2008 J.League Division 2

Football league season

J.League Division 2
Season	2008
Champions	Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1st J2 title 1st D2 title
Promoted	Sanfrecce Hiroshima Montedio Yamagata
Matches played	315
Goals scored	851 (2.7 per match)
Top goalscorer	Hisato Satō (28 goals total)
Highest attendance	36,945 (Round 24, Yokohama vs. Thespa)
Lowest attendance	1,036 (Round 17, HollyHock vs. Vortis)
Average attendance	7,072
← 2007 2009 →

The 2008 J. League Division 2 season is the 37th season of the second-tier club football in Japan and the 10th season since the establishment of J2 League. The season started on March 8 and ended on December 6.

In this season, the number of participating clubs was increased by two, making the total number, fifteen. Unlike the first nine seasons, the clubs played in triple round-robin format, instead of quadruple round-robin format. At the end of the season, top two clubs were promoted and third-placed club advanced to the Pro/Rele Series. There were no relegation to third-tier Japan Football League.

General

Promotion and relegation

At the end of the 2007 season, Consadole Sapporo, Tokyo Verdy 1969 and Kyoto Sanga were promoted to J1
At the end of the 2007 season, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Ventforet Kofu and Yokohama FC were relegated to J2
At the end of the 2007 season, Rosso Kumamoto and FC Gifu were promoted from the JFL.

Changes in competition format

The Division 2 was expanded to 15 clubs.
The new J2 format will consist of triple round-robin instead of quadruple round-robin to reduce the games played by team to 42 games.

Changes in clubs

Rosso Kumamoto was renamed Roasso Kumamoto before joining the League.

Clubs

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Locations of the 2008 J.League 2 teams

Following fifteen clubs played in J. League Division 2 during 2008 season. Of these clubs, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Ventforet Kofu, and Yokohama F.C. relegated from Division 1 last year. Also, Roasso Kumamoto and F.C. Gifu newly joined from Japan Football League.

Vegalta Sendai
Montedio Yamagata
Mito HollyHock
Thespa Kusatsu
Yokohama F.C.
Shonan Bellmare
Ventforet Kofu
F.C. Gifu
Cerezo Osaka
Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Tokushima Vortis
Ehime F.C.
Avispa Fukuoka
Sagan Tosu
Roasso Kumamoto

League format

Fifteen clubs will play in triple round-robin format, a total of 42 games each. A club receives 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, and 0 points for a loss. The clubs are ranked by points, and tie breakers are, in the following order:

Goal differential
Goals scored
Head-to-head results
Disciplinary points

A draw would be conducted, if necessary. However, if two clubs are tied at the first place, both clubs will be declared as the champions. The top two clubs will be promoted to J1, while the 3rd placed club plays a two-legged Promotion/relegation series.

Changes from Previous Year

Thirteen participating clubs (2006–2007) to fifteen clubs (2008)
Quadruple round-robin format (1999–2007) to triple round-robin format (2008–2009)
Introduction of Disciplinary points for tie breaker (2008–)

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion
1	Sanfrecce Hiroshima (C, P)	42	31	7	4	99	35	+64	100	Promotion to 2009 J. League Division 1
2	Montedio Yamagata (P)	42	23	9	10	66	40	+26	78	Promotion to 2009 J. League Division 1
3	Vegalta Sendai	42	18	16	8	62	47	+15	70	2008 promotion/relegation Series
4	Cerezo Osaka	42	21	6	15	81	60	+21	69
5	Shonan Bellmare	42	19	8	15	68	48	+20	65
6	Sagan Tosu	42	19	7	16	50	51	−1	64
7	Ventforet Kofu	42	15	14	13	56	47	+9	59
8	Avispa Fukuoka	42	15	13	14	55	66	−11	58
9	Thespa Kusatsu	42	13	14	15	45	52	−7	53
10	Yokohama FC	42	11	17	14	51	56	−5	50
11	Mito HollyHock	42	13	8	21	52	70	−18	47
12	Roasso Kumamoto	42	10	13	19	46	72	−26	43
13	FC Gifu	42	10	12	20	41	69	−28	42
14	Ehime FC	42	9	10	23	39	66	−27	37
15	Tokushima Vortis	42	7	8	27	40	72	−32	29

