The 2022 Emperor's Cup (Emperor's Cup JFA 102nd Japan Football Championship (Japanese: 天皇杯 JFA 第102回全日本サッカー選手権大会)) was the 102nd edition of the annually contested cup, taking place from 21 May to 16 October.[1] The final was played at the Nissan Stadium, in Yokohama, Kanagawa. The stadium returned to host an Emperor's Cup final for the first time since 2014.
The 2022 Emperor's Cup followed a different pattern to the previous three editions of the tournament, being restored to its old, usual format, which was applied for the last time in the 2018 Emperor's Cup. It features 88 teams, representing the prefectural football associations, the J1 League, and the J2 League. Honda FC was awarded a seeded entry as the JFA's annually specially-designated amateur club, in order to turn the quantity of teams in the First Round to an even number.[2]
As only J1 and J2 League clubs qualify directly for the First Round, the other Emperor's Cup candidate teams (exception being made to the JFA-seeded teams), have to undergo a prefectural qualification, with regulaments and schedules varying from one association to another. In total, there are 47 prefectural cup qualifications, with the winners of each prefectural cup earning their right to play in the First Round of the Emperor's Cup. This year, a total of 2,342 teams played in the aforementioned prefectural qualifications. The following boxes shows each result of the 47 prefectural finals of the 2022 Emperor's Cup Prefectural Qualification Cup.[3][4][5]
The Prefectural Cup Final of Ehime, Oita, and Kagawa were cancelled, due to some players of one or both teams in their respective prefectural finals testing positive for the COVID-19 disease. As a result: FC Imabari won the Ehime Prefectural spot; Verspah Oita won the Oita Prefectural spot as J-Lease FC (their opponent) declined their participation in the final; And Takamatsu University won the Kagawa Prefectural spot as Kamatamare Sanuki withdrew from the final after the disease's outbreak in the squad.[6][7]
Calendar
The schedule was announced on 21 December 2021.[8] The first round of the tournament was played on Saturdays and Mondays. From the second round to the semi-finals, the matches were played on Wednesdays, and the final on a Sunday. On a very rare occasion, the final was moved to be played on mid-October, due to Japan's participation at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, held at the end of the year.
The opening round of the 2022 Emperor's Cup with the 47 Prefectural Cup Final winners and a specially-seeded amateur team (Honda FC) was played from 21 to 22 May, with 23 May being the alternative match-playing date, if the match needed by any reason to be rescheduled.
The matches on this round were played from 1 June to 8 June; 29 matches were played on 1 June and 3 matches on 8 June. Despite it being a professional league, the J3 League teams were not awarded a direct spot in this round, meaning that they had to undergo a prefectural qualification and win their first round matches to qualify for the second round. The direct spots were reserved to J1 League, and J2 League teams.
On 8 June 2022, all the teams in this round were confirmed, after all the remaining matches from the Second round came to an end. Match venues for the round were announced on 3 June 2022. Out of the four Japanese teams who got qualified for the 2022 AFC Champions League, only Vissel Kobe qualified for the second round.[9]
A draw was conducted to determine the matchups of the quarter-final stage and onwards, on 15 July, and all the teams on the round were made known on 20 July. Six of the teams featuring in this round play in the J1 League, while the other 2, Tokyo Verdy and Ventforet Kofu, play in the J2 League.
Three teams from the J1, and one team from the J2, survived until the semi-finals. Sanfrecce Hiroshima qualified to the semi-finals while sitting as J1's 2nd-placed team, Kashima Antlers as J1's 4th-place, and Kyoto Sanga as J1's 13th-place, one point off the relegation zone. Kick-off times, broadcaster, and venues were released by JFA on 16 September. [12] Both matches were broadcast on NHK BS1 in Japan.
