That's tickets on general sale now, have bought a couple in what I *think* is the away section (Section A). Info here says 'Away fans for international matches are housed
in Section A', so hopefully that's correct. Looking forward regardless!
www.scottishfa.co.uk/media/10287/...
Aye, I think it's likely possible to just turn up on the day and buy them. Can't see it being oversubscribed 😅
Will keep an eye out regarding seats in the away end at Hampden. Will be simplest if they just go on general sale at the same time as the tickets in the home end later this month!
Trying to buy ice hockey tickets in advance for Japan from overseas is an absolute riddy. In fact, it's impossible if you don't have a Japanese number. Granted, it's a much more niche market than the J.League 😅
Am in Hokkaido for fieldwork later this month, and - after ten years of being there at the wrong time - should *finally* be able to see a Red Eagles game in Tomakomai in-person. Am disproporionately over-excited for this.
I wonder if the issue is the wind strength, and whether it is an extreme/wind direction that hasn't been observed in the past? You would think though that the possibility of more extreme conditions due to climate change would be taken into account when designing and building a brand-new ground.
Great to contribute to @jtalket.bsky.social, with a review of Iwaki FC's 2025 season and a look to the half-season 'chaos league':
☘️ Which Iwaki player is best described as a 'big handsome Japanese Jon Walters'?
🧤 Whit's the goalie daein'?
🔧 Tamura's reward is having his squad dismantled - again!
NEW POD RELEASE (PATREON)
Happy New Year everyone!
Part 1 of the big JTET J2 Season Review is now online for @jtalkpod.bsky.social Patrons (free feed at 18:00 JST today, Monday 5th January).
We cover 10 teams in this episode, with help from some special guests!
I recently appeared on @footpolpodcast.bsky.social to discuss football, industry, place identity and a just transition - with a healthy dose of examples including Iwaki FC, Airdrie keeper John Martin, and the offshore wind supply chain permeating Raith Rovers:
www.buzzsprout.com/2253650/epis...
Delighted to read Yuzo Tamura has signed a contract extension as manager of Iwaki FC through to 2027! A brilliant coach that has Iwaki playing fast, expansive and exciting football with one of the youngest squads in J2. Let's hope we can build a strong squad around him.
iwakifc.com/2025/12/01/c...
Five football shirts hanging from a wooden shelf. From left to right they are Raith Rovers blue, Raith Rovers white, Gotu Itrotterfelag yellow, Akranes yellow, and FC Bayern blue and red.
Getting the Raith Rovers UEFA Cup tops lined up - 30 years on. Home and away tops, plus the three teams we played: Gøtu Ítróttarfelag, Akranes, and FC Bayern.
FIFA were crowing about how Club World Cup was the most "merit-based" competition in the world. The World Cup? Not so much when it comes to Asia. Qatar and Saudi given home advantage for two mini group playoffs. Now Qatar maximise this by playing crunch UAE game in tiny stadium to limit away fans
A line of eight Parma white shirts with black crosses, from different seasons.
Earlier this week - all my ‘Crociati’ Parma tops together for the last time before one heads off to a new owner! One of these shirts is not like the others 🧐 #Parma ⚪️⚫️ 🟡🔵
Two football shirts with the nameset NAKAMURA 10. Left hand is maroon Reggina shirt; right hand is blue Japan shirt.
Day 8: Reminds You of a Loved One
These two. My wife's maiden name!
Reminder: donate here www.justgiving.com/campaigns/ch...
#CancerHasNoColours
A gallery of very similar goals, where the attacker cuts in from the left and creates a goal
Iwaki conceding in 2025 from opposition attackers cutting in from the left: a gallery
A lime green goalkeeper shirt, with the name 'Shovkovskyi' written in Ukrainian on the rear.
Day 7: Your Favourite Nameset
Has to be the Oleksandr Shovkovskyi Dynamo Kyiv goalkeeper shirt, with the name in Ukrainian!
#CancerHasNoColours
A yellow Cadiz CF football shirt with a blue collar. It has a crest reading 'Massana' but is missing the club badge.
A Panini sticker of Cadiz CF player Antonio Calderon. He has a large volume of brown hair, and is wearing a yellow and blue uniform.
Day 6: Your Oldest Shirt
Have posted this before, but it's my 1986 Cadiz CF shirt, from the first season that future Raith Rovers player, manager and Hall of Famer Antonio Calderon played for his hometown club.
#CancerHasNoColours
Two light blue and dark blue Iwaki FC goalkeeper unforms.
A concete plaza with steel beams outside a Japanese railway station. A banner reads 'Welcome to Iwaki City'
Dried fish on skewers in a fish shop.
A small shrine on a rock, over a red bridge in Japan.
Day 5: A City You Love
This has to be a city I've been to every year since 2014 (except COVID): Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture, home to Iwaki FC.
#CancerHasNoColours
A black and white patterned Puma goalkeeper uniform, with blue text reading 'JUBILO IWATA' across the front.
A purple Sanfrecce Hiroshima-style uniform, with a white, green and orange pattern across the chest.
