FC Gifu

Football Club Gifu (フットボールクラブ岐阜, Futtobōrukurabu Gifu), abbreviated as FC Gifu (FC岐阜, Efu Shī Gifu)^[1] is a Japanese football club based in Gifu, capital of Gifu Prefecture, Japan. They play in the J3 League, the third tier of Japanese professional football.

FC Gifu
FC岐阜

Full name	Gifu Football Club Co., Ltd.
Founded	2001; 24 years ago (2001)
Ground	Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium Gifu, Gifu Prefecture
Capacity	26,109
Chairman	Hiroshi Komatsu
Manager	Kiyotaka Ishimaru
League	J3 League
2024	J3 League, 8th of 20
Website	www.fc-gifu.com
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Gifu Football Club Co., Ltd.

Nagaragawa Sports Plaza houses the headquarters

History

During the Japan Soccer League and former Japan Football League years, the city and prefecture of Gifu were represented by the Seino Transportation Co. (西濃運輸 Seinō Un'yu) works team, which was relegated from the old JFL for the last time in 1997 and folded shortly thereafter in January 1998.

The modern-day Gifu club was founded in 2001 (Seino's last manager Masayuki Katsuno was among the founders, and a former Seino player, Takashi Umeda, recently returned to town and joined the club following a decade-long stint with Oita Trinita). The club was promoted to the new Japan Football League in 2007 after beating Honda Lock S.C. in the promotion/relegation play-offs.

The team earned third place at the end of the 2007 season, meaning it qualified for promotion to J.League Division 2. On 3 December 2007, J. League approved a promotion for the team for the 2008 season.^[2]

The club finished the 2012 season in 21st place, narrowly missing out on relegation to the Japan Football League.^[3]

Between 2013 and 2018, the team has constantly been placed in the lower realms of J.League Division 2 (now renamed to J2 League) and narrowly avoiding relegation until 2019 when they finished last in the league and were relegated to J3 League. Since then the club has played in the J3 League.

Crest

The team's crest was designed to represent Gifu Prefecture. The top of the crest represents the mountain ranges of the northern part of the prefecture. The flowers are Chinese milk vetch, which are the prefectural flower. Each of the three lines represents one of the Kiso Three Rivers flowing through the prefecture. The banner at the base of the crest is the same as the symbol on the helmet of the victorious Tokugawa clan at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.

League & cup record

Champions

Runners-up

Third place

Promoted

Relegated

League													J.League Cup	Emperor's Cup
Season	Div.	Teams	Pos.	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Attendance/G
2001	GPD1	5	2nd	10	8	1	1	40	7	33	25		Not eligible	Did not qualify
2002		5	1st	10	10	0	0	40	4	36	30			Did not qualify
2003		5	1st	10	10	0	0	34	4	30	30			Did not qualify
2004	Tokai Division 2	8	3rd	14	8	0	6	22	21	1	24			Did not qualify
2005		8	2nd	14	8	5	1	26	7	19	29			Did not qualify
2006	Tokai Division 1	8	1st	16	14	2	0	46	3	43	44			3rd round
2007	JFL	18	3rd	34	17	9	8	45	31	14	60	3,529		3rd round
2008	J2	15	13th	42	10	12	20	41	69	-28	42	3,745		4th round
2009		18	12th	51	16	14	21	62	72	-10	62	4,302		Quarter final
2010		19	14th	36	13	6	17	32	45	-13	45	3,108		2nd round
2011		20	20th	38	6	6	26	39	83	-44	24	4,120		2nd round
2012		22	21st	42	7	14	21	27	55	-28	35	4,270		2nd round
2013		22	21st	42	9	10	23	37	80	-43	37	4,525		2nd round
2014		22	17th	42	13	10	19	54	61	-7	49	7,584		2nd round
2015		22	20th	42	12	7	23	37	71	-34	43	6,179		2nd round
2016		22	20th	42	12	7	23	47	71	-24	43	5,662		1st round
2017		22	18th	42	11	13	18	56	68	-12	46	6,977		3rd round
2018		22	20th	42	11	9	22	44	62	-18	42	6,858		2nd round
2019		22	22nd	42	7	9	26	33	78	-45	30	6,692		2nd round
2020 †	J3	18	6th	34	16	8	10	50	39	11	56	2,643		Did not qualify
2021 †		15	6th	28	12	5	11	38	35	3	41	3,505		1st round
2022		18	14th	34	10	7	17	43	53	-10	37	4,194		2nd round
2023		20	8th	38	14	12	12	44	35	9	54	4,733		3rd round
2024		20	8th	38	15	8	15	64	56	8	53	4,684	1st round	2nd round
2025		20	TBD	38									1st round	2nd round

Key

• Pos. = Position in league; P = Games played; W = Games won; D = Games drawn; L = Games lost; F = Goals scored; A = Goals conceded; GD = Goals difference; Pts = Points gained
• Attendance/G = Average home league attendance
• † 2020 & 2021 seasons attendances reduced by COVID-19 worldwide pandemic
• Source: J.League Data Site

