1998 Japan Football League

Statistics of Japan Football League in the 1998 season.

Japan Football League

Season	1998
Champions	Tokyo Gas 1st JFL title 1st D2 title
Matches played	240
Goals scored	846 (3.53 per match)
Top goalscorer	Valdney (33 goals)
← 1997           1999 (J2) → 1999 (new JFL) →

Overview

Sony Sendai

Brummell Sendai

Montedio Yamagata

Albirex Niigata

Mito HollyHock

Omiya
Ardija

Tokyo Gas

Kawasaki Frontale

Kokushikan
University

Ventforet
Kofu

Jatco

Honda Motors

Denso

Otsuka FC
Vortis Tokushima

Sagan
Tosu

Oita Trinity

1998 JFL teams

The 1998 season was the seventh and the last of the former Japan Football League. It was contested by 16 teams, and Tokyo Gas won the championship. After the season, nine teams together with J. League Promotion and Relegation series' losers Consadole Sapporo formed the second division of J.League. Other seven clubs together with Regional Leagues promotion series winners Yokogawa Electric and newly created Yokohama FC have formed the new Japan Football League.

Clubs

The following sixteen clubs participated in Japan Football League Division 1 during the 1998 season.

• Albirex Niigata
• Brummell Sendai
• Denso
• Honda Motors
• Jatco
• Kawasaki Frontale
• Kokushikan University
• Mito HollyHock
• Montedio Yamagata
• Oita Trinity
• Omiya Ardija
• Otsuka FC Vortis Tokushima
• Sagan Tosu
• Sony Sendai
• Tokyo Gas
• Ventforet Kofu

Personnel

Club	Head coach
Albirex Niigata	Yoshikazu Nagai
Brummell Sendai	Takekazu Suzuki
Denso
Honda Motors	Mitsunaga Shitara
Jatco
Kawasaki Frontale	Beto Almeida
Kokushikan University	Hideo Osawa
Mito HollyHock	Toshiya Miura
Montedio Yamagata	Nobuhiro Ishizaki
Oita Trinity
Omiya Ardija	Norio Sasaki
Otsuka FC Vortis Tokushima
Sagan Tosu	Hiroshi Sowa
Sony Sendai
Tokyo Gas	Kiyoshi Okuma
Ventforet Kofu

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Non-visa foreign	Former players
Albirex Niigata							Neathan Gibson
Brummell Sendai	Slobodan Dubajić
Denso
Honda Motors	Marcus Vinícius
Jatco
Kawasaki Frontale	Altemir Pessali	José Barreto	Tuto	Valdney	Momodu Mutairu		Betinho
Kokushikan University
Mito HollyHock
Montedio Yamagata	Marquinho	Sidiclei
Oita Trinity	Will
Omiya Ardija	Jan Veenhof	Jeroen Boere
Otsuka FC Vortis Tokushima
Sagan Tosu						Pak Yong-ho
Sony Sendai
Tokyo Gas	Amaral	Angelo				Sandro
Ventforet Kofu	Baron

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	PKW	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion
1	Tokyo Gas (C)	30	21	3	0	6	67	17	+50	69	Formed J.League Division 2
2	Kawasaki Frontale	30	22	1	0	7	72	24	+48	68	J.League Division 1 Pro/Rele Series
3	Montedio Yamagata	30	20	2	0	8	69	38	+31	64	Formed J.League Division 2
4	Ventforet Kofu	30	16	5	1	8	74	40	+34	59
5	Honda Motors	30	16	3	0	11	57	45	+12	54	Formed new Japan Football League
6	Oita Trinity	30	14	1	1	14	51	51	0	45	Formed J.League Division 2
7	Brummell Sendai	30	10	5	3	12	55	53	+2	43
8	Sagan Tosu	30	11	3	0	16	40	55	−15	39
9	Otsuka FC Vortis Tokushima	30	11	2	1	16	58	48	+10	38	Formed new Japan Football League
10	Denso	30	11	2	1	16	48	59	−11	38
11	Albirex Niigata	30	10	2	0	18	39	47	−8	34	Formed J.League Division 2
12	Omiya Ardija	30	9	2	0	19	51	56	−5	31
13	Sony Sendai	30	7	1	0	22	42	71	−29	23	Formed new Japan Football League
14	Mito HollyHock	30	7	1	0	22	37	69	−32	23
15	Kokushikan University	30	5	3	0	22	42	76	−34	21
16	Jatco	30	4	3	0	23	44	97	−53	18

