Kansai Soccer League

Kansai Soccer League (関西サッカーリーグ, Kansai Sakkā Rīgu) is the Japanese fifth tier of league football, which is part of the Japanese Regional Leagues. It covers most of the Kansai region, as well as the prefectures of Hyōgo, Kyōto, Nara, Osaka, Shiga and Wakayama. Mie, usually considered part of Kansai in non-football usage, but is allotted to the Tōkai Adult Soccer League.

The Kansai Soccer League commenced in 1966 as the Kansai Adult Soccer League. The first tournament had eight clubs, these were: -

• Osaka Sportsman Club
• Kyoto Shiko Club
• Dainichi Nippon Cable
• NTT Kinki
• Fuji Steel Hirohata
• Wakayama Club
• Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Kobe
• Shiga Club

The tournament was played in a single division, until a second division commenced in 2005, this introduced promotion and relegation at this regional level. Team in the second tier get relegated to the provincial leagues. In 2005, the name was changed to "Kansai Soccer League" and scoreboards are required to be installed at every venue (if the stadium does not have this facility, the league will lend a portable scoreboard).

"SiMSEED" (formerly SiMS), which manages official records and posts information online, was jointly developed with NTT West Japan-Hyogo (formerly NTT Marketing Act Hyogo). Since 2012, the company commenced its official channel "KSLTV", which is now available on the KSLTV platform, where some of the matches are streamed live.

Since 2017, all clubs competing in both Division 1 and Division 2 of the Kansai Soccer League have been eligible to take part in the KSL Cup. Beginning in 2023, two youth sides from the Kansai Club Youth Soccer Federation were also granted entry into the competition.^[1]

The KSL Cup is a regional football tournament showcasing clubs from across Kansai. Ordinarily, 16 teams are split into four groups of four, each playing in a round-robin format. The top two teams from each group—eight in total—progress to a knockout stage, concluding with a final. However, in certain editions, the group stage is bypassed entirely, with the tournament held as a straight knockout competition from the first round.

The competition was put on hold between 2020 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon its return in 2023, the format was expanded to include 20 teams. The 16 league sides continued to form the core of the tournament, divided into groups as usual, while the top four teams from the group stage—alongside the two best runners-up—advanced to the final stage. They were joined by two additional youth teams selected by the Kansai Club Youth Soccer Federation, making up a final eight for the knockout rounds, which also featured a third-place play-off.^[2]

With the introduction of the revised structure, the tournament was rebranded as The KSL Ast Enji Cup, under the title sponsorship of Ast Enji Co., for both the 2023 and 2024 editions.^[3]

• Japanese association football league system
• Japanese Regional Leagues

• Kansai Soccer League official website