Description
Ehime FC are a professional soccer club in the J. League, presently playing in the J2 league. Their home town is the entire Ehime prefecture, centering around Matsuyama city. Team’s home stadium is the Ningineer Stadium (Ehime Matsuyama Athletic Stadium or Ehime Prefectural Sports Park Stadium) in Matsuyama city.
The club was founded in 1970 as the Matsuyama Soccer Club by the old boys of Matsuyama Higashi High School. They started in the Ehime Prefecture League and promoted to the Shikoku League in 1987. In 1996, the club name was changed to Ehime Football Club. Once they set their sights on a promotion to the Japan Football League (JFL), they began to make changes to strengthen their team.
After winning their first Shikoku League championship in 1998, they won again in 1999 and 2000, achieving a promotion to JFL. In their first year in JFL they finished 12th out of 16 teams, but gradually climbed up in ranks and on their 5th year in 2005, they secured their first JFL championship, becoming the second club from the Shikoku region, after Tokushima Vortis, to promote to the J. League.
In the 4th round of the 2007 Emperor’s Cup, they beat Urawa Reds 2-0. In the 5th round they defeated the J1 team Yokohama FC 2-1, making their way up to the quarter finals, but in their league matches they haven’t been able to contend for the title ever since 2006 and have been sinking lower and lower every year.
However, in 2015, with fresh blood in the team and everyone working in unison, they won 5 games in a row and continued in good shape. They finished in 5th place, which was the clubs record highest achievement, and advanced to the J1 playoffs. In the semifinals of the playoffs, they tied 0-0 with 4th place finishers Cerezo Osaka, meaning that their dream of promoting to J1 was shattered. Nevertheless, they had made rapid progress during that season.
Ehime FC’s home jersey is orange, since Ehime prefecture is widely known for its mandarin orange production. The team’s supplier from 2008 has been Mizuno and their shirts have logos of sponsors like SOLATO, The Iyo Bank, elleair, and others.