1980 Japan Soccer League

Japan Soccer League
Season1980
← 1979
1981 →

Statistics of Japan Soccer League for the 1980 season. For the first time ever, automatic promotion and relegation was introduced for the first and last places of the Second Division, which means that the last place in the First Division went down.

First Division

Yanmar Diesel won the title for a fourth time.

Nissan, who had saved itself from relegation in the playout the previous season, went down after the bottom place was granted automatic relegation, while Yamaha saved itself by beating Fujitsu in the playout.

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 Yanmar Diesel 18 13 4 1 29 13 +16 30 Champions
2 Fujita Engineering 18 10 3 5 33 19 +14 23
3 Furukawa Electric 18 9 4 5 26 21 +5 22
4 Mitsubishi Motors 18 7 6 5 24 20 +4 20
5 Hitachi 18 8 3 7 32 28 +4 19
6 Yomiuri 18 8 1 9 37 29 +8 17
7 Toyo Kogyo 18 6 3 9 22 26 −4 15
8 Nippon Steel 18 6 3 9 21 27 −6 15
9 Yamaha Motors 18 5 3 10 28 39 −11 13 To promotion/relegation Series
10 Nissan 18 2 2 14 11 41 −30 6 Relegated to Second Division
Source: [citation needed]

Promotion/relegation Series

JSL Division 1 1st leg 2nd leg JSL Division 2
Yamaha Motors 1-0 1-1 Fujitsu

Second Division

Honda was finally promoted on the second attempt after the 1978 debacle.

Kofu Club saved itself from relegation by defeating Furukawa Electric Chiba, Furukawa's B-team. Cosmo Oil Yokkaichi fell through and went back to the Tokai regional league.

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion or relegation
1 Honda 18 13 2 3 43 17 +26 28 Promoted to First Division
2 Fujitsu 18 10 5 3 45 12 +33 25 To promotion/relegation Series with First Division
3 Toshiba 18 8 6 4 30 17 +13 22
4 Nippon Kokan 18 7 6 5 23 17 +6 20
5 Toyota Motors 18 7 4 7 29 34 −5 18
6 Tanabe Pharmaceuticals 18 6 5 7 15 22 −7 17
7 Teijin Matsuyama 18 7 3 8 20 24 −4 17
8 Sumitomo 18 4 5 9 22 33 −11 13
9 Kofu Club 18 4 2 12 17 33 −16 10 To promotion/relegation Series with Regional Series
10 Daikyo Oil 18 5 0 13 27 46 −19 10 Relegated to Regional Leagues
Source: [citation needed]

Promotion/relegation Series

JSL 1st leg 2nd leg Regional Series
Kofu Club 1-2 4-1 Furukawa Electric Chiba (runner-up)

References