2009 Japan Football League

Overview

At the end of the 2008 season, three new clubs were promoted from the Japanese Regional Leagues by virtue of their final placing in the Regional League promotion series:

Machida Zelvia and V-Varen Nagasaki were approved as J. League associate members at the annual meeting in January.

Sagawa Shiga !Sagawa Shiga won their second championship title since 2007 season.

Table

Updated to games played on November 29, 2009.
Source: Japan Football League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
^† Denotes clubs that occupied top 4 places at the end of the first half of the season (17th week) and were seeded for 2009 Emperor's Cup. These clubs were automatically qualified for the tournament, while each of other JFL clubs had to go through the prefectural qualifier.
¹ Must hold J. League Associate Membership and submit applications to J. League board by 30 September (club names shown in bold), finish no less than in fourth place and pass a final inspection by J. League to be promoted. V-Varen Nagasaki !V-Varen Nagasaki and Machida Zelvia !Machida Zelvia, both associate members, announced that they would not submit applications for this year due to some unresolved problems pointed out by J. League at the preliminary review.
² Series' occurrence is dependent on the number of places available after promotions to J2.
³ Mitsubishi Mizushima F.C. submitted a letter to JFL headquarters on 30 September regarding withdrawal from JFL by the end of 2009 season regardless of their 2009 results due to "various factors including recent economic slump." However, Chugoku Soccer League, one of nine Japanese Regional Leagues, declined to accept Mizushima as its 2010 league member because of their voluntary withdrawal from JFL. Therefore, the highest division which Mizushima will be able to play in 2010 season is Okayama prefectural league division 1.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results

Updated to games played on November 29, 2009.
Source: JFL First Round, JFL Second Round
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Attendances

Source: JFL First Round, JFL Second Round
Notes:
^† Team played previous season in Regional Leagues.

Promotion and relegation

Due to Kitakyushu being promoted and Mitsubishi Mizushima being relegated, the Regional League promotion series winner and runner-up, Matsumoto Yamaga !Matsumoto Yamaga and Hitachi Tochigi Uva !Hitachi Tochigi Uva respectively, were promoted automatically. Third-placed team, Zweigen Kanazawa !Zweigen Kanazawa were set to play FC Kariya !FC Kariya in the promotion and relegation series.

Zweigen Kanazawa won the series at 2–1 aggregate score and earned promotion to JFL. F.C. Kariya relegated to Tōkai regional league.