Consadole Sapporo

Consadole Sapporo
コンサドーレ札幌

Full name	Consadole Sapporo
Nickname(s)	Consa コンサ
Founded	1935 (as Toshiba Horikawa-cho S.C.)
Ground	Sapporo Dome Sapporo (Capacity: 41,484)
Chairman	Takemi Yahagi 矢萩竹美
Manager	Nobuhiro Ishizaki 石崎信弘 (2009- )
League	J. League Division 2
2010	13th Place
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Consadole Sapporo (コンサドーレ札幌, Konsadōre Sapporo^?) is a Japanese professional football (soccer) club, currently playing in the J. League Division 2. The team is located in Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaidō.

The club name of "Consadole" is made from 'consado' as reverse of Japanese word Dosanko (DO-SA-N-KO, 道産子 = people of Hokkaidō) and the Spanish expression 'Ole'. The name is to symbolize the strong feelings in their hearts that all citizens of Hokkaidō have for the club.

Unlike other teams, as their main homeground Sapporo Dome is also used by a baseball team, their home game are usually moved to Sapporo Atsubetsu Park Stadium.

History

Toshiba S.C. (1935 - 1995)

Consadole's club tradition dates back to 1935 when Toshiba Horikawa-cho Soccer Club was founded in Kawasaki, Kanagawa. They were promoted to the now-defunct Japan Soccer League Division 2 in 1978. They adopted new name Toshiba Soccer Club in 1980 and were promoted to the JSL Division 1 in 1989. Relegating themselves as they were not ready for J. League implementation, they joined the newly formed Japan Football League in 1992 and played the last season as Toshiba S.C. in 1995.

They sought to be a professional club but the owner Toshiba did not regard Kawasaki as an ideal hometown. This was because Verdy Kawasaki, one of the most prominent clubs at that time, was also based in the city, which Toshiba apparently believed was not big enough to accommodate two clubs. (Verdy has since crossed the Tama River to be based in Chōfu City in the west of Tokyo and has been renamed as Tokyo Verdy 1969; the only remaining professional club is Kawasaki Frontale, originally part of Fujitsu.)

They decided to move to Sapporo where the local government and community had been keen to provide a base for a professional soccer team as they awaited Sapporo Dome to be completed in 2001. The ownership was transferred from Toshiba to Hokkaido Football Club plc. before the start of the 1996 season.

Toshiba does not have financial interest in the club any more but Consadole still boasts their forerunner's red and black colours on their uniform.

Sapporo Dome, Consa's home ground

Consadole Sapporo (1996 - )

Consadole Sapporo inherited the JFL status from Toshiba S.C.. Their debut season in 1996 was not overly successful as they finished 5th and missed promotion. However, they won the JFL championship in 1997 and were promoted to J. League.

In 1998, their first J. League season saw them finish 14th out of 18 but this didn't guarantee them staying up. From the 1999 season, the J. League would have 2 divisions and the play-offs involving 5 teams (four J. League sides and the champions of the JFL) were to be played. In order to decide who were involved in the play-offs, not only the results of the 1998 season but also those of the 1997 were taken account of. Consadole, who didn't play in the previous season, was placed 14th in the aggregate standing and despite finishing above Gamba Osaka (who had finished 4th in 1997), was forced to face the play-offs. They lost all 4 games, 2 against Vissel Kobe, and another 2 against Avispa Fukuoka, and became the first-ever J. League side that experienced relegation.

In 1999, Takeshi Okada, the former Japan national team coach, was appointed as head coach in an effort to make an immediate comeback to J1, but this attempt was failed as they finished 5th. Their heavy investment on players counted against them and, at this point, the debt owed by the club exceeded 3 billion yen (330 million USD). The bankruptcy looked a near-certainty.

In 2000, they cut down the cost dramatically. As a result, the team often included as many as 8 on-loan players in the starting line-up. However, this strategy paid off and the club won the J2 championship as well as promotion to J1. The club posted a single-year profit for the first time in their history this year.

In 2001, they finished 11th in J1. However, at the end of the season, the club failed to persuade Okada to renew the contract and several leading players also left the club. In 2002, they finished bottom and were relegated to J2 for a second time.

In 2003, they again tried to return to the top-flight immediately by investing heavily but the team didn't perform well on the pitch. They finished 9th and their debt again crossed the 3 billion yen mark.

