FC Gifu

During the Japan Soccer League and former Japan Football League years, the city and prefecture of Gifu were represented by the Seino Transportation Co. (西濃運輸 Seinō Un'yu) works team, which was relegated from the old JFL for the last time in 1997 and folded shortly thereafter in January 1998. The modern-day Gifu club was founded in 2001 (Seino's last manager, Masayuki Katsuno, was among the founders, and a former Seino player, Takashi Umeda, later returned to town and joined the club following a decade-long stint with Oita Trinita). The club was promoted to the new Japan Football League in 2007 after beating Honda Lock S.C. in the promotion/relegation play-offs. The team earned third place at the end of the 2007 season, meaning it qualified for promotion to J.League Division 2. On 3 December 2007, J. League approved a promotion for the team for the 2008 season. The club finished the 2012 season in 21st place, narrowly missing out on relegation to the Japan Football League. Between 2013 and 2018, the team constantly placed in the lower realms of J.League Division 2 (now renamed to J2 League) and narrowly avoided relegation until 2019, when they finished last in the league and were relegated to J3 League. Since then, the club has played in the J3 League.