| Clubname: | Giravanz Kitakyushu ギラヴァンツ北九州 |
| Upright: | 0.8 |
| Fullname: | Giravanz Kitakyushu |
| Nickname: | Giravanz, Kita-Q |
| Founded: | [1] |
| Stadium: | Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture |
| Capacity: | 15,300 |
| Chairman: | Yukito Tamai |
| Manager: | Kohei Masumoto |
| Current: | 2023 Giravanz Kitakyushu season |
| Website: | http://www.giravanz.jp/ |
| Pattern La1: | _giravanz Kitakyushu 2024 HOME FP |
| Pattern B1: | _giravanz Kitakyushu 2024 HOME FP |
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| Pattern Sh1: | _giravanz Kitakyushu 2024 HOME FP |
| Pattern So1: | _giravanz Kitakyushu 2024 HOME FP |
| Pattern La2: | _giravanz Kitakyushu 2024 AWAY FP |
| Pattern B2: | _giravanz Kitakyushu 2024 AWAY FP |
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is a Japanese football club based in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture. They currently play in J3 League, Japan's 3rd tier of professional league football.
The club was formed in 1947 as part of Mitsubishi Chemical's Kurosaki factory. The club was a founding member of Kyushu regional league since 1973. Most of its career was spent in the regional and prefectural leagues, as Kitakyushu was represented in the Japan Soccer League by Yahata Steel F.C. Yahata was a founding member of the JSL in 1965, and finished as runner-up in its first two seasons in that league. Yahata was renamed New Nippon Steel F.C. in 1970, when Yahata Steel merged with Fuji Steel to form (New) Nippon Steel. It ultimately was relegated to the Second Division in 1982, then relegated from the Second Division to Kyushu regional league after 1990–91 season, and closed in 1999.
In 2001, the club became a community-oriented club (New Wave) Kitakyushu F.C.
In 2007 New Wave took second place in the Regional League promotion series, and was promoted to the JFL for the 2008 season.
The club applied for J. League Associate Membership in January 2008, and the application was accepted at the J. League board meeting on February 19, 2008.
On 1 April 2009, the club made an announcement that they would be accepting suggestions for a new name. This was because the name "New Wave" may cause trademark or tradename disputes.[2] Therefore, the new name had to be something not yet registered as a trademark.
On 2 October 2009, they announced that the new club name for the 2010 season would be . According to the official news release, the name "Giravanz" is coined from two Italian words: "Girasole", which means "sunflower", and "Avanzare", which means "moving forward".[3] (The sunflower is one of Kitakyushu's symbol flowers.)
On 23 November 2009, after a 2–1 win away against Arte Takasaki, Kitakyushu secured a top four position in the JFL for the 2009 season, regardless of the result at the final week of 2009 JFL. This means they will play in J. League Division 2 for the 2010 season, something which was confirmed by the J.League board meeting on 30 November 2009.[4] [5] [6]
In its inaugural year in the pro ranks, despite attaining a large number of draw matches, Kitakyushu set new records for fewest wins and points in the season standings.
After several seasons in J2 League, on 20 November 2016 they suffered their first relegation to J3 League.
After the 2018 J3 League season when they eventually ranked bottom, they named Shinji Kobayashi as the new manager, who also took a role as the newly established Sports Director position concurrently. In 2019 J3 League, Kobayashi led the club to become the champions & promoted to the 2020 J2 League. Although they are successful enough as far as ranked top at the end of the first half, and eventually ranked 5th at the end of the 2020 season, they had a dozen of key players, including Akira Silvano Disaro who scored 18 goals in 2020 season, transferred to other clubs after the season. In 2021, they have ranked at or near the bottom for the entire season, which resulted in suffering relegation to the 2022 J3 League, becoming the first J.-League club relegated to the J3 League a second time. The club played its 2nd consecutive season in the J3 on 2023, in which they ranked the bottom second time after 2018, although they were not relegated to the Japan Football League (JFL) as both Honda FC and Briobecca Urayasu, champions and runners-up of 2023 JFL, have not applied for J3 license, thus were not eligible to promote to the J3 League.
Giravanz played in the Honjo Athletic Stadium from 2010 until 2016.
