is a football (soccer) club that plays in J. League. On February 1, 2005, the club changed its name from JEF United Ichihara to the current name after Chiba city had joined Ichihara, Chiba as its hometown in 2003. The club name, JEF -taken from JR East and Furukawa Electric- and United, represents the unity of the team and its home town. The club is also known as or . JEF are one of only six teams to have competed in Japan's top flight of football every year since its inception in 1993.

History

The team began as the company team, in 1946. As the company team, it won the Japan Soccer League twice, the Emperor's Cup four times and the JSL League Cup three times. Furukawa also won the 1986/87 Asia Club Championship, the top club honor in Asia.

Since the league's inception in 1965, the team has always played in the top flight in Japan and is the only Japanese team to never be relegated from either the JSL1 or J1. They did finish the 1978 season in a relegation position (last of 10) but stayed up after beating Honda F.C. 1-0 on aggregate in a two-legged playoff. The last place was not automatically relegated until the 1980 season.

In 1991, it merged with the JR East's company team to become and rebranded itself as JEF United Ichihara upon the J. League's founding in 1993. The team initially built itself around the former Germany national football team player Pierre Littbarski.

From 1998 to 2000, the team struggled to stay in the J1 league and it began a series of efforts to be a competitive team. Since the hiring of Ivica Osim in 2003, JEF United has contended for the league title each year despite limited resources and struggling attendance.

On July 16, 2006, Osim left the team to take over the coach of the Japan national team and was succeeded by Amar Osim, his son and assistant coach. On December 5, 2007, it was announced that Osim had been sacked after the club's lowly 13th place finish in the 2007 season.

After 13 games in the 2008 season Josip Kuže was sacked as team manager. On 8th May 2008 it was announced that the new manager was Alex Miller. Miller was First Team Coach at Liverpool FC alongside Rafa Benitez prior to joining JEF United.

On May 13, 2008, JEF United Chiba were linked with a move for Michael Owen who's contract renewal talks at Newcastle United FC have broken down because of a pay cut.

Furukawa Electric is no longer the main sponsor of the club, a job these days taken over by Fuji Electric.

Stadiums

It had played its home matches at Ichihara Seaside Stadium, but has since moved to the larger, football-specific and more conveniently located Fukuda Denshi Arena, which opened in Chiba during the 2005 season. The club had initially practiced at Urayasu, Chiba planning to base itself in Narashino, Chiba before opposition by those living around Akitsu Stadium forced it to be based in Ichihara. Since 2000, training has been held at Footpark Anesaki in Ichihara.

Affiliated clubs

Furukawa Electric Chiba

This was JEF's reserve team during the JSL years. They were formed in 1967 and were first promoted to the JSL Second Division in 1975. They still exist, although they are no longer affiliated on paper, and play in the Kanto Regional League. In 2008 they renamed themselves S.A.I. Ichihara

JEF United Ichihara Chiba B

JEF's current reserve team plays in the Japan Football League, the current third tier of Japanese football.