Updated to match(es) played on December 6, 2008. Source: J. League Division 2
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted

Final results

Rounds 1 & 2
Home \ Away	SFR	MON	VEG	CER	BEL	SAG	VEN	AVI	SPA	YFC	HOL	ROS	GIF	EHI	VOR
Sanfrecce Hiroshima		1–0	0–1	4–1	5–2	1–0	1–2	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–2	2–2	4–0	3–0	2–1
Montedio Yamagata	2–1		3–0	0–2	1–0	3–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	3–1	3–1	3–5	3–0	2–0
Vegalta Sendai	1–1	3–2		0–0	2–2	3–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	3–3	0–0	1–1	0–1	1–1
Cerezo Osaka	1–2	1–3	2–1		2–0	0–1	3–3	2–1	1–2	1–2	1–2	1–0	1–0	2–0	1–0
Shonan Bellmare	0–2	1–1	1–0	3–0		2–1	1–0	4–0	2–3	4–1	0–1	4–1	4–2	4–1	2–3
Sagan Tosu	0–1	1–0	1–2	1–0	1–0		2–1	1–3	1–1	1–0	3–0	1–1	0–0	2–1	2–1
Ventforet Kofu	0–2	1–0	2–2	3–2	0–4	1–2		2–2	1–2	2–1	2–0	3–1	1–1	1–0	0–0
Avispa Fukuoka	0–3	0–3	2–0	0–1	2–2	2–0	0–2		1–1	3–2	2–1	2–4	1–5	2–0	2–1
Thespa Kusatsu	0–2	1–1	0–0	1–3	1–2	1–0	0–0	1–2		0–0	2–1	2–0	1–1	2–1	2–0
Yokohama FC	1–2	2–5	1–1	1–1	3–2	0–0	0–0	2–1	0–0		1–0	5–0	0–1	1–0	1–1
Mito HollyHock	1–2	2–1	3–4	0–2	0–2	2–1	1–0	2–3	2–2	2–2		2–2	1–3	1–0	1–0
Roasso Kumamoto	1–2	1–2	2–2	3–2	0–2	0–1	2–1	1–2	2–1	1–1	1–3		0–2	1–0	3–0
FC Gifu	1–1	2–1	0–1	0–5	0–0	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–1	2–3	0–1	0–0		0–3	2–1
Ehime FC	0–2	0–0	1–1	1–4	1–1	1–2	2–1	1–1	1–2	2–2	2–0	2–1	0–0		1–0
Tokushima Vortis	1–4	1–2	1–3	2–0	1–1	0–4	1–3	3–1	2–3	0–2	2–0	2–0	0–1	0–3

Updated to match(es) played on August 10, 2008. Source: J. League Division 2
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Round 3
Home \ Away	SFR	MON	VEG	CER	BEL	SAG	VEN	AVI	SPA	YFC	HOL	ROS	GIF	EHI	VOR
Sanfrecce Hiroshima					2–0	5–1		4–0	4–3				7–1	4–1	3–0
Montedio Yamagata	0–4				1–0	0–1	1–1	1–0			1–0	1–1
Vegalta Sendai	1–1	0–1						3–0	1–0		2–3		1–0	1–0
Cerezo Osaka	2–3	2–2	3–4		2–1						2–1			2–1	3–2
Shonan Bellmare			1–2				1–0		4–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	3–0
Sagan Tosu			4–1	1–4	0–1		1–1		3–2	3–2		1–2
Ventforet Kofu	2–0		1–1	2–3				0–1	2–2			5–1	4–0
Avispa Fukuoka				3–2	3–1	2–2				0–0		2–2		2–2	3–1
Thespa Kusatsu		0–0		0–4				1–1			0–1	0–0	3–1		1–0
Yokohama FC	1–1	1–4	2–2	2–2			0–0		1–1					2–2
Mito HollyHock	1–4					1–1	1–2	0–0		2–3			1–4		2–0
Roasso Kumamoto	1–2		0–4	2–2						1–0	0–2		1–1		2–2
FC Gifu		1–2		0–6		1–0		1–1		0–1				0–1	1–1
Ehime FC		2–3			2–2	0–2	0–1		1–0		2–2	0–1
Tokushima Vortis		0–3	1–1		0–0	2–0	0–2			1–2				5–0

