FC Kariya

The club was founded in 1949 as Nippon Denso Soccer Club. They mainly played in the Tōkai Regional League; Kariya was already represented in the Japan Soccer League by the club belonging to Toyota Industries (not to be confused with nearby Toyota Motors, which is the club that became Nagoya Grampus).

Nippon Denso were finally promoted to the Japan Football League in 1996. They played their first JFL season under new name DENSO Soccer Club because of the change of their owner's name.

DENSO relinquished the ownership at the end of the 2005 season and non-profit organisation Kaeru Sports Club took over. Their name F.C. Kariya was chosen from entries from the public. Despite this change of ownership, F.C. Kariya did not show much ambition for J. League status in subsequent campaigns and finished in 17th place on the 2009 season of the Japan Football League, being relegated back to the Tokai Regional League after losing a promotion/relegation series to the more ambitious Zweigen Kanazawa.[1]

In 2015 Kariya became champions of the Tōkai Adult Soccer League and participated in the 2015 Regional League promotion play-offs, reaching the Top 4, but not the promotion back to JFL. They also featured three times in the Emperor's Cup, reaching 2nd round both in 2007 and in 2012.

In 2020 season, the Tōkai Adult Soccer League was held in an irregular knock-out format due to the covid-19 pandemic. Lead by a new manager Koji Kadota, FC Kariya won the tournament to qualify for the regional championship, and achieved runner-up in it, resulting to return to the Japan Football League for the 2021 season.

F.C. Kariya's shirt features the red sash (or Aka Dasuki in Japanese). This design was originally adopted by Kariya High School's soccer club who introduced the sport to the area in the Taishō period. Because of this, the red sash is regarded as the symbolic design of Kariya's football.

They play their home games mainly at Kariya Municipal Athletic Park, but Toyohashi City Iwata General Ballgame Stadium and Nagoya City Port Soccer Stadium are also used a couple of times a year. They practice at Denso Ikeda Factory ground which is not open to the public because it is in Denso's factory site.

Here are listed only the seasons disputed as "FC Kariya"'.

Key

• Pos. = Position in league; GP = Games Played; W = Games won; D = Games Drawn; L = Games Lost; F = Goals scored; A = Goals conceded; GD = Goals Difference; Pts = Points gained

• Tokai Soccer League Champions (5)
  • 1993, 1995, 2015, 2016, 2019
• Japanese Regional Champions (2)

Updated to 19 July 2021.[2] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Tetsuya Yamaoka 2 MF  JPN Kota Fukuda ‡ 3 DF  JPN Daiki Asada ‡ 4 DF  JPN Hiroki Sasaki 5 DF  JPN Hikaru Koinuma 6 DF  JPN Asahi Ishiwata ‡ 7 FW  JPN Yuta Nakano 8 MF  JPN Yuya Hiruta 9 FW  JPN Yuki Sato 10 FW  JPN Tatsuyoshi Sakamoto 11 MF  JPN Shunsuke Tomita 13 FW  JPN Yuya Watanabe 14 MF  JPN Daiki Yamamoto ‡ 15 MF  JPN Satoru Uchida 17 DF  JPN Shuntaro Koga ‡

No. Pos. Nation Player 18 GK  JPN Riku Sakaguchi 19 DF  JPN Raiki Harima 20 MF  JPN Kaisho Hirane 21 GK  JPN Keita Kitahara 22 FW  JPN Ryoto Kamiya (On loan from Kamatamare Sanuki) ‡ 23 FW  JPN Itsuki Nishihara 24 DF  JPN Takahiro Tanaka ‡ 25 MF  JPN Shohei Hasegawa 26 DF  JPN Sotaro Murakami 27 MF  JPN Yoshinori Katsumata ‡ 28 DF  JPN Rikuya Iwanaga ‡ 29 FW  JPN Shimma Sakai 30 FW  JPN Yuki Fuke 31 MF  JPN Hokuto Okamoto 32 DF  JPN Mizuki Aiba ‡

Key

‡ New for 2021 season

• Official Website (in Japanese)
• Official Facebook page (in Japanese)