Many speculations circulated about in the days ahead of former head of DSE Nobuyuki Sakakibara but finally, everything has revealed. Last week, Japanese sports newspapers reported that Sakakibara, who used to run mega MMA promotion PRIDE, is now going to take the ownership of the professional soccer team from Okinawa called FC Ryukyu.
In 2006 FC Ryukyu becamed the first soccer club from Okinawa to be included in the JFL (Japan Football League) but in the first year ended up in the fourteenth place, and also this year, even with the new manager, ended up on the bottom of the league. However now Sakakibara, who is now is an seasoned expert in sports business, is taking and over and apparently he is now in the process of finalizing a deal that would bring a former manager of the Japan’s national team in the 2002 World Cup, Philippe Troussier from France. Then Sakakibara is looking to build a stadium in Okinawa that would house 15,000
PIC: Nobuyuki Sakakibara who used to run PRIDE is now the owner of a professional soccer team.
