L.League 1998

The 1998 L.League season, which ran from April 25th until November 8th, was its most tumultuous to date. While the season was still ongoing both reigning champions Nikko Securities Dream Ladies and Fujita Soccer Club Mercury announced that they would be withdrawing from the league. Furthermore, after the season had ended both Suzuyo Shimizu FC Lovely Ladies and Shiroki FC Serena also announced their withdrawal from the league.


Yomiuri Seiyu Beleza were renamed as Yomiuri Beleza.

In the tables below, scorelines in parentheses indicate the results of penalty shoot-outs. Games decided as a result of a V-Goal are indicated by vg. In the league tables, the 90 mins column indicates the number of victories achieved in the normal ninety minute period.

First Stage

Final Standings

		Won	90 mins	Lost	GF	GA	+/-
1	Nikko Securities Dream Ladies	9	8	0	26	7	19
2	Yomiuri Beleza	8	8	1	34	8	26
3	Prima Ham FC Kunoichi	6	6	3	22	15	7
4	Takarazuka Bunnys Ladies	6	6	3	14	10	4
5	Suzuyo Shimizu FC Lovely Ladies	5	5	4	22	16	6
6	Matsushita Denki Panasonic Bambina	4	2	5	21	26	-5
7	Tasaki Perule FC	2	2	7	14	20	-6
8	Shiroki FC Serena	2	2	7	9	19	-10
9	OKI FC Winds	2	1	7	3	23	-20
10	Fujita Soccer Club Mercury	1	1	8	7	28	-21

Table of Results

	Nikko	Yomiuri	Prima	Takarazuka	Suzuyo	Matsushita	Tasaki	Shiroki	OKI	Fujita
Nikko		5-4	3-1	2-0	0-0 (4-1)	4-1	3-0	2-0	5-1	2-0
Yomiuri	4-5		5-0	3-1	2-1	6-1	2-0	1-0	5-0	6-0
Prima	1-3	0-5		2-0	2-4	3-2	2-1	6-0	5-0	1-0
Takarazuka	0-2	1-3	0-2		3-0	1-0	4-2	1-0	1-0	3-1
Suzuyo	0-0 (1-4)	1-2	4-2	0-3		5-6 vg	3-1	4-2	2-0	3-0
Matsushita	1-4	1-6	2-3	0-1	6-5 vg		2-2 (5-3)	2-3	2-0	5-2
Tasaki	0-3	0-2	1-2	2-4	1-3	2-2 (5-3)		3-0	1-2	4-2
Shiroki	0-2	0-1	0-6	0-1	2-4	3-2	0-3		0-0 (3-4)	4-0
OKI	1-5	0-5	0-5	0-1	0-2	0-2	2-1	0-0 (4-3)		0-2
Fujita	0-2	0-6	0-1	1-3	0-3	2-5	2-4	0-4	2-0

Second Stage

Final Standings

		Won	90 mins	Lost	GF	GA	+/-
1	Nikko Securities Dream Ladies	8	8	1	28	6	22
2	Suzuyo Shimizu FC Lovely Ladies	8	7	1	27	7	20
3	Matsushita Denki Panasonic Bambina	7	7	2	22	14	8
4	Yomiuri Beleza	6	4	3	15	13	2
5	Prima Ham FC Kunoichi	5	5	4	24	17	7
6	Takarazuka Bunnys Ladies	4	4	5	24	13	11
7	Tasaki Perule FC	3	3	6	10	18	-8
8	Fujita Soccer Club Mercury	2	2	7	9	22	-13
9	OKI FC Winds	2	1	7	6	21	-15
10	Shiroki FC Serena	0	0	9	8	42	-34

Table of Results

	Nikko	Suzuyo	Matsushita	Yomiuri	Prima	Takarazuka	Tasaki	Fujita	OKI	Shiroki
Nikko		1-2 vg	3-0	2-0	3-1	2-1	3-0	3-1	6-1	5-0
Suzuyo	2-1 vg		2-3	3-0	3-2	1-0	2-0	2-0	5-0	7-1
Matsushita	0-3	3-2		1-2	2-1	3-2	5-2	2-0	1-0	5-2
Yomiuri	0-2	0-3	2-1		1-3	3-2	1-1 (5-3)	2-1 vg	2-0	4-0
Prima	1-3	2-3	1-2	3-1		1-5	4-1	6-1	2-1	4-0
Takarazuka	1-2	0-1	2-3	2-3	5-1		2-0	2-0	2-2 (4-5)	8-1
Tasaki	0-3	0-2	2-5	1-1 (3-5)	1-4	0-2		2-1	1-0	3-0
Fujita	1-3	0-2	0-2	1-2 vg	1-6	0-2	1-2		1-0	4-3
OKI	1-6	0-5	0-1	0-2	1-2	2-2 (5-4)	0-1	0-1		2-1
Shiroki	0-5	1-7	2-5	0-4	0-4	1-8	0-3	3-4	1-2

The final deciding match for the championship was due to be played on November 15th, 1998. Since Nikko Securities Dream Ladies won both stages, this match was unnecessary and thus Nikko Securities won their third successive - and final - league title.

The overall final standings are shown below. Regardless of the number of points gained during the season, the first placed team is the winner of the championship with the loser occupying the second position. The remaining positions are determined by ranking the teams by number of wins, goal difference etc.

Overall Final Standings

		Won	90 mins	Lost	GF	GA	+/-
1	Nikko Securities Dream Ladies	17	16	1	54	13	41
2	Yomiuri Beleza	14	12	4	49	21	28
3	Suzuyo Shimizu FC Lovely Ladies	13	12	5	49	23	26
4	Prima Ham FC Kunoichi	11	11	7	46	32	14
5	Matsushita Denki Panasonic Bambina	11	9	7	43	40	3
6	Takarazuka Bunnys Ladies	10	10	8	38	23	15
7	Tasaki Perule FC	5	5	13	24	38	-14
8	OKI FC Winds	4	2	14	9	44	-35
9	Fujita Soccer Club Mercury	3	3	15	16	50	-34
10	Shiroki FC Serena	2	2	16	17	61	-44

L.League Promotion Play-off 1997

Following the 1997 season there was only one team seeking entry to the L.League for the 1998 season, Mothers Kumamoto Rainbow Ladies, who had attempted promotion the previous year as Akita FC Ladies. Their opposition was Takarazuka Bunnys Ladies who had finished bottom of the L.League.


L.League promotion Play-off

First Leg:
Takarazuka Bunnys Ladies  12 - 0  Mothers Kumamoto Rainbow Ladies

Second Leg:
Mothers Kumamoto Rainbow Ladies  0 - 14  Takarazuka Bunnys Ladies

Takarazuka Bunnys Ladies win 26-0 on aggregate and retain their place in the L.League.