are a Japanese football club based on Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture. They play in the Chūgoku Soccer League, one of Japan's fifth tier leagues, which is part of Japanese Regional Leagues.
Name origin The name Baleine means whale in French. Whales are related with the club's hometown Shimonoseki, that was once a whaling base.
History The club was founded on 2006, starting from the 4th division of the Yamaguchi Prefecture League, one of the 10th-tier leagues of Japanese football. Baleine would only get out of prefectural football on 2018, after winning promotion to the Chugoku Soccer League, starting their journey on regional football. In their first season, on 2019, it finished on 4th place within 10 participating teams.
Between 2020 and 2022, the club reached its peak so far, having finished two seasons as league runners-up, and qualified for the Emperor's Cup twice in the period. In the 2020 Emperor's Cup, the club made its debut at the second round, in a competition professional teams-shrunk due to the pandemic. They ended up losing against fellow Chugoku region side Fukuyama City FC. In the following year, the club once again failed to win an Emperor's Cup match, losing against Mitsubishi Mizushima FC, also from the Chugoku region, on the first round of the competition.
In 2023, Baleine qualified for the Emperor's Cup, winning their qualification as Yamaguchi representatives on 23 April, after beating Shunan University in the prefectural preliminaries' Final. They were knocked out in the first round by Verspah Oita. In 2024, they repeated the feat of qualifying to the Emperor's Cup as Yamaguchi representatives over Shunan. In the first round they defeated J3 League team Gainare Tottori in a tense penalty shoot-out by 4-3, with scores level at 1-1 after playing 120 minutes. In the second round of the competition, they lost heavily to Sanfrecce Hiroshima by 11–2. This is the first time Baleine have played official matches against professional sides.
League and cup record ChampionsRunners-upThird placePromotedRelegated League Emperor'sCup Season Division Pos. P W D L F A GD Pts 2006Yamaguchi 4th Division B Block2nd 8 6 0 2 39 7 32 18 Did not qualify20071st 8 8 0 0 49 2 47 242008 Yamaguchi 3rd Division B Block1st 7 7 0 0 24 1 23 212009 Yamaguchi 2nd Division1st 7 5 1 1 40 5 35 162010Yamaguchi 1st Division3rd 10 5 1 4 32 18 14 1620111st 12 10 1 1 40 14 26 3120125th 10 4 2 4 29 14 15 1420135th 12 2 3 7 23 35 -12 1120142nd 10 5 1 4 33 21 12 1620152nd 14 10 2 2 45 12 33 3220161st 10 8 2 0 33 5 28 2620171st 12 9 2 1 41 8 33 2920181st 12 11 1 0 64 9 55 342019Chugoku Soccer League4th 18 10 2 6 45 23 22 322020League season cancelled because of COVID-19 2nd round20212nd 16 11 2 3 35 16 19 35 1st round20222nd 18 14 0 4 41 22 19 42 Did not qualify20233rd 18 12 1 5 47 26 21 37 1st round20244th 18 10 2 6 45 24 21 32 2nd round2025TBA 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd round Key
Honours +FC Baleine Shimonoseki honoursHonour No. YearsYamaguchi 4th Division B Block12007Yamaguchi 3rd Division B Block12008Yamaguchi 2nd Division12009Yamaguchi Prefectural League 1st Division42011, 2016, 2017, 2018Nogami Cup12011Yamaguchi Football Championship (Emperor's Cup Prefectural Qualifying Tournament)52020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025
Players and staff Current squad
Current staff Position NameManager Kazuma YamaneAssistant manager Kaito KurogiStaff manager Shuto Kondo Akiko MatsumotoRepresentant Kota FukuharaChairman Koki Harada
References
External links Official Website