Japan scraps night games after quake
TOKYO - Matches in Japan's J-League will kick off before 2pm to help save energy after last month's deadly earthquake and tsunami knocked out a nuclear power plant.
The J-League also said matches in May would start by 4pm as Japan battles power shortages and planned blackouts to reduce the strain on the country's electricity grid.
The Japan Football Association (JFA) told Reuters the national team's elite J-Village training complex close to the stricken nuclear plant was to temporarily move south.
J-Village is currently home to the workers struggling to avoid a catastrophic meltdown at the plant in Fukushima, some 150 miles north of Tokyo.
Japanese baseball has also pulled the plug on night games following the 11 March quake and tsunami that left more than 11,000 dead and over 15,000 missing in northeast Japan.
Japan's Kashima Antlers will play Yokohama F-Marinos in Tokyo when the J-League restarts on 23 April with their stadium (pictured before the quake) still undergoing repairs from quake damage, the league said.
The club's 2002 World Cup stadium could be unusable until the summer.
"It is a very difficult situation," J-League General Secretary Daisuke Nakanishi told Saturday's Japanese media. "It could take until June to fix."
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
The J-League was suspended after the 9.0 earthquake and subsequent crisis in Fukushima.
In addition, this season's J-League Cup, scheduled to begin on 5 June, has been switched to a knockout format as a result of the disaster, the group stages being scrapped.
'Women's football is still not where we want it to be. The generation now, yes it is professional, you have the income and the environment around you - but we still want to make it even better': Alex Scott on the growth of women's football
'Arsenal are crapping themselves: they're scared to take advantage of the opportunity they’ve been given this season. When you look at the chances they are missing the answer is obvious': former Gunners captain delivers brutal assessment of title hopes