Albirex Niigata
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| Full name | Albirex Niigata | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1955 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Niigata Stadium Big Swan Niigata, Niigata | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Capacity | 42,279 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman | Hiromu Ikeda | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manager | Yasuharu Sorimachi (2001 - ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | J. League Div.1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| J. League 2004 | 10th place (1st: 14th, 2nd: 7th) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Albirex Niigata(アルビレックス新潟) is a J. League team.
Joining J. League in 1999, its home towns are Niigata, Niigata and Seiro, Niigata. Until 2003, it used Niigata Perfectural Sport Ground as the home ground but since 2004, the team is also using Niigata Stadium Big Swan as well and now play most of its game here. On 2003, it has recorded the most attendance of all teams in J. League with the total of around 660,000 in its host games. Its practice grounds are Albirex's training facilities in Seiro and the Ijimino Sports Park (五十公野運動公園) in Shibata.
The team name is made from combining the Albiero of Cygnus and the Latin word Rex meaning 'king'. In 1997, due to the copyright problem, the team name was changed from Albireo Niigata to the current Albirex Niigata.
On 1998, the Albirex Niigata joined JFL. After the J2 league was created in 1999, it joined the league. The team gradually became competitive and on 2001 and 2002 it came close to getting promoted to J1 and on 2003, it became the champion of J2 and finally joined J1.
Since 2004, the Albirex Niigata has selected number of players from its satellite team and joined the Singapore Professional Football League as Albirex Niigata Singapore. The Albirex also has a women's team and joined L2 league (an equivalent of J2) since 2004.
Title
- 2003 J2 Championship
| Japan Professional Football League Members in 2005 season | Missing image J_league.gif Logo |
| Division 1 (J1) | |
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Niigata | Kashima | Kashiwa | Chiba | Omiya | Urawa | F.C. Tokyo | Tokyo V. | Kawasaki | |
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Yokohama F.M. | Shimizu | Iwata | Nagoya | G.Osaka | C.Osaka | Kobe | Hiroshima | Oita | |
| Division 2 (J2) | |
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Sapporo | Sendai | Yamagata | Mito | Kusatsu | Yokohama FC | Shonan | Kofu | Kyoto | Tokushima | Fukuoka | Tosu | |