Updated to match(es) played on December 6, 2008. Source: J. League Division 2
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals^[1]
1	Hisato Satō	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	28
2	Yutaka Takahashi	Roasso Kumamoto	19
3	Naoki Ishihara	Shonan Bellmare	18
3	Yoshihito Fujita	Sagan Tosu	18
5	Tomoyuki Arata	Mito HollyHock	17
6	Anderson	Yokohama FC	16
	Rui Komatsu	Cerezo Osaka	16
	Shinji Kagawa	Cerezo Osaka	16
9	Kōji Morisaki	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	14
	Yojiro Takahagi	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	14
	Tetsuya Ōkubo	Avispa Fukuoka	14

Attendance

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Vegalta Sendai	295,679	23,745	10,317	14,080	−4.1%^†
2	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	227,631	19,349	4,622	10,840	−5.1%^†
3	Cerezo Osaka	221,629	21,200	5,554	10,554	+59.3%^†
4	Ventforet Kofu	217,428	14,521	7,267	10,354	−24.6%^†
5	Avispa Fukuoka	211,651	15,158	5,729	10,079	+5.8%^†
6	Sagan Tosu	152,486	21,029	3,869	7,261	+18.8%^†
7	Yokohama FC	142,655	36,945	2,536	6,793	−51.6%^†
8	Montedio Yamagata	131,725	15,422	2,479	6,273	+47.8%^†
9	Shonan Bellmare	125,865	11,660	3,543	5,994	+28.2%^†
10	Roasso Kumamoto	110,860	20,635	2,026	5,279	+47.9%^‡
11	Thespa Kusatsu	88,510	8,096	1,819	4,215	+10.7%^†
12	Tokushima Vortis	81,093	11,897	2,146	3,862	+17.4%^†
13	FC Gifu	78,650	8,374	2,028	3,745	+6.1%^‡
14	Ehime FC	77,775	7,809	2,088	3,704	+11.7%^†
15	Mito HollyHock	63,933	5,573	1,036	3,044	+26.0%^†
	League total	2,227,570	36,945	1,036	7,072	+8.4%^†

Updated to games played on December 6, 2008
Source: J. League Division 2
Notes:
^† Team played previous season in J1.
^‡ Team played previous season in JFL.

References

^ "2008 J2 Top Scorers". j-league.or.jp. J-League. Archived from the original on 2011-06-29. Retrieved 17 April 2010.

Japanese club football

First-tier club football seasons, 1965–present
Japan Soccer League 1965–1992 Japan Soccer League Division 1 since 1972	1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92
J.League 1993–present J.League Division 1/J1 League since 1999	1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
List of champions J.League Championship Promotion / Relegation series Super Cup

Second-tier club football seasons, 1972–present
Japan Soccer League Division 2 1972–1992	1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92
(former) Japan Football League 1992–1998 (former) Japan Football League Division 1 1992–1993	1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998
J2 League 1999–present	1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
List of champions Promotion / Relegation series

Third-tier club football seasons, 1992–93, 1999–present
(former) Japan Football League Division 2 1992–93	1992 1993
No national third tier, 1994–1998
Japan Football League 1999–2013	1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
J3 League 2014–present	2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
List of champions

Fourth-tier club football seasons, 2014–present
Japan Football League 2014–present	2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

Regional level club football seasons, 1966–present
Japanese Regional Leagues 1966–present	1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Regional Champions League Shakaijin Cup

Emperor's Cup seasons, 1921–present
Emperor's Cup 1921–present	1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 ~~1926~~ 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 ~~1934~~ 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 WW II 1946 ~~1947~~ ~~1948~~ 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Super Cup

Emperor's Cup seasons, 1921–present

Emperor's Cup
1921–present

Super Cup

League Cup seasons, 1976–present
JSL Cup 1976–1991	1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991
J.League Cup 1992–present	1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Suruga Bank Championship