Updated to match(es) played on November 1998. Source: Montedio Yamagata website
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champion

Results

Home \ Away	ALB	ARD	BRU	DEN	FRO	HOL	HON	JAT	KSU	MON	OVT	SAG	SON	TGA	TRI	VEN
Albirex Niigata		1–2	2–3	0–2	0–2	2–1OT	5–1	2–1	2–0	2–0	2–1	1–2	2–1OT	1–2OT	0–1OT	3–1
Omiya Ardija	2–0		1–2	3–4OT	0–2	3–0	1–2OT	3–0	1–0OT	0–2	4–1	0–2	2–1OT	0–3	3–0	1–4
Brummell Sendai	0–2	2–2PK 5–4		2–1OT	2–3	3–0	0–1	6–1	2–1	2–1OT	3–2OT	5–1	2–1OT	0–3	1–0OT	0–1
Denso	3–0	3–2OT	2–4		1–3	3–4	0–1	2–1	2–1	3–2	1–3	0–1	3–0	1–5	2–3	1–2
Kawasaki Frontale	2–0	3–2	2–0	6–0		3–0	0–1OT	3–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	7–0	1–2	0–2	1–2	1–0OT
Mito HollyHock	2–1	3–1	2–1	1–2	1–5		0–3	0–1	3–2	0–3	0–7	0–1	2–1OT	0–1	1–3	1–6
Honda Motors	3–1	2–1	1–3	2–1	1–0OT	2–0		2–1	5–1	1–3	2–1	1–0	3–4OT	0–2	2–1	1–2OT
Jatco	1–2	3–2OT	1–3	3–1	3–2	1–5	3–10		1–2OT	3–6	2–1	3–2OT	0–5	0–1	1–2	2–7
Kokushikan University	2–1	0–2	2–2PK 1–4	0–2	0–4	1–4	1–3	3–2		1–4	4–3	4–1	3–2OT	1–6	2–3	1–3
Montedio Yamagata	1–0	3–1	1–1PK 4–5	4–2	1–0	3–2	3–2	5–0	3–2		1–0	2–1OT	6–1	1–3	3–1	3–2
Otsuka FC Vortis Tokushima	1–2	0–3	1–0	1–1PK 4–5	1–3	1–0	4–0	3–1	5–3	0–1		3–1	3–0	1–2OT	2–2PK 4–2	1–2
Sagan Tosu	1–0	2–1OT	5–0	1–2	2–5	2–1	1–2	2–1	1–2OT	1–0OT	2–3OT		2–1OT	0–3	1–0	1–0
Sony Sendai	1–2	3–4	1–3	0–1	0–5	1–0	2–1	3–4OT	1–2	0–2	1–3	2–3		0–1	2–1	3–1
Tokyo Gas	2–1	2–1	3–0	0–1	0–1	1–0OT	2–0	5–0	3–0	0–1	0–1OT	2–0	3–0		5–0	2–1
Oita Trinity	2–1	3–1	3–1	3–1	0–1	2–2PK 5–3	1–2	5–1	2–1	2–3OT	0–4	2–0	1–3	3–2		0–1OT
Ventforet Kofu	4–1	3–2OT	6–2	1–0	2–3	3–2OT	1–0	2–2PK 4–3	2–0	3–1	4–1	2–1OT	5–0	2–1	1–3

Updated to match(es) played on November 1998. Source: Montedio Yamagata website
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Promotion and relegation

Kawasaki Frontale were awarded a spot in the first round of J.League Promotion and Relegation Series where they have played against Avispa Fukuoka.

Avispa Fukuoka	3 – 2 (a.e.t.)	Kawasaki Frontale
Kudo 24' Yamashita 89' Fernando 104'	Report	Ito 17' Tuto 61'

November 19, 1998
19:00

Hakatanomori Stadium, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka

Attendance: 12,535

Avispa proceeded to the next round and Frontale entered the second division.

Successor seasons

• 1999 J.League Division 2
• 1999 Japan Football League