Team Record

J.League

Season	League	Place	GP	Pts	Win	Draw	Lose	Average Crowd
1993	J1 1st stage	5 / 10	18	-	9	-	9	20,273
	J1 2nd stage	9 / 10	18	-	5	-	13
	J1 Total	8 / 10	36	-	14	-	22
1994	J1 1st stage	6 / 12	22	-	10	-	12	22,262
	J1 2nd stage	9 / 12	22	-	9	-	13
	J1 Total	9 / 12	44	-	19	-	25
1995	J1 1st stage	6 / 14	26	45	14	-	12	15,418
	J1 2nd stage	7 / 14	26	43	14	-	12
	J1 Total	5 / 14	52	88	28	-	24
1996	J1	9 / 16	30	40	13	-	17	12,008
1997	J1 1st stage	15 / 17	16	13	5	-	11	5,693
	J1 2nd stage	14 / 17	16	15	6	-	10
	J1 Total	13 / 17	32	28	11	-	21
1998	J1 1st stage	11 / 18	17	21	7	-	10	5,365
	J1 2nd stage	18 / 18	17	4	2	-	15
	J1 Total	16 / 18	34	25	9	-	25
1999	J1 1st stage	15 / 16	15	12	4	2	9	5,774
	J1 2nd stage	11 / 16	15	16	6	0	9
	J1 Total	13 / 16	30	28	10	2	18
2000	J1 1st stage	11 / 16	15	19	6	1	8	6,338
	J1 2nd stage	16 / 16	15	9	3	1	11
	J1 Total	14 / 16	30	28	9	2	19
2001	J1 1st stage	Runners-up / 16	15	27	10	0	5	7,818
	J1 2nd stage	5 / 16	15	23	7	2	6
	J1 Total	3 / 16	30	50	17	2	11
2002	J1 1st stage	8 / 16	15	23	7	3	5	7,897
	J1 2nd stage	11 / 16	15	18	6	0	9
	J1 Total	7 / 16	30	41	13	3	14
2003	J1 1st stage	3 / 16	15	27	8	3	4	9,709
	J1 2nd stage	Runners-up / 16	15	26	7	5	3
	J1 Total	3 / 16	30	53	15	8	7
2004	J1 1st stage	7 / 16	15	22	5	7	3	10,012
	J1 2nd stage	Runners-up / 16	15	28	8	4	3
	J1 Total	4 / 16	30	50	13	11	6
2005	J1	4 / 18	34	59	16	11	7	9,535
2006	J1	11 / 18	34	44	13	5	16	13,393
2007	J1	13 / 18	34	42	12	6	16	14,149
2008	J1	12 / 18	1	1	0	1	0

Other Domestic Competitions

See other domestic competitions record

Major International Competitions

Season	Competition	Result	Average Crowd
2006	A3 Champions Cup	3rd	-

Titles

Furukawa Electric FC

• Japan Soccer League: (2) 1976, 1985
• JSL Cup: (3) 1977, 1982, 1986/1987
• Emperor's Cup: (4) 1960, 1961, 1964, 1976
• Asian Club Championship: (1) 1987

JEF United Ichihara / JEF United Ichihara Chiba

• J. League Cup: (2) 2005, 2006

Players

Current Squad

As of July 6, 2008

Notable Players

• Yuki Abe
• Koki Mizuno
• Takayuki Chano
• Shoji Jo
• Shinji Murai
• Yuji Sakakura
• Yoshika Matsubara
• Tomoyuki Sakai
• Eisuke Nakanishi
• Tadahiro Akiba
• Nobuhiro Takeda
• Takayuki Suzuki

• Shigeyoshi Mochizuki
• Sandro
• Pierre Littbarski
• Frank Ordenewitz
• Peter Bosz
• Arnold Scholten
• Ivan Hašek
• Ľubomír Moravčík
• Gabriel Popescu
• Cosmin Olăroiu
• Ovidiu Burcă
• Edin Mujčin

• Nenad Maslovar
• Željko Milinovič
• Mario Haas
• Owusu Benson
• Wynton Rufer
• Matthew Bingley
• Choi Yong-Soo
• Kim Dae-Ui
• Rade Bogdanović
• Nenad Đorđević
• Ilian Stoyanov
• Mirko Hrgović

Managers

Manager	Nat.	Tenure
Yoshikazu Nagai		1992-1994
Eijyun Kiyokumo		1994-1995
Yasuhiko Okudera		1996
Jan Versleijen		1997-1998
Gert Engels		1999
Nicolae Zamfir		1999-2000
Zdenko Verdenik		2000-2001
Jozef Vengloš		2002
Ivica Osim		2003-2006
Amar Osim		2006-2007
Josip Kuže		2008-2008
Alex Miller		2008-

External links

• JEF United Official Site (in Japanese)
• Rising Sun News club profile

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