3 Mar 2008(Mon)

March 1, 2008: One of the highlights of the football season is over before a ball has been kicked.

The J.League's "Kick Off Conference" took place at the Tokyo Prince Park Tower Hotel on Friday afternoon, and featured the manager and a player from all 33 clubs, among them Okubo, Iwamasa, Keita Suzuki, Shimomura, Tamada and Tokunaga.

One J.League executive described it as a "one-stop shop" for the media regarding season preview work, and 700 media took advantage of this lavish public relations exercise.

I can't remember anything like this at all back in England, other than the Player of the Year award in London at the end of the season, organised by the Football Writers' Association.

At those events, players and managers were out in force, but, apart from the official business, it was all "off the record", and a chance to relax and chat over dinner.

The situations in England and Japan, of course, are very different.

English football does not need to provide such an organised pre-season event because the game is part of everyday life and the media attention never wavers. The media will turn up no matter how squalid the facilities, how hostile the reception, or how uncooperative the managers and players on occasions may be.

The J.League, on the other hand, had to woo the media in the early days, and hang on to them in a sporting establishment steeped in the history and tradition of baseball and sumo.

And the J.League has done a fantastic job in this aspect, as evidenced by the massive turnout on Friday and the ocean of information available at the 33 colourful club kiosks.

The main theme of the official part of the programme was the J.League's aim to attract 11 million fans in season 2010.

Last year the figure was 8.8 million, and it will need an increase of 7 per cent each season to achieve that goal. The target this year is 9.5 million for J1, J2, Nabisco Cup and the home games of the three clubs in the AFC Champions League, and this looks well within reach.

Clearly the J.League is firmly established in Japan's sporting world, but I cannot imagine the day when the authoritires here take the media for granted and scrap this glittering "one-stop shop".

ends