Start date 1993 | ||
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The J. League 1993 season was the inaugural season of the J. League Division 1. The league fixtures began on May 15, 1993, and ended on December 15, 1993. The first ever Suntory Championship took place in the following year, January 9 and January 16, 1994.
Contents
Clubs
Ten clubs participated in J. League during 1993 season:
Format
In the first year, the league followed split-season format, and each halves (or stages) were known as Suntory Series and NICOS Series for sponsorship purposes. In each series, ten clubs played in double round-robin format, a total of 18 games per club (per series). The games went to golden-goal extra time and penalties if needed after regulation. The clubs were ranked by number of wins, and tie breakers are, in the following order:
The club that finished at the top of the table is declared stage champion and qualifies for the Suntory Championship. The first stage winner, hosts the first leg in the championship series. If the same club win both stages, the runners-up of each stages plays against each other and the winners challenges the stage winner at the championship game.
Average attendance
In its first year, the league averaged 17,976 fans and had over 3.2 million fans total over the course of the season. The following chart shows the league ranked in terms of average attendance:
Awards
Kazuyoshi Miura
Masaaki Sawanobori
Yasutaro Matsuki