The Japan Football Association are holding discussions about setting up a professional women’s football league, according to local media reports.
Kyodo News reports that the JFA, as part of first steps towards setting up a new league, will first establish a preparatory committee, to research on profitability analysis, participation in standards development, and team selection, targeting a launch in 2021.
Currently the semi-professional top women’s Nadeshiko football league has ten teams, and the new league may begin with a lineup of eight.
Japan is also one of several countries to have submitted bids to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
Sports streaming platform MyCujoo agreed earlier in 2019 on a four-year deal with the Japanese women’s football league to show content from its second- and third-tier competitions until 2022, as well as cup matches from the first-tier in 2019.
