Sascha Glass, who is VfB Women’s sporting director, recently travelled to Japan from 8 – 12 November to work on exchanges of concepts. He attended a variety of meetings with his counterparts in Japanese women’s football as well as watching the opening WE League match between Chifure AS Elfen Saitama and Vegalta Sendai Ladies.
Meeting with heads of the Japanese League
Back in March, Mitsugu Tamura, CEO of Chifure AS Elfen Saitama, and Haruna Takata from the WE League (the Japanese professional women’s league) visited VfB Stuttgart and observed a number of training sessions, matches and general processes at the club. In Tokyo this time, they played host to Glass, with the VfB representative able to get a deeper insight into Japanese women’s football.
Plenty of women’s football to watch
The VfB Women’s sporting director also got to see various examples of the standard of competitive Japanese women’s football. First up was a friendly between Waseda University and Yokohama FC Seagulls of the second division (2-2), followed by the opening WE League match of the season between Chifure AS Elfen Saitama and Vegalta Sendai (1-3).
“The various discussions I was able to have along with the constructive sporting exchanges gave me a deeper insight into Japanese women’s football, and it was also important for me to strengthen the awareness of VfB Women in Japan,” said Glass. “Having conversations with coaches, management and Japanese professional women’s players and seeing them in action in the WE League expanded my knowledge in what is potentially a very important sector for VfB women’s football.”
Pic 2: l. to r.: Taka Kawagishi (interpreter), Sascha Glass und Yuki Richard Stalph (Japanese football coach)