Day 4: Your Most Colourful/Jazzy Shirt
Again, I couldn't choose one, so here are two - upsurprisingly both from the J.League in the mid-1990s.
Jubilo Iwata goalkeeper shirt, seemingly modelled on a World War 1 dazzle ship;
Sanfrecce Hiroshima home template
#CancerHasNoColours
A deep yellow Akranes shirt, with a black collar and text reading BUNADAR BANKINN AKRANESI on the front.
Day 3: Your Most Obscure Shirt
Not obscure to any Raith Rovers supporter over the age of 35, granted, but this is an Akranes shirt from the mid-90s, from the Icelandic league. This is the shirt Akranes wore when Raith Rovers played them in the UEFA Cup in 1995.
#CancerHasNoColours
A yellow and blue Las Palmas shirt with the nameset PAQUITO 8
A red and blue striped FC Bayern shirt with the nameset 18 KLINSMANN
A black Parma shirt with the nameset LUCARELLI 6
A white Eintracht Frankfurt shirt with the nameset HASEBE 20 and a UEFA Europa League patch
Day 2: A Favourite Player
Couldn't pick one so have chosen four:
Paquito (Las Palmas)
Jürgen Klinsmann (Bayern)
Alessandro Lucarelli (Parma)
Makoto Hasebe (Frankfurt)
#CancerHasNoColours
Three football shirts hanging up: a red Czechia shirt, a blue Taiwan shirt, and a yellow Lithuania shirt.
Day 1: A Country You Love
A trio of small countries that don't let themselves be pushed around: Czech Republic, Taiwan, and Lithuania.
🇨🇿 🇹🇼 🇱🇹
Text says: CANCER HAS NO COLOURS Day: Date Theme Day 1: Monday 7th July A country you love Day 2: Tuesday 8th July A favourite player Day 3: Wednesday 9th July Your most obscure shirt Day 4: Thursday 10th July Your most colourful/jazzy shirt Day 5: Friday 11th July A city you love Day 6: Saturday 12th July Your oldest shirt Day 7: Sunday 13th July Your favourite nameset Day 8: Monday 14th July Reminds you of a loved one Take part and donate to BLF
On Twitter, @kitnerduk.bsky.social has initiated #CancerHasNoColours. I'll do it on BlueSky as that's where I post these days.
8 days, 8 themes. Wear/share your best football shirt that fits the theme, spread the word and donate to Bradley Lowery Foundation:
www.justgiving.com/campaigns/ch...
Iwaki FC don't score many from open play, but when we do they are almost inevitably screamers. Nelson Ishiwatari is some talent, and came up with the goods again today from outside the box to beat Omiya Ardija 2-1. Kaina Tanimura's last game before moving on to - seemingly - Yokohama F Marinos.
I do feel for Iwaki coach Yuzo Tamura. With a small budget, he's kept Iwaki in J2 for 2 & a half seasons with exciting, expansive football. But every transfer window, his squad gets dismantled. Iwabuchi + Arita season before last; Teruyama + Saga last summer; Arima + Tachikawa in winter; now this.
Kaina Tanimura confirmed as leaving Iwaki FC. Less than 24 hours after the news that captain and centre-back Ryo Endo will be out for the rest of the season with an ACL injury.
Big fight for Iwaki to stay in J2 now.
Tamura - for reasons known only to himself - decided to take off one of our centre-backs today in a like-for-like substitution in the 88th minute 🤯 Can only assume the boy was carrying an injury, because otherwise that's just daft when you're trying to see out a 2-1 lead against a relegation rival.
Screenshot of Japanese football shirts on an online site. All of them are counterfeits or so-called 'concept shirts'.
Hunting for old Japanese shirts online is absolutely bloody exhausting. For every genuine one, you have to wade through fifty of these god-awful fakes 😑
I occasionally get a notification of a spike in traffic to this article, and am so chuffed to see this has found its way into videogame folklore. Even see folk on Facebook and Reddit talking in hushed tones about 'the original Master League team being Alfa Romeo employees' without linking to this 😅
Was updating my personal blog, and remembered the time ten years ago when I discovered that the Master League players in the original Pro Evolution Soccer were all mysteriously named after figures from Alfa Romeo's history. That was some rabbithole:
thezerocar.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/a...
A brightly patterned goalkeeper uniform with large pads from the early 1990s. The sponsor reads 'Giocheria'.
Sponsor text on the front of a goalkeeper uniform reading 'Giocheria'. A coloured dice forms the left of the logo.
The black rear of a goalkeeper uniform from Venezia, from the 1992-93 season. The number 12 is printed in white block letters.
Copy of a Venezia team roster from the 1992-93 season. The goalkeeper in the photograph is wearing the same uniform as in the previous images.
Hit the jackpot in a charity shop in Vienna last week. Picked this up knowing nothing about it because it looked funky. Did a bit of research back home, and learned it's a match-issue Venezia goalkeeper top from the 1992-93 Serie B season, issued to substitute keeper Roberto Menghini (not pictured)!
