Giravanz Kitakyushu

Giravanz Kitakyushu
ギラヴァンツ北九州

Full name	Giravanz Kitakyushu
Nickname(s)	Giravanz, Kitakyushu
Founded	1947
Ground	Honjō Stadium, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture (Capacity: 10,202)
Chairman	Hidemi Hayashi
Manager	Yasutoshi Miura (2011-)
League	J. League Division 2
2010	19th Place
Home colours Away colours

Giravanz Kitakyushu (ギラヴァンツ北九州, Giravantsu Kitakyūshū^?) is a Japanese football club based in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture. The club's name was changed from New Wave Kitakyushu (ニューウェーブ北九州, Nyū Wēbu Kitakyūshū^?) as of 1 December 2009.^[1] They played in the Japan Football League from 2008-2009, and were promoted to J. League Division 2 (J2) for the 2010 season.

History

The club was formed in 1947 as part of Mitsubishi Chemical's Kurosaki factory. Most of its career was spent in the regional and prefectural leagues, as Kitakyushu was represented in the Japan Soccer League by Yawata Steel F.C. Yawata was a founding member of the JSL in 1965, and finished as runner up in its first two seasons in that league. Yawata was renamed New Nippon Steel F.C. in 1970, when Yawata Steel merged with Fuji Steel to form (New) Nippon Steel. It ultimately was relegated to the Second Division in 1982, then relegated from the Second Division to Kyushu regional league after 1990-91 season, and has never returned.

In 2001, Mitsubishi Chemical Kurosaki F.C., which had been a member of Kyushu regional league since 1973, became community-oriented club (New Wave) Kitakyushu F.C.

In 2007 New Wave took second place in the All Japan Regional Football Promotion League Series, and was promoted to the JFL for the 2008 season.

The team applied for J. League Associate Membership in January 2008, and the application was accepted at the J. League board meeting on February 19, 2008.

On 1 April 2009, the club made an announcement that they would be accepting suggestions for a new name. This was because the name "New Wave" may cause trademark or tradename disputes.^[2] Therefore, the new name had to be something not yet registered as a trademark.

On 2 October 2009, they announced that the new club name for the 2010 season would be Giravanz Kitakyushu (ギラヴァンツ北九州, Giravantsu Kitakyūshū^?). According to the official news release, the name "Giravanz" is coined from two Italian words: "Girasole", which means "sunflower", and "Avanzare", which means "moving forward".^[3] (The sunflower is one of Kitakyushu's symbol flowers.)

On 23 November 2009, after a 2-1 win away against Arte Takasaki, Kitakyushu secured a top four position in the JFL for the 2009 season, regardless of the result at the final week of 2009 JFL. This means they will play in J. League Division 2 for the 2010 season, something which was confirmed by the J.League board meeting on 30 November 2009.^[4][5][6]

New Wave Kitakyusu crest

In its inaugural year in the pro ranks, despite attaining a large number of draw matches, Kitakyushu set new records for fewest wins and points in the season standings.

Players

Current Squad

As of 15 April 2011^[7]

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 Hiroki Mizuhara 2 DF Kazuya Kawabata 3 DF Kim Soo-Yeon 4 DF Satoshi Nagano 5 MF Hiroyoshi Kuwabara 6 DF Yuki Fuji 7 MF Shinya Sato 8 MF Tomoaki Komorida 9 FW Yasuaki Oshima 10 MF Yuya Sano 11 FW Tomoki Ikemoto 13 MF Mitsuhiro Seki 14 MF Kota Morimura (on loan from FC Tokyo) 15 DF Takaki Shigemitsu 16 DF Ryoji Fukui

No. Position Player 17 MF Yuji Kimura 18 FW Daisuke Miyakawa 19 FW Hiroyuki Hayashi 20 MF Leonardo 21 MF Kodai Yasuda 22 MF Takayuki Tada 23 MF Yuki Nagahata 24 FW Yuta Kawachi 25 DF Ryosuke Kawanabe 26 DF Toru Miyamoto 27 MF Yuta Hashimura 28 MF Oh Seung-Rok 30 GK Shogo Tokihisa 31 GK Yuya Satō

Record as J. League member

Season	Div.	Tms.	Pos.	Attendance/G	J. League Cup	Emperor's Cup
2010	J2	19	19	4,189	-	3rd Round

Key

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

References

1. ^ News Release:New Wave Kitakyushu became a member of J. League(Japanese) (ニュースリリース ニューウェーブ北九州がJリーグ入会?) J. League official website posted 2009-11-30
2. ^ Official website (Japanese only)
3. ^ Announcement of the new team name and its emblem (新チーム名称・エンブレム発表?) New Wave Kitakyushu official website news release : dated 2 October 2009
4. ^ Official website (Japanese only)
5. ^ [1] J's Goal Website (Japanese only)
6. ^ [2]
7. ^ [3]

External links

• Official "Giravanz" site (in Japanese)
• Old "New Wave" official site (in Japanese)
• Kitakyushu Football Club (in Japanese) club organization and subsidiary teams