History of Tokyo Verdy
The club's origins date back to November 1968:[1][2] following the Japanese national team's third place finish at the Mexico City Olympics, the president of the Japan Football Association, Ken Nozu, decided to further promote the development of soccer in Japan, which was still little followed by the general public and played at an amateur level by teams consisting of employees of large companies or university students.
[10][11][12] The final promotion came in the 1977 season, with Shōichi Nishimura (who had replaced van Balkom in 1976) at the technical helm,[8] and with a roster that included newcomer Ruy Ramos, discovered by Yonashiro:[13][14] after dominating the league, Yomiuri defeated Toyota Motors in the playoffs to earn a ticket to the first division.
[17] Crucial to this season were the contributions of striker Okajima and Brazilians Ramos (top scorer at the end of the championship) and Jairo Matos (named in the tournament's best XI for the second year in a row).
[16][17] After three seasons of mixed results (in which they achieved mid-table finishes,[8] with the exception of the 1981 season in which the team became Fujita Kogyo's main rival for the title[18] and lost the Emperor's Cup after being defeated in the final by Nippon Kokan)[19] and changes in technical leadership,[8] Yomiuri, bolstered by the arrival of other foreign players such as Steve Paterson, won its first national title in 1983 after a neck-and-neck race with Nissan Motors that was decided on a head-to-head match.
[19] At the end of the 1985-1986 season, in which the team, while winning its second league cup, aimed to avoid relegation,[21] the management decided to hire George Yonashiro as coach, with Dino Sani as technical director.
[28] With the goal of creating a team that could boast a nationwide following,[28] the management continued to confirm en bloc the same starting lineup of talented but aging players (such as Ruy Ramos, Shinkichi Kikuchi, and Tetsuji Hashiratani).
[8][28] In order to save the club from heavy debts, Yomiuri entrusted the financial package to Nippon Television,[8][28] which decided to freshen up the roster by starting again with youngsters from the Japan Football League: this move had the effect of improving the team's results (they finished sixth in 1999, having come close to reaching the finals in the first round), but did not solve the dwindling attendance.
[28] This result threw the club back into financial difficulties: in the 2006 season, the team, coached by Ruy Ramos[32] and made up of players forced to take pay cuts,[28] was never in contention for promotion and immediately exited the AFC Champions League, losing in Group F, where they were pitted against Ulsan Hyundai.
