The East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) held a press conference on Monday 25 September and announced the tournament outline for the “EAFF E-1 Football Championship 2017 Final Japan” that will take place in Tokyo and Chiba from Friday 8 December.

In the opening speech, EAFF President TASHIMA Kohzo described the following championship as ‘the most prestigious tournament in East Asia’ and added that the competition ‘has been instrumental in development of football in entire Asia’. He further explained, ‘this will be the seventh men’s and fourth women’s championships’, and expects ‘wonderful competitive matches to be played in the tournament’. 

An outline of the competition was introduced by EAFF General Secretary IWAGAMI Kazumichi. In the past, the following tournament was known as “EAFF East Asian Cup” and was contested among four countries: Japan, Korea, China and DPR Korea. From this competition, it has been renamed to “EAFF E-1 Football Championship”. The general secretary explained about this change, ‘There are three main reasons for this renaming. First of all, this championship will decide the best country in East Asia. Secondly, it will foster a better relationship and unite the East Asian countries. Lastly, we will develop our unique football and promote “innovation” in East Asia, which will allow us to introduce new ideas to the world of football.’ He further added, ‘under this vision, we are looking to broaden the possibilities of football from East Asia’, and announced the tournament slogan “Innovation & Unity”.

Vahid HALILHODZIC, Coach of SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team) and TAKAKURA Asako, Coach of Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women’s National Team) were also present at the press conference, and they expressed their aspirations for the championship.

The “EAFF E-1 Football Championship 2017 Final Japan” will be held between Friday 8 and Saturday 16 September. Men’s tournament will take place at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo, while the women’s competition will be played at Soga Sports Park (Fukuda Denshi Arena) in Chiba Prefecture.

Participants' Comments

Vahid HALILHODZIC, Coach of SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team)
I believe this will be a very interesting tournament for us. Having qualified for the World Cup, this championship will not only provide us with a great opportunity to test the J. League players, but also give them the chance to be selected to the final squad for the World Cup. In other words, we view it as a place to find the possible candidates for our national team. Looking back at the poor performance in the previous cup competition in China, we are aiming for the better result this time. We will make the best possible preparations to win every single match in the tournament, but first we need to come up with the final list of players who will be participating in this championship this December.

TAKAKURA Asako, Coach of Nadeshiko Japan (Japan Women’s National Team)
All four countries that are participating in this tournament have world-class women’s national teams, and I believe this will be not an easy competition to claim the title. We have been arch-rivals, and these teams will be our opponents that we need to beat in the Asian Cup next April to qualify for the World Cup as well. We will be assembling a new team, and I cannot wait to see how well these new players perform in the tournament. I expect my players to compete with pride and understand that they are representing Japan as well. I hope that we will gain a valuable experience to improve the team. We will give our best and aim for the title as well.

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)