F.C. Tokyo

F.C. Tokyo(FC東京) is a J. League team. Unlike most J. League teams, its team name is simply Football Club Tokyo and has no mascot character.

Its hometown is Tokyo perfecture and uses Ajinomoto Stadium as its home ground. For a long time it did not have a home stadium of its own and various football field like the National Yoyogi Stadium, the National Nishigaoka Football Field, the Edogawa Special Ward Stadium, the Komazawa Olympic Park Stadium but finally found a permanent home that it currently uses in 2001. Its practice gorunds are Sarue Ground in Koto, Tokyo and Kodaira Ground in Kodaira, Tokyo.

The team started as a company team, Tokyo Gas Football Club in 1935. With addition of the Brazilian football player Amarao and the manager Kiyoshi Okuma at the helm, the team gradually became competitive and in 1997, the team archieved the second and the next year a championship in JFL. However, the team lacked the necessary qualifications for a promotion to the J1 league.

Thus on October 1, 1998, companies like Tokyo Gas, TEPCO, am/pm Japan, TV Tokyo, and Culture Convenience Club Co., Ltd set up a joint company Tokyo Football Club Company with the aim of making the team eligible for joining the J. League. On 1999, the same year the team became eligible, it won the J2 championship and joined the J1 league from 2000. Despite a widespread belief that the team would barely win enough to stay in the J1, the team won four games in a row since its opening game and managed to finish at the 7th spot.

Helped by its winning record, the attendance shot up and it is still above that of well known Tokyo Verdy 1969 that moved its home town from Kawasaki, Kanagawa on 2001. Since 2002, the team welcomed Hiromi Hara as its manager and aimed for a championship with a strong offense. The 2003 season had the team finish at 4th spot besting its previous record. On August of the same year, it held a friendly match against one of the greatest football clubs, Real Madrid getting beaten three to zero but gaining valuable experiences both on and off the field for what it takes to be a great football club.

The long time leader and nicknamed The King of Tokyo by its fans, Amarao departed the team to join Shonan Bellmare on 2004 but had a Athen Olympic national football team player Yasuyuki Konno from Consadole Sapporo join the team. On November of the same year, it won the Nabisco cup for the first big title since joining the J. League.

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