Japan eyes parity with English Premier League by aligning calendar with Europe
J.League chairman believes switch will help clubs take advantage of European summer spending, demand ‘proper amount’ for their players.
Japan’s J.League could one day compete with England’s Premier League if a calendar switch helped clubs bring in bigger transfer fees, its chairman has said ahead of the new season.
Japanese teams have sold a steady stream of players to Europe, including Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma, but the sums involved are only a fraction of the billions sloshing around the global transfer market.
J.League chairman Yoshikazu Nonomura wants to change that and he believes he has taken the first step by ditching the traditional February-to-December season to align with Europe.
A shortened interim competition lasting until June begins on Friday, before a full league campaign kicks off after the World Cup.
Nonomura said that would allow J.League clubs to take full advantage of European summer spending sprees and make up ground on the world’s top leagues.
“If we do well on the business side, it wouldn’t be a surprise if 20 years from now there was a different situation to what we have now, where the five biggest leagues are all in Europe,” he said.