FC Baleine Shimonoseki

FC Baleine Shimonoseki
FCバレイン下関
Full nameFC Baleine Shimonoseki
Founded2006; 19 years ago (2006)
GroundNogihama Park;
Saving Athletic Stadium
Capacity5,000 (NP)
23,939 (SAS)
ChairmanKoki Harada
ManagerKazuma Yamane
LeagueChūgoku Soccer League
20244th of 10
Websitehttp://fcbaleine.jp/
Current season

FC Baleine Shimonoseki (FCバレイン下関, Efu Shi Barein Shimonoseki) are a Japanese football club based on Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture.[1][2] They play in the Chūgoku Soccer League, one of Japan's fifth tier leagues, which is part of Japanese Regional Leagues.[3]

Name origin

The name Baleine means whale in French. Whales are related with the club's hometown Shimonoseki, that was once a whaling base.[1]

History

The club was founded on 2006, starting from the 4th division of the Yamaguchi Prefecture League, one of the 10th-tier leagues of Japanese football. Baleine would only get out of prefectural football on 2018, after winning promotion to the Chugoku Soccer League, starting their journey on regional football. In their first season, on 2019, it finished on 4th place within 10 participating teams.[4]

Between 2020 and 2022, the club reached its peak so far, having finished two seasons as league runners-up, and qualified for the Emperor's Cup twice in the period. In the 2020 Emperor's Cup, the club made its debut at the second round, in a competition professional teams-shrunk due to the pandemic.[5] They ended up losing against fellow Chugoku region side Fukuyama City FC. In the following year, the club once again failed to win an Emperor's Cup match, losing against Mitsubishi Mizushima FC, also from the Chugoku region, on the first round of the competition.[6]

In 2023, Baleine qualified for the Emperor's Cup, winning their qualification as Yamaguchi representatives on 23 April, after beating Shunan University in the prefectural preliminaries' Final.[7] They were knocked out in the first round by Verspah Oita. In 2024, they repeated the feat of qualifying to the Emperor's Cup as Yamaguchi representatives over Shunan.[8] In the first round they defeated J3 League team Gainare Tottori in a tense penalty shoot-out by 4-3, with scores level at 1-1 after playing 120 minutes. In the second round of the competition, they lost heavily to Sanfrecce Hiroshima by 11–2. This is the first time Baleine have played official matches against professional sides.

League and cup record

Champions Runners-up Third place Promoted Relegated
League Emperor's
Cup
Season Division Pos. P W D L F A GD Pts
2006 Yamaguchi 4th Division B Block 2nd 8 6 0 2 39 7 32 18 Did not qualify
2007 1st 8 8 0 0 49 2 47 24
2008 Yamaguchi 3rd Division B Block 1st 7 7 0 0 24 1 23 21
2009 Yamaguchi 2nd Division 1st 7 5 1 1 40 5 35 16
2010 Yamaguchi 1st Division 3rd 10 5 1 4 32 18 14 16
2011 1st 12 10 1 1 40 14 26 31
2012 5th 10 4 2 4 29 14 15 14
2013 5th 12 2 3 7 23 35 -12 11
2014 2nd 10 5 1 4 33 21 12 16
2015 2nd 14 10 2 2 45 12 33 32
2016 1st 10 8 2 0 33 5 28 26
2017 1st 12 9 2 1 41 8 33 29
2018 1st 12 11 1 0 64 9 55 34
2019 Chugoku Soccer League 4th 18 10 2 6 45 23 22 32
2020 League season cancelled because of COVID-19 2nd round
2021 2nd 16 11 2 3 35 16 19 35 1st round
2022 2nd 18 14 0 4 41 22 19 42 Did not qualify
2023 3rd 18 12 1 5 47 26 21 37 1st round
2024 4th 18 10 2 6 45 24 21 32 2nd round
2025 TBA 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TBA
Key
  • Pos. = Position in league; P = Games played; W = Games won; D = Games drawn; L = Games lost; F = Goals scored; A = Goals conceded; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points won

Honours

FC Baleine Shimonoseki honours
Honour No. Years
Yamaguchi 4th Division B Block 1 2007
Yamaguchi 3rd Division B Block 1 2008
Yamaguchi 2nd Division 1 2009
Yamaguchi Prefectural League 1st Division 4 2011, 2016, 2017, 2018
Nogami Cup 1 2011
Yamaguchi Football Championship
(Emperor's Cup Prefectural Qualifying Tournament) 		4 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024

Players and staff

Current squad

As of 30 April 2024. [9]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Japan JPN Ryuga Okazaki
3 DF Japan JPN Naofumi Shimomura
4 DF Japan JPN Haruto Kawamae
5 DF Japan JPN Kentaro Handa
6 MF Japan JPN Masahide Noda
7 MF Japan JPN Yushiro Masuda
8 FW Japan JPN Hayate Harasaki
9 FW Japan JPN Kazuhito Kishida
10 FW Japan JPN Kenshiro Nishida
11 MF Japan JPN Gakuto Nomiyama
13 FW Japan JPN Kota Yonezawa
14 MF Japan JPN Kaito Toda
No. Pos. Nation Player
16 GK Japan JPN Shunya Kachi
17 MF Japan JPN Yu Nomoto
18 DF Japan JPN Yuya Saito
20 MF Japan JPN Ryota Hieda
21 FW Japan JPN Kakeru Banno
23 FW Japan JPN Sota Sato
24 MF Japan JPN Maoto Sakata
27 DF Japan JPN Yuki Iwamoto
28 DF Japan JPN Yasutomo Saito
31 DF Japan JPN Yuto Muneno
39 DF Japan JPN Daisuke Nishi
91 MF Japan JPN Kakeru Nagano

Current staff

Position Name
Manager Japan Kazuma Yamane
Assistant manager Japan Kaito Kurogi
Staff manager Japan Shuto Kondo
Japan Akiko Matsumoto
Representant Japan Kota Fukuhara
Chairman Japan Koki Harada

References

  1. ^ a b "クラブガイド" (in Japanese). FC Baleine Shimonoseki. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  2. ^ "goo 地図". Goo Map. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  3. ^ "FCバレイン下関" (in Japanese). Spocale. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  4. ^ "Japan 2019". RSSSF. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  5. ^ "天皇杯 JFA 第100回全日本サッカー選手権大会　大会方式について" (in Japanese). Japan Football Association. 18 June 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  6. ^ "天皇杯 JFA 第101回全日本サッカー選手権大会 １回戦 【21】" (PDF) (in Japanese). Japan Football Association. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  7. ^ "天皇杯 JFA 第103回全日本サッカー選手権大会　山形県など8県で代表決まる". jfa.jp (in Japanese). 23 April 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  8. ^ "天皇杯 JFA 第104回全日本サッカー選手権大会　鳥取県など5県で代表決まる". jfa.jp (in Japanese). 21 April 2024. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  9. ^ "選手・スタッフ一覧". fcbaleine.jp. FC Baleine Shimonoseki. Retrieved 30 April 2024.