Naganuma Returns.
　Mr. Ken Naganuma has been appointed as the new manager of the Japanese National team, succeeding Mr. Shun Okano who resigned from the position after the Olympic preliminary tournament in Seoul recently. Mr. Naganuma previously had charge of the same duties for both the Tokyo and Mexico Olympic tournaments in 1964 and1968. He handed over the position to Mr. Okano in 1969, but retained his post as head of the Technical Committee of the Japanese Football Association.

　Yanmar win the League.
　Yanmar Diesel F.C. of Osaka, winners of the Emperor's Cup last seasons, scored another success this year by gaining the title of the Japanese Soccer League for the first time. The 1971 league season closed on December 5th with Yanmar retaining top position among the eight clubs which they had held at the end of the first half of the season.
　George Kobayashi, who came from Brazil last February, often surprised Yanmar's opponents in midfield during the second half of the season, while two other Brazilian-born players, Nelson Yoshimura and Carlos Estebes, contributed much to their victory, in addition to their ace striker Kunishige Kamamoto.

　No More Central Tournament.
　After losing at the Seoul tournament last October, Japan will have no position in the football competition of the 1972 Munich Olympics. Their next objective will therefore be the Asian preliminary round for the1974 World Cup, which means the team will have to face another central tournament.
　For this tournament the Asian entries have been divided by FIFA into two groups of eight and nine countries respectively. Japan is in group A with Israel, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Vietnam. Some of these countries are campaigning to become host of the preliminary tournament in order to gain local advantages, while others are seeking the chance of a foreign tour at the expense of the host country.
　Japan has experienced preliminary tournaments based on the central system three times. In 1967 Japan hosted the pre-Olympic tournament for Mexico. Six teams played on a round-robin system in Tokyo, and Jap-an became the winners. In 1969 Japan competed in the World Cup preliminary tournament in Seoul, which was won by the Australian semi-professional side who went on to meet the winner between Israel and Rhodesia in the next round. In October1971, the preliminary tournament for the Munich Olympics was held in Seoul. Five countries competed, and Malaysia surprisingly gained the top position. In both the Seoul tournaments, the host country Korea lost not only in their games, but also financially.
　Looking back upon these experiences ,we can find many criticisms of the central tournament system. Moreover, there were rumours of underhand lobbying when the choice of the host country was being discussed in Asian football circles. Complaints about match schedules, training fields and referees were whispered among visiting teams on each occasion.
　To avoid such problems, the home and away system is preferable in Asia as well as in other areas, and we would have no difficulties in adopting it. From the financial aspect, it would be easier to pay the expenses of one team from the gate money of one match on the home and away basis than to pay for many visiting teams from the proceeds of matches which include those among the visiting teams in the central system.

■