabe District, Mie Prefecture. Home team FC Osaka had initially aimed to host the game at its home ground, Hanazono Rugby Stadium in Higashiosaka, but could not work out scheduling and facility-maintenance arrangements. In the end, the club couldn’t even secure a venue in its hometown of Higashiosaka, or anywhere else in Osaka Prefecture.
Following this decision, FC Osaka President and CEO Yusuke Kondo expressed gratitude that a venue in Mie Prefecture had been secured, while apologizing for the delay in deciding and announcing the venue and for the failure to hold the game in the club’s hometown. He went on to reveal, “It has become difficult for us to comply with the J.League regulation stipulating that at least 80% of our league home games be held in our hometown of Higashiosaka.”
Source: soccer-king.jp / Original article here
What people said
This is the only option, isn't it
What's there to even think about
Special exemptions will keep getting issued for another 50 years
Hanazono's outdated, run-down home ground is garbage too
Get kicked out of the J.League?
Nothing — there's an exception clause for that
Looking at the regulations, there doesn't seem to be any penalty spelled out
Seems like it's whatever the board decides
What's the deal with people who go out of their way to support FC Osaka?
A city as big as Osaka can't possibly get by with just 2 clubs
Yokohama alone has 3 clubs within the city limits
The league that's basically a parasite, always squabbling with local governments
You keep spreading misinformation, you good?
Soccer clubs get invited in by local governments, you know
Though getting 500 people to show up would be doing well
There's an AEON Mall there at least, but first-timers are gonna be shocked at how deep in the countryside this is
Are they gonna set up shuttle buses for parking like they did for Viatin's games?
We're already halfway through November lol
Though I can't tell if a president who can't build a good relationship with the local community is incompetent or actually capable
Despite screwing up this badly, the kit's still fully sponsored
This FC Osaka president — or rather, owner — seems pretty capable
Probably the type who gets things done
But they'll get the license through some special exemption anyway, so just leave it be
Most soccer fans want to see FC Osaka relegated
Everyone backed the protest banner put up by Zweigen Kanazawa supporters when they got sent to Nishikyogoku
There are plenty of clubs below the JFL trying to break into the J.League, so if you can't run the club properly, step aside and give someone else the spot
Wait, right now it's 1st place Shinjuku, 2nd place 'the gatekeeper'…?
This kind of topic is going to keep coming up every time a club from Tokyo, Osaka, or their surrounding areas gets promoted
Big cities have limited stadiums available, so it's fine to loosen the license criteria for urban clubs
Kyoto is actually closer than Hanazono from Kanazawa's perspective, so what's there even to complain about
Taxpayers didn't cover it, so they ended up having to do it themselves (obviously)
And since they couldn't actually pull that off, we get this sorry result (everyone saw this coming)
It's a bit different — they tricked Higashiosaka City by saying they'd renovate Hanazono No. 2 with their own money and then donate it to the city
Just allow it already, Mr. Chairman (mocking nickname, lit. 'chair guy')
They could even use Consadole's dome
That'd boost its utilization rate
I think that's fine
As long as they never set foot in Higashiosaka again, though
That's exactly why they end up having to use a rugby stadium in the first place
And now that it's switched to a fall-spring season, scheduling clashes are even worse, right?
Hanazono Rugby Stadium gets penalized, but FC Osaka doesn't
A 'tax league' that goes way too easy on its own
This particular case is just too unusual
Though it's true that FC Osaka is bad enough that it'd honestly be better off just disbanding already
Got a counterargument?
That's because the Tigers aren't deceiving any local government or NPB
Is there even a license system for that? Does it violate some team-management requirement?
League One originally ran on a fall-spring calendar, so back when the J.League still ran spring-fall, there was just enough of a gap to squeeze games in
But now that the J.League has also switched to a fall-spring calendar, this is the result
There's no solution except for them to leave — I wonder if the 'soccer pigs' (derogatory slang for soccer fans) are going to start complaining about rugby next lol
Soccer fans including me — 'soccer pigs' and all — think FC Osaka should just be shut down
If FC Osaka keeps getting promoted, Hanazono's attendance will grow too, which means more money coming in
They're basically always near the top of J3, so it wouldn't be surprising if they got promoted any time now
If they make it to J2, I think it'd be fine to prioritize soccer there
Let's just go with 'FC Western Japan'
✗ 'held'
✓ 'kicked off'
Background and Talking Points
Higashiosaka City’s municipal ordinance explicitly states that Hanazono Rugby Stadium gives priority to rugby use. With League One, the top tier of domestic rugby, having shifted to a fall-spring season, scheduling overlaps with the J.League — which now also runs on a fall-spring calendar — have increased. The J3 club license system requires at least 80% of annual home games to be held in the club’s hometown, but the regulations don’t spell out any explicit penalty for violations, and enforcement appears to be left to the board’s discretion. On the thread, opinions were split between those who saw this Mie Prefecture game as a “punishment” and those who viewed it as simply the result of scheduling difficulties. There was also disagreement over the circumstances behind the Hanazono No. 2 ground renovation — whether the club had planned to fund it themselves and donate it to the city, or had expected the city to cover the cost — and it’s worth noting that the background to the strained relationship between the club and Higashiosaka City is hard to fully piece together from this article alone.
*This article is composed of excerpts and a summary from the 5ch (Geisoku Sokuho+) thread “[Soccer] FC Osaka Struggles to Comply with J.League’s 80%+ Hometown Game Rule… Matchday 22 Sagamihara Game to Be Held in Mie Prefecture.”
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