Honours

FC Gifu Honours

Honour	No.	Years
Gifu Prefecture Division 1	2	2002, 2003
Tōkai Division 1	1	2006
Gifu Prefectural Football Championship, Emperor's Cup Shizuoka Prefectural Qualifiers	6	2006, 2007, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

Current squad

As of 9 August 2025.^[4] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Shu Mogi 3 DF  JPN Riku Nozawa 4 DF  JPN Kentaro Kai 5 DF  JPN Ryoma Ishida 6 MF  JPN Sora Igawa 7 MF  JPN Jiro Nakamura (on loan from Gamba Osaka) 8 MF  JPN Daigo Araki 9 FW  BRA Dudu 10 MF  JPN Ryoma Kita 11 FW  JPN Kai Sasaki 14 MF  JPN Yoshiatsu Oiji 15 MF  JPN Naoki Yamada 16 MF  JPN Ryo Nishitani (on loan from Tokyo Verdy) 17 FW  JPN Yuya Nagai 18 MF  JPN Yushi Yamaya 19 MF  JPN Ayumu Matsumoto 20 DF  JPN Shintaro Kato (on loan from Vanraure Hachinohe)

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 GK  JPN Sera Yamaguchi 22 MF  PRK Mun In-ju 23 DF  JPN Kodai Hagino 24 FW  JPN Shohei Aihara 26 DF  JPN Shohei Ogushi 27 FW  JPN Tomoya Yokoyama 28 MF  JPN Tatsuya Hakozaki 29 MF  JPN Riyo Kawamoto (on loan from Shimizu S-Pulse) 31 GK  ESP Jon Ander Serantes 32 FW  JPN William Owie (on loan from Kashiwa Reysol) 33 DF  KOR Kim Yu-geon 37 DF  JPN Shogo Terasaka (on loan from Vissel Kobe) 39 MF  JPN Jin Izumisawa 40 DF  JPN Dai Hirase (on loan from Sagan Tosu) 50 GK  JPN Daiki Goto 55 DF  JPN Ryo Toyama 97 MF  JPN Akito Fukuta

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  JPN Kowa Yonaha (at Fukui United)

Coaching staff

Position	Name
Manager	Kiyotaka Ishimaru
First-team coach	Yusuke Noda Takuya Honda Yuki Yoshimura
Goalkeeper coach	Teppei Uesugi
Conditioning coach	Shuichi Yoshimura
Conditioning advisor	Nobuyuki Nozaki
Doctor	Atsushi Yamaga
Trainer	Hitoshi Suzuki Yudai Kato Yuki Hirano
Competent	Kotaro Sakaguchi
Side affairs	Hideaki Nobuta

Managerial history

Manager	Nationality	From	To	P	W	D	L	W %
Masayuki Katsuno	Japan	1 January 2001	31 January 2006	63	44	6	13	069.84
Tetsuya Totsuka	Japan	1 February 2006	21 June 2007	38	29	5	4	076.32
Hideki Matsunaga	Japan	21 June 2007	31 January 2010	120	39	32	49	032.50
Yasuharu Kurata	Japan	1 February 2010	31 January 2011	37	13	6	18	035.14
Takahiro Kimura	Japan	1 February 2011	31 January 2012	39	6	6	27	015.38
Kōji Gyōtoku	Japan	1 February 2012	18 August 2013	72	13	20	39	018.06
Keiju Karashima[5]	Japan	18 August 2013	31 January 2014	13	3	4	6	023.08
Ruy Ramos[6]	Japan	1 February 2014	22 July 2016	111	32	20	59	028.83
Megumu Yoshida	Japan	22 July 2016	31 January 2017	18	5	4	9	027.78
Takeshi Ōki[7]	Japan	1 February 2017	17 June 2019	105	26	26	53	024.76
Makoto Kitano	Japan	18 June 2019	31 January 2020	25	4	6	15	016.00
Zdravko Zemunović	Serbia	1 February 2020	20 September 2020	15	7	4	4	046.67
Kenji Nakada	Japan	21 September 2020	31 January 2021	19	9	4	6	047.37
Takayoshi Amma	Japan	1 February 2021	31 January 2022	29	12	5	12	041.38
Toshiya Miura	Japan	1 February 2022	5 May 2022	7	2	1	4	028.57
Yuji Yokoyama	Japan	6 May 2022	30 November 2022	29	9	6	14	031.03
Yusaku Ueno	Japan	1 December 2022	27 June 2024	62	24	17	21	038.71
Kenichi Amano	Japan	28 June 2024	2 December 2024	20	8	3	9	040.00
Yasuaki Oshima	Japan	1 January 2025	2 July 2025[8]	18	4	5	9	022.22
Koji Ohashi (Interim)	Japan	2 July 2025	7 July 2025	1	0	0	1	000.00
Kiyotaka Ishimaru	Japan	7 July 2025[9]	Current	0	0	0	0	!—

Kit evolution

Home
2007	2008 - 2009	2010 - 2011	2012	2013
2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
2024 -	2025 -

Away
2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
2022	2023	2024	2025 -

Other teams

They also run as a reserve team FC Gifu Second, which currently plays in the Tōkai Adult League Division 2. They have played in the Emperor's Cup and Shakaijin Cup in the past.