User:Stueybrock/2024sandbox

The 2024 J3 League, also known as the 2024 Meiji Yasuda J3 League (2024 明治安田生命J2リーグ) for sponsorship reasons, is the 11th season of the J3 League, the third-tier Japanese professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 2013.

Overview
The league will continue with 20 teams for the 2024 season.

The top two teams in the league will be automatically promoted to the J2 League, provided they have the necessary license. The 2024 season introduces a promotion play-offs, where one of the teams ranked 3rd to 6th will also be promoted.

There is the possibility that as many as two clubs will be relegated to the Japan Football League. Promotion from the JFL is conditional on holding a valid J3 license. If the JFL champions hold a license, the club will be automatically promoted and the J3's 20th-placed team will be automatically relegated. If the JFL runners-up hold a license, the club will need to play promotion/relegation play-offs against J3's 19th or 20th-placed team for the season, depending on whether the JFL champions hold the J3 license. The club(s) who do not hold a license cannot be promoted and no teams will be relegated from the J3 League.

Schedule
The league and match format was announced on 19 December 2023. The league will begin on 23 February and end on 10 November in a round-robin format of 38 matches.

The J2 promotion play-offs will have the semi-finals on 1 December with the final taking place on 7 December.

Changes from the previous season
Zweigen Kanazawa and Omiya Ardija were relegated to the J3 League, finishing the previous J2 League season as 21st and 22nd-placed teams, respectively. Zweigen Kanazawa are returning back to the J3 League after nine seasons in the second-tier. Omiya Ardija will be competing in the third-tier for the first time as a J.League member.

No teams were relegated from the 2023 J3 League. This is only the second time in J3 history that there will be no new clubs promoted from the JFL.

J3 winners Ehime FC and runners-up Kagoshima United were both promoted from the 2023 season.

Foreign players
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 * Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the summer transfer window.
 * Player's name in italics indicates the player has Japanese nationality in addition to their FIFA nationality, holds the nationality of a J.League partner nation, or is exempt from being treated as a foreign player due to having been born in Japan and being enrolled in, or having graduated from an approved type of school in the country.

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