More on that later.........Song of the day http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=QRrU-tG9uZw
First off.....Yoichi Doi is back after negotiating a lower salary. the 35 year old keeper played every minute for the squad in league play after coming over from FC Tokyo. In a bizarre personnel move, he was one of many cut before the penultimate game of the season. Average player last year.....should be good in J2. Welcome back
Sponichi Annex is reporting that Verdy is looking at picking up former Yokohama FC defender Kazuya Iwakura, a 23 year old defender who appeared in 23 games last seson for JFL side New Wave Kitakyushuu. Iwakura was let go after the termination of Takuya Takagi at Yokohama FC. Before that, he appeared in 16 games for the Fulie. http://www.sponichi.co.jp/soccer/news/2009/01/19/02.html
Now on to the BIG NEWS
Actually big rumor.........again Sponichi is repoting that Tomas and NTV/Yomiuri have worked a deal to take over controlling stake of the club. Article here http://www.sponichi.co.jp/soccer/news/2009/01/19/01.html
What I could Babelfish out of this article and summarize so you won't completely go to sleep
On the 18th, Tomas and I'm assuming NTV went into final stages of the company taking over 50% of the team......giving them a controlling stake in the club. They have a quote from President Hagiwara saying that they are in final stages and that NTV will have some stake in the club but not a major one (I'm guessing this is for broadcasting rights because they need to show something at 3 am ).
After a combination of high salaries and the demotion of the team to J2 in 2005, NTV-Verdy sustained losses of 1,200,000,000 yen. The speculation is that it would take 2,000,000,000 yen to keep the team going this year.
Sunny Side Up......the company connected with Hide Nakata and Masashi Oguro were the front runners for ownership but dropped out at the end of 2008. Tomas, a uniform sponsor since 2004 jumped in.
With the new owner, it looks like Technical Director Kato and President Hagiwara are out. Ramos might also step down after everything settles down. The new power player would be Yasutoshi Miura....the former Yomiuri FC/Verdy and Japan National Team defender and older brother of Kazu Miura.
Tomas has advertising stakes in other clubs, including Yokohama FC and FC Tokyo. NTV will still control 20%.
What is TOMAS
TOMAS is a corporation specializing in education. It's better known as a Juku or Cram School specifically focusing on placing students in universities, high schools, and prestigious private junior high, elementary schools and pre-schools.
the company was founded in 1985 in Tokyo as Tokyo Man-to-Man schools but changed it's name to TOMAS.
TOMAS currently has 5 different types of companies dealing with specific educational subjects, including an international division and an internet specific division. http://www.tomas.co.jp/english/contents_4.html
I'm guessing that one or more of these school logos will be used on the jerseys each year.
TOMAS employs 214 full time instructors and employees and is worth 6.8 billion yen (according to their website as of March 2008). The chairman of TOMAS is Mitsugu Iwasa (pictured above).
Other fallout...........
It's not known what will happen to the land and affiliate clubs of Verdy. Sponichi is reprting that NTV Beleza could be renamed to something with a derivative of TOMAS.http://www.sponichi.co.jp/soccer/news/2009/01/19/03.html
What happens to the volleyball club and triathalon team is still a mystery.
Verdy will probably still play most of their games at Ajinomoto. However a map in Fridays edition of El Golazo showed that Verdy has a concentration of support from Tachikawa to Yomiuri land, consisting of 4 townships in Tokyo. I'm not completely sure if Nishigaoka is part of the 4 but looking at a refurbishment ala Omiya Koen might be something to pursue in the future. Verdy won't make money as the second tennant. TOMAS first needs to stabilize expenses and then look for other options.
I'm going to sleep now. I'll dig more tomorrow .
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