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By Jeremy Walker
TOKYO (July 18)--J.League clubs beware! Big Brother's watching
you...and also checking your team sheets.
In Tokyo on Tuesday, Japan's professional league announced
tough penalties for clubs who deliberately field weakened teams
in official competitions. The league feels it's unfair to sponsors
and supporters, and that every club has an obligation to put out
their strongest possible line-up, barring injury, illness, suspension
or national team duty. It's happened twice this season and the
league doesn't want it happening again, so the following punishments
will apply:
* If a club fields an under-strength team in the Nabisco League
Cup they will be banned from competing the following season and
left on the sidelines when the cash from TV and sponsors is distributed.
* If it happens in a league game, they will be deducted three
points.
The measures follow events in the first round of this season's
Nabisco Cup, when two first division sides--JEF United Ichihara
and Avispa Fukuoka--both rested several first-choice players for
games against second division opposition. Even though both top-flight
teams won through over two legs, the league executives were still
not happy and made them write a letter of apology stating they
would never do the same again.
The only reason why they escaped a fine was because the relevant
regulation, Article 42 of the J.League statutes, was not clear
in what constituted an under-strength team. Hence a new appendage
to Article 42, stating: "The starting 11 must consist of at least
six players who have started at least one of the team's previous
five games, except in the case of injury, illness, suspension
or national team duty."
The league are confident it will not happen again, as their
records show that of the 2,703 games played in league and cup
since 1992, it occured only twice: In the two cases above.
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