Giravanz moved to the Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu, having played at there since 2017.
| bgcolor=gold | Champions | bgcolor=silver | Runners-up | Third place | bgcolor=palegreen | Promoted | bgcolor=pink | Relegated |
| League | J. League Cup | Emperor's Cup | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Div. | Tier | Teams | Pos. | P | W (PKW) | D | L (PKL) | F | A | GD | Pts | Attendance/G | ||
| New Wave Kitakyushu | |||||||||||||||
| 2003 | 4 | 12 | 4th | 22 | 12 (1) | - | 5 (4) | 65 | 46 | 19 | 42 | - | Not eligible | – | |
| 2004 | 10 | 6th | 18 | 9 (0) | - | 8 (1) | 41 | 39 | 2 | 28 | - | Did not qualify | |||
| 2005 | 10 | 6th | 18 | 10 (0) | - | 5 (3) | 51 | 30 | 21 | 33 | - | ||||
| 2006 | 9 | 3rd | 16 | 11 (1) | - | 3 (1) | 45 | 23 | 22 | 36 | - | ||||
| 2007 | 11 | 1st | 20 | 17 (1) | - | 1 (1) | 53 | 7 | 46 | 54 | - | ||||
| 2008 | JFL | 3 | 18 | 10th | 34 | 13 | 10 | 11 | 49 | 48 | 1 | 49 | 1,149 | 3rd round | |
| 2009 | 18 | 4th | 34 | 16 | 10 | 8 | 49 | 31 | 18 | 58 | 3,411 | 1st round | |||
| Giravanz Kitakyushu | |||||||||||||||
| 2010 | 2 | 19 | 19th | 36 | 1 | 12 | 28 | 20 | 65 | -45 | 15 | 4,189 | Not eligible | 3rd round | |
| 2011 | 20 | 8th | 38 | 16 | 10 | 12 | 45 | 46 | -1 | 58 | 4,051 | 3rd round | |||
| 2012 | 22 | 9th | 42 | 19 | 7 | 16 | 53 | 47 | 6 | 64 | 3,346 | 2nd round | |||
| 2013 | 22 | 16th | 42 | 13 | 10 | 19 | 50 | 60 | -10 | 49 | 3,175 | 3rd round | |||
| 2014 | 22 | 5th | 42 | 18 | 11 | 13 | 50 | 50 | 0 | 65 | 3,622 | Quarter finals | |||
| 2015 | 22 | 7th | 42 | 18 | 5 | 19 | 59 | 58 | 1 | 59 | 3,488 | 2nd round | |||
| 2016 | 22 | 22nd | 42 | 8 | 14 | 20 | 43 | 64 | -21 | 38 | 3,224 | 2nd round | |||
| 2017 | 3 | 17 | 9th | 32 | 13 | 7 | 12 | 44 | 37 | 7 | 46 | 5,939 | 2nd round | ||
| 2018 | 17 | 17th | 32 | 6 | 9 | 17 | 22 | 42 | -20 | 27 | 4,501 | Did not qualify | |||
| 2019 | 18 | 1st | 34 | 19 | 9 | 6 | 51 | 27 | 24 | 66 | 6,049 | 2nd round | |||
| 2020 † | J2 | 2 | 22 | 5th | 42 | 19 | 8 | 15 | 59 | 51 | 8 | 65 | 3,352 | Did not qualify | |
| 2021 † | 22 | 21st | 42 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 35 | 66 | -31 | 35 | 2,974 | 2nd round | |||
| 2022 | J3 | 3 | 18 | 13th | 34 | 11 | 7 | 16 | 41 | 45 | -4 | 40 | 3,613 | 1st round | |
| 2023 | 20 | 20th | 38 | 7 | 10 | 21 | 33 | 45 | -12 | 31 | 3,857 | 2nd round | |||
| 2024 | 20 | TBD | 38 | 2nd round | |||||||||||
| No. | scope=col | Years | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row | Kyushu Soccer League | 8 | 1973, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1989, 2007 | |
| scope=row | J3 League | 1 | 2019 |
As of 13 August 2024.[7]
| Position | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| Manager |  Kohei Masumoto | |
| Assistant manager | Norichika Kanemura | |
| First-team coach | Yusuke Sudo | |
| Goalkeeper coach | Shuto Yoshikawa | |
| Physical coach | Gakuya Tatsuta | |
| Trainer | Tatsuya Murakoshi Shinichi Todake Yuji Nakamura | |
| Side managers | Tetsuya Tsuda Riku Namihira |
| Manager | Nationality | Tenure < | --!colspan="5" | Managerial Record--> | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Finish | --> | |||
| 1 February 2005 | 31 January 2007 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2007 | 31 January 2011 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2011 | 31 January 2013 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2013 | 31 January 2017 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2017 | 31 January 2018 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2018 | 17 June 2018 | --> | |||
| 20 June 2018 | 31 January 2019 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2019 | 31 January 2022 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2022 | 31 January 2023 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2023 | 5 September 2023 | --> | |||
| 6 September 2023 | Current | --> | |||
| Season(s) | Main Shirt Sponsor | Collarbone Sponsor | Additional Sponsor(s) | Kit Manufacturer | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | TOTO | - | - | Yaskawa | - | Nafco | Zenrin | Penalty |
| 2021 | Yaskawa | WingArc1st | TOTO | Aso Group | ||||
| 2022 | WingArc1st | dejiren | ||||||
| 2023 | ||||||||