In Japan, watching the final of the Emperor's Cup in the late afternoon on the first day of the New Year is part of the national tradition to celebrate the New Year's holiday, but for the third year in a row, the 2023 final of the Emperor's Cup has given way to the Japanese team, moving the final to December 9th.
In the long history of the Emperor Cup, in the 20th century, the date of the tournament was generally very fixed, and the General Assembly dealt with the issue of eligibility and system. In the new century, the J-League was established, and there were participating clubs from all over the country, and the tournament started earlier in response to the cold regions, and after globalization became popular, in order to solve the burden of the Asian tournament for some teams, the tournament started as early as April or May, and the final day has been unquestionably since 1969, when the tournament started on New Year's Day. The final day of the tournament has been played on New Year's Day since 1969.
Until 2013, in response to competitions such as the AFC Champions League and the World Club Cup with Japan
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The Council took out the 'Emperor's Cup final has to be held at 1/1' rule from the regulations, and the rules quickly came in handy, with 2014 and 2018 being brought forward to December in response to the Asian Cup, 2022 and 2023 being the Kadar World Cup, and this year being brought forward again for the Asian Cup.
The disappearance of the rule that "the final of the Emperor's Cup has to be held on 1/1" is a relief to the clubs involved in the final, because the J-League usually ends in early December, and the teams have to take a break of nearly a month to assemble, and then take a vacation after the Emperor's Cup, which makes it more difficult to manage the teams.
After Japan beat Argentina to reach the last eight of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the fervor of soccer in the hearts of the Japanese people had not yet dissipated, and the new generation of the Olympic team even played Korea in 1967, qualifying for the next year's Olympic Games in Mexico, which added fuel to the soccer frenzy, which became the muse of the NHK TV station, and in 1968, "NHK Cup New Year's Day Soccer Tournament" (《NHK杯元日サッカー》) was introduced, with the JSL champions Toyo Kogyo and the university champion Kwansei Gakuin University playing. Getting the current JSL champions Toyo Kogyo to play the University Championship winners Kansai Gakuin University, Japan
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The NHK's ratings seemed to be the key to the decision to hold the final of the 48th Emperor's Cup at the National Stadium on New Year's Day 1969, as long as they could get 1% to watch the game at the National Stadium next door.
Although the self-funded tournament was closed in a year, it was more attractive for NHK to embrace the historical value of the Emperor Cup: in terms of topic, it had just finished the Olympic Games in Mexico, and Japan broke through the Olympic results in Tokyo by winning the bronze medal in a contested victory over the landlord, Mexico; in terms of image, the tournament took place under the sunny skies of the winter in Tokyo, which left viewers with a healthy and bright New Year's imagery, and even better, NHK only had to be responsible for the broadcasting of it, which was much more inexpensive, and it became a customary practice on January 1 for the soccer Emperor Cup to be held in Tokyo. Since then, the soccer Emperor Cup on New Year's Day has become a customary event in the sports world.
Borrowing a mirror from the English FA Cup, the Japanese Emperor Cup has also had a variety of surprising dramas of under-performers, for example, in 2017, Kaoru Sanfelt, who has become the main player of the University of Tsukuba, scored two goals in the visit to the Sendai Vitega, and finally helped the University of Tsukuba to beat the J1 professional team Sendai, which was the first time Kaoru Sanfelt got the attention of the national level.
In 2021, J1's perennial favorite, Hiroshima, suffered a 5-1 defeat in the 2nd round to sociopathic team おこしやす Kyoto AC, while the biggest surprise came last year, when 2022 ended up in 18th place in J2, languishing in the
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The success of the Kofu Fenrin (ヴァンフォーレ Kofu), but let Sapporo, Tosu, Fukuoka, Kashima, four J1 powerhouse in Japan's three major tournaments in the 19 championships, all packed home, and in the final with the J1 third-place finisher Hiroshima, the courage of the Emperor Cup 2022 Championship, Japan shook for a time, the Kofu Fenrin has become a veritable giant killers.
The winner of the Emperor Cup will qualify for the AFC Champions League, and for Kofu, whose income is only a fraction of that of the J1 giants, the night before they were overjoyed to receive the prize money of 150 million yen for winning the Cup, and the next day they were uneasy to contact the Japan
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With the AFC, to obtain information on the participation in the AFC Champions League, Kofu quickly realized - winning the championship for a moment, the harsh reality of the financial crematorium.
AFC Champions League box office almost no possibility of profit, and must participate in overseas away games, three games away from the rough estimate of food, accommodation and airfare will cost 70 million yen, and Kofu home stadium does not meet the specifications of the AFC Champions League, you have to rent the National Stadium, the team from Yamanashi to move to the National money, the cost of organizing the game, the visiting team's landing strokes, all have to be paid for by the Kofu.
Even though the J-League allocated 100 million yen and the AFC and sponsors provided sporadic subsidies, Kofu still had to bear a deficit of nearly 80 million yen. Driven to desperation by the money, Kofu bought advertisements at several stations in Tokyo with the eye-catching headline, "Lend Your Strength to Kofu (#甲府にチカラを)", to ask fans of the other teams in the metropolitan area to come into the stadium near them, and to try their best to fill up the stadium in order to minimize the deficit.
