2002 J.League Division 2

The 2002 J.League Division 2 season was the 31st season of the second-tier club football in Japan and the 4th season since the establishment of J.League Division 2.

Starting this season, extra-time rule was abolished and the league adopted the traditional 3-1-0 points system. The twelve clubs competed in the quadruple round-robin format. The top two received promotion to the J.League Division 1. There were no relegation to the third-tier Japan Football League.

Clubs

The following 12 clubs played in J.League Division 2 during 2002 season. Of these clubs, Cerezo Osaka and Avispa Fukuoka were relegated from J.League Division 1 last year.

Personnel

Club	Head coach
Albirex Niigata	Japan Yasuharu Sorimachi
Avispa Fukuoka	Japan Shigekazu Nakamura
Cerezo Osaka	Japan Akihiro Nishimura
Kawasaki Frontale	Japan Nobuhiro Ishizaki
Mito HollyHock	Japan Masaaki Kanno
Montedio Yamagata	Japan Koichi Hashiratani
Oita Trinita	Japan Shinji Kobayashi
Omiya Ardija	Netherlands Henk Duut
Sagan Tosu	Japan Hiroshi Soejima
Shonan Bellmare	Japan Koji Tanaka
Ventforet Kofu	Japan Takeshi Oki
Yokohama FC	Japan Katsuyoshi Shinto

Foreign players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Non-visa foreign	Type-C contract	Former players
Albirex Niigata	Brazil Beto	Brazil Marcus Vinícius	Brazil Serjão	North Korea An Yong-hak
Avispa Fukuoka	Bosnia and Herzegovina Alen Avdić	Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Zoltan Sabo	South Korea Noh Jung-yoon			Argentina David Bisconti
Cerezo Osaka	Bosnia and Herzegovina Almir Turković	Brazil João Carlos	South Korea Yoon Jong-hwan	South Korea Chong Yong-de
Kawasaki Frontale	Brazil Bentinho	Brazil Marlon	Brazil Marquinho		Brazil Alex	Brazil Marcos Aurélio
Mito HollyHock	South Korea An Seon-jin			North Korea Hwang Hak-sun
Montedio Yamagata
Oita Trinita	Brazil Andradina	Brazil Fabinho Santos		Brazil Sandro	Brazil Marcelo Mattos South Korea Kim Sung-kil
Omiya Ardija	Brazil Toninho	Panama Jorge Dely Valdés	Turkey Fuat Usta			Brazil Jorginho
Sagan Tosu	Argentina David Bisconti			Brazil Erikson Noguchipinto
Shonan Bellmare	Colombia Ever Palacios				Brazil Silva
Ventforet Kofu	Brazil Jorginho				Brazil Alair
Yokohama FC	Argentina Fernando Moner

League format

Twelve clubs played in quadruple round-robin format, a total of 44 games each. A club receives 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, and 0 points for a loss. The clubs are ranked by points, and tie breakers are, in the following order:

Goal differential
Goals scored
Head-to-head results

A draw would be conducted, if necessary. However, if two clubs are tied at the first place, both clubs will be declared as the champions. The top two clubs are promoted to J1.

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Oita Trinita (C, P)	44	28	10	6	67	34	+33	94	Promotion to 2003 J.League Division 1
2	Cerezo Osaka (P)	44	25	12	7	93	53	+40	87
3	Albirex Niigata	44	23	13	8	75	47	+28	82
4	Kawasaki Frontale	44	23	11	10	71	53	+18	80
5	Shonan Bellmare	44	16	16	12	46	43	+3	64
6	Omiya Ardija	44	14	17	13	52	42	+10	59
7	Ventforet Kofu	44	16	10	18	51	55	−4	58
8	Avispa Fukuoka	44	10	12	22	58	69	−11	42
9	Sagan Tosu	44	9	14	21	41	64	−23	41
10	Mito HollyHock	44	11	7	26	45	73	−28	40
11	Montedio Yamagata	44	6	17	21	29	57	−28	35
12	Yokohama FC	44	8	11	25	43	81	−38	35

Top scorers

Pos	Player	Club	Goals	PK	GP	Shots	Goals per game
1st	Brazil Marcus Vinícius	Albirex Niigata	19	4/5	36	139	0.55
2nd	Japan Yoshito Ōkubo	Cerezo Osaka	18	1/2	29	65	0.91
Brazil Andradina	Oita Trinita	1/1	39	117	0.50
4th	Brazil Bentinho	Kawasaki Frontale	16	3/3	36	176	0.44
5th	Japan Takayoshi Ono	Mito HollyHock	14	2/2	36	85	0.46
Japan Hiroshi Morita	Sagan Tosu	0/0	38	86	0.45
Argentina David Bisconti	4/4	39	92	0.42
8th	Japan Yasuo Manaka	Cerezo Osaka	13	1/1	28	67	1.05
Panama Jorge Dely Valdés	Omiya Ardija	2/2	32	72	0.46
10th	Japan Hiroaki Morishima	Cerezo Osaka	12	0/0	37	75	0.34
Brazil Marlon	Kawasaki Frontale	0/0	23	74	0.58

Attendances

#	Football club	Total attendance	Home games	Average	Highest	Lowest
1	Albirex Niigata	472,507	22	21,478	42,211	9,125
2	Oita Trinita	271,669	22	12,349	27,431	3,094
3	Cerezo Osaka	174,951	22	7,952	32,067	3,067
4	Avispa Fukuoka	142,808	22	6,491	14,475	3,284
5	Omiya Ardija	115,846	22	5,266	19,782	2,517
6	Kawasaki Frontale	115,431	22	5,247	20,405	3,044
7	Shonan Bellmare	100,125	22	4,551	9,739	2,120
8	Ventforet Kofu	108,108	22	4,914	13,000	2,954
9	Sagan Tosu	85,586	22	3,890	8,464	1,796
10	Montedio Yamagata	82,601	22	3,755	8,996	1,908
11	Yokohama FC	76,498	22	3,477	11,118	1,518
12	Mito HollyHock	60,262	22	2,739	5,576	1,136

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