Football clubs in Japan, 2024
J1 League	Albirex Niigata Avispa Fukuoka Cerezo Osaka Gamba Osaka Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo Júbilo Iwata Kashima Antlers Kashiwa Reysol Kawasaki Frontale Kyoto Sanga FC FC Machida Zelvia Nagoya Grampus Sagan Tosu Sanfrecce Hiroshima Shonan Bellmare FC Tokyo Tokyo Verdy Urawa Red Diamonds Vissel Kobe Yokohama F. Marinos
J2 League	Blaublitz Akita Ehime FC Fagiano Okayama Fujieda MYFC Iwaki FC JEF United Chiba Kagoshima United FC Mito HollyHock Montedio Yamagata Oita Trinita Renofa Yamaguchi FC Roasso Kumamoto Shimizu S-Pulse Thespakusatsu Gunma Tochigi SC Tokushima Vortis V-Varen Nagasaki Vegalta Sendai Ventforet Kofu Yokohama FC
J3 League	AC Nagano Parceiro Azul Claro Numazu FC Gifu FC Imabari Fukushima United FC Gainare Tottori Giravanz Kitakyushu Iwate Grulla Morioka Kamatamare Sanuki Kataller Toyama Matsumoto Yamaga FC Nara Club Omiya Ardija FC Osaka FC Ryukyu SC Sagamihara Tegevajaro Miyazaki Vanraure Hachinohe YSCC Yokohama Zweigen Kanazawa
100 Year Plan clubs	Criacao Shinjuku Nankatsu SC Reilac Shiga Tokyo 23 Vonds Ichihara
Japan Football League	Briobecca Urayasu Criacao Shinjuku Honda FC Kochi United Maruyasu Okazaki Minebea Mitsumi Okinawa SV Reilac Shiga ReinMeer Aomori Sony Sendai FC Tiamo Hirakata Tochigi City Tokyo Musashino United Suzuka Point Getters Veertien Mie Verspah Oita
Defunct clubs (clubs belonging to nationwide leagues only)	Fukushima FC Arte Takasaki JEF Reserves Sagawa Express Tokyo NKK SC Yokohama Flügels ALO's Hokuriku Jatco SC Hagoromo Club Toyota Higashi-Fuji Seino Transportation Cosmo Oil Yokkaichi Sagawa Shiga NTT Kinki/Kansai SP Kyoto Tanabe Pharmaceutical Dainichi Cable Industries Sagawa Express Osaka Eidai SC Teijin SC Nippon Steel Yawata Tosu Futures Profesor Miyazaki J.League U-22 Selection FC Tokyo U-23 Cerezo Osaka U-23 Gamba Osaka U-23 Kagura Shimane

2008 in Japanese football

« 2007

2009 »

League competitions

Men	J.League Division 1 J.League Division 2 Japan Football League Regional Leagues
Women	L.League

Cup competitions

Men	Emperor's Cup (Final) J.League Cup (Final) Super Cup
Women	Empress's Cup (Final)

AFC competitions

Men	AFC Champions League FIFA Club World Cup Suruga Bank Championship

Related to national teams

Men	Summary FIFA World Cup qualification East Asian Football Championship
Women	Summary
Youth	AFC U-19 Championship qualification AFC U-16 Championship qualification

Club seasons
J.League Division 1	Consadole Sapporo Kashima Antlers Urawa Red Diamonds Omiya Ardija JEF United Chiba Kashiwa Reysol FC Tokyo Tokyo Verdy Kawasaki Frontale Yokohama F. Marinos Albirex Niigata Shimizu S-Pulse Júbilo Iwata Nagoya Grampus Kyoto Sanga FC Gamba Osaka Vissel Kobe Oita Trinita
J.League Division 2	Avispa Fukuoka Cerezo Osaka Ehime FC FC Gifu Montedio Yamagata Mito HollyHock Roasso Kumamoto Sagan Tosu Sanfrecce Hiroshima Shonan Bellmare Tokushima Vortis Thespa Kusatsu Vegalta Sendai Ventforet Kofu Yokohama FC