The deficit-ridden club realized they needed a drastic restructuring and released highly paid leading players including mainstay Yasuyuki Konno. The rejuvenated but inexperienced team finished bottom of J2 in 2004. The bright side was their improved financial situation where the debt was sharply reduced to less than 100 million yen.

In 2005 and 2006, they finished 6th. In 2007 they finally earned promotion as champions and play in J1 in the 2008 season.

A loss on October 19, 2008 confirmed Sapporo's relegation to J2 for the 2009 season, overtaking Kyoto Sanga as the league's most relegated side. Having won the Japanese second-tier championship a record 5 times (including two JSL Second Divisions as Toshiba, and one former JFL title), they are expected to contend for promotion once again.

Honours

Toshiba S.C.

• All Japan Senior Football Championship: 1977
• Japan Soccer League Division 2: 1979, 1988-89
• Japan Soccer League Cup: 1981 (shared with Mitsubishi Motors).

Consadole Sapporo

• Japan Football League: 1997
• J. League Division 2: 2000, 2007

Current players

As of August 12, 2011 Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Takahiro Takagi 2 DF Takuma Hidaka 4 MF Ryuji Kawai 5 MF Bruno 6 DF Shunsuke Iwanuma 7 MF Jumpei Takaki 8 MF Makoto Sunakawa 9 FW Masashi Nakayama 10 MF Hiroki Miyazawa 11 FW Diogo 13 FW Yoshihiro Uchimura 15 MF Hiroyuki Furuta 16 GK Lee Ho-Seung 17 MF Yasuaki Okamoto

No. Position Player 18 MF Hironobu Haga 21 GK Toshiyasu Takahara 22 FW Yosuke Mikami 23 DF Tatsuya Yamashita 24 FW Junki Yokono 25 DF Kazuki Kushibiki 26 FW Shinya Uehara 27 MF Takuma Arano (youth) 28 GK Yuya Hikichi 29 DF Takuro Nishimura 30 GK Shunta Awaka (youth) 32 FW Yusuke Kondo 34 DF Kazunari Okayama 35 FW Lemos

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player MF Kazumasa Uesato (to F.C. Tokyo) MF Danilson Córdoba (to Nagoya Grampus) FW Thiago Quirino (to Daegu F.C.)

Former players

Daniel Ahmed (1992) Hugo Maradona (1997-98) Alcindo (1996) Andradinha (2003) Beto (2003) Davi (2007-08) Hulk (2006) Luis Robson (2002) Pereira (1996-98) Robert (2003) Roberto Assis (1999)

Will (2001), (2003) Xu Xiaofei (2005) Danilson Córdoba (2009) Pavel Řehák (1996) Ryuji Bando (2000-01) Yasuyuki Konno (2001-03) Yasuyuki Moriyama (2002-03) Takafumi Ogura (2002) Masashi Oguro (2001) Takuya Takagi (2000) Koji Yamase (2000-02)

Kota Yoshihara (1996-99) Dido Havenaar (1997-98) Tarik Oulida (2003) Kim Jong-Song (1996) Jorge Dely Valdes (1997-98) Derlis Florentín (2005) David Soria (1996-97) Emerson (2000) Srdjan Baljak (2002-03) Raul Otero (1996) Pedro Pedrucci (1990-92), (1993-95)

Record as J. League member

Season	Div.	Tms.	Pos.	Attendance/G	J. League Cup	Emperor's Cup
1998	J1	18	14	11,953	Group Stage	4th Round
1999	J2	10	5	10,986	1st Round	3rd Round
2000	J2	11	1	12,910	1st Round	4th Round
2001	J1	16	11	22,228	Group Stage	3rd Round
2002	J1	16	16	19,140	Group Stage	3rd Round
2003	J2	12	9	10,766	-	3rd Round
2004	J2	12	12	9,466	-	Quarter-final
2005	J2	12	6	11,133	-	3rd Round
2006	J2	13	6	10,478	-	Semi-final
2007	J2	13	1	12,112	-	3rd Round
2008	J1	18	18	14,547	Group Stage	4th Round
2009	J2	18	6	10,207	-	3rd Round
2010	J2	19	13	10,738	-	3rd Round

Key

• Tms. = Number of teams
• Pos. = Position in league
• Attendance/G = Average league attendance

External links

• Consadole Sapporo official site (Japanese)