Recently, the Japanese sports newspaper has revealed that the Japanese J-League officials are planning to set up a body called the "Transformation Promotion Support Group" in April. The group will be led by the J-League official director Masaaki Kimura, who will start recruiting expert members of the change team.
It is said that the "Reform Promotion Support Group" will propose a new reform plan for the Japanese professional league, which will be a complete overhaul of the league. The plan will be free of the existing rules and will take into account the future development of the league and the clubs in a holistic manner. The centerpiece of the reform will be the creation of a super league on top of the J1 League, based on the successful model of the English Premier League.
The new "J-League" is expected to contain 10 to 14 teams and remove the restriction on foreign aid. Currently, the J-League does not have a limit on the number of foreign aiders who can register, but only on the number of players who can play. In the J1 League, the maximum number of foreign aiders that can be on the roster for each game is five, while in the J2 and J3 Leagues it is four. It is worth noting that players of Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, Cambodian, Singaporean, Indonesian, Malaysian, and Qatari nationalities who are partnered with the J-League are not counted as foreign aiders.
In addition, the reform plan includes an adjustment to the broadcasting rights of the J-League in Japan, returning the right to sell broadcasting rights to the clubs. Currently, the media broadcasting rights for all levels of the Japanese league are in the hands of J-League officials, who distribute the revenue to the clubs after selling the whole package. Currently, J1 clubs get an annual share of 350 million yen in broadcasting fees, J2 clubs 150 million yen, and J3 clubs only 30 million yen. It's worth noting that the reform plan also mentions that there will be discussions about relaxing access to the J1 league.
