Giravanz Kitakyushu
Giravanz Kitakyushu
Main page

Giravanz Kitakyushu

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Giravanz Kitakyushu

Giravanz Kitakyushu (ギラヴァンツ北九州, Giravantsu Kitakyūshū) is a Japanese football club based in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture. They currently play in J3 League, Japanese third tier of professional league football.

The club was formed in 1947 as part of Mitsubishi Chemical's Kurosaki factory. The club was a founding member of Kyushu regional league since 1973. Most of its career was spent in the regional and prefectural leagues, as Kitakyushu was represented in the Japan Soccer League by Yahata Steel F.C. Yahata was a founding member of the JSL in 1965, and finished as runner-up in its first two seasons in that league. Yahata was renamed New Nippon Steel F.C. in 1970, when Yahata Steel merged with Fuji Steel to form (New) Nippon Steel. It ultimately was relegated to the Second Division in 1982, then relegated from the Second Division to Kyushu regional league after 1990–91 season, and closed in 1999.

In 2001, the club became a community-oriented club (New Wave) Kitakyushu F.C.

In 2007 New Wave took second place in the Regional League promotion series, and was promoted to the JFL for the 2008 season.

The club applied for J. League Associate Membership in January 2008, and the application was accepted at the J. League board meeting on February 19, 2008.

On 1 April 2009, the club made an announcement that they would be accepting suggestions for a new name. This was because the name "New Wave" may cause trademark or tradename disputes. Therefore, the new name had to be something not yet registered as a trademark.

On 2 October 2009, they announced that the new club name for the 2010 season would be Giravanz Kitakyushu (ギラヴァンツ北九州, Giravantsu Kitakyūshū). According to the official news release, the name "Giravanz" is coined from two Italian words: "Girasole", which means "sunflower", and "Avanzare", which means "moving forward". (The sunflower is one of Kitakyushu's symbol flowers.)

On 23 November 2009, after a 2–1 win away against Arte Takasaki, Kitakyushu secured a top four position in the JFL for the 2009 season. They played in J. League Division 2 from 2010-2016.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.