Thank you very much for your continued enthusiastic support of Urawa Reds.
With the resignation of Technical Director Tsutomu Nishino, both the sports director and technical director who were with the Football Headquarters when it was established have now left the team.
On behalf of the club, I would like to apologise for any concern caused by the facts and timing of this announcement.

However, we would like to state first that this matter will not slow down the progress of Urawa Reds or the Football Headquarters in strengthening the team, but is instead part of the Football Headquarters' efforts to grow as an organisation, with the aim of realising sustainable team strengthening.

With that in mind, we would like to once again share with you, the fans and supporters who are part of Urawa Reds and who we hope will continue to be Urawa Reds' greatest supporters, our thoughts on strengthening the team and organization as Urawa Reds.


As a premise, as I have stated repeatedly before, I believe that the most important thing to consider in the team's growth process is how the club can maintain the direction of strengthening the team through leadership and continue to work on this.
Therefore, continuity must never be interrupted by changes in players, team staff, or club staff, and it should not be a matter of mentality.
Urawa Reds' policy for strengthening the team is based on maintaining the club's direction and making continuous efforts, not by individuals but by the organization as a whole.

All of the players, team staff, and club staff currently affiliated with Urawa Reds, including myself as the club's representative, will one day have to leave this club.
Nevertheless, the club called Urawa Reds will remain.
It is the duty of everyone involved with Urawa Reds to ensure that Urawa Reds club loved by our fans and supporters remains a club that will be loved by all of you in the future.

Based on this idea, team strengthening should never be considered sacred, nor should it be something that is dependent on personalities or mentality.
Strengthening the team needs to be an endeavor that can be sustained and realized, and in order to achieve this, the Football Headquarters organization itself needs to constantly strengthen and continue to grow.
This has been the same thinking ever since the Football Headquarters was established, led by Head of Football Division Jun Tokari, then Sports Director Hisashi Tsuchida, and now retiring Technical Director Tsutomu Nishino. We hope you will understand that the retirement of Technical Director Tsutomu Nishino is a healthy change in the process of the growth of the Football Headquarters organization.

Regarding the resignation of Technical Director Tsutomu Nishino, we understand that some people are concerned or dissatisfied with the timing of his resignation in the middle of the season, and we would like to explain our thoughts on this matter.

The mission of the team strengthening manager is, quite literally, to strengthen the team and achieve good results through team formation.
It is not common for a team manager with such a mission to be replaced mid-season, and we understand that this has the disadvantage that responsibility for team results and for recruiting and selecting players and team staff may become unclear, as well as causing anxiety among fans and supporters.
However, there are also benefits to this move, such as the expectation that it will allow us to make maximum use of the registration window during which players are allowed to be registered, compared to making substitutions in the second half of the season or at the end of the season. After careful consideration of the balance between these advantages and disadvantages, we have made this decision, on the premise that we will provide an honest explanation to all our fans and supporters.


Next, I would like to explain the structure of the Football Headquarters following the retirement of Technical Director Tsutomu Nishino.

As stated in the release, we have appointed Satoshi Horinouchi, who was previously the head of the Football Department, as our Sports Director, and we will work with him as our center to strengthen our men's top team.
Sports Director Satoshi Horinouchi has an honest personality, was born and raised in Urawa and played for Urawa Reds for 10 years, as well as experience playing for other clubs and working in the Urawa Reds business department (currently Partner Sales Department, Partner Headquarters) for several years after retiring as a player. In addition, he has experience working with the above-mentioned founding members in team strengthening since the establishment of the Football Headquarters. Based on these experiences, we believe that he is the ideal person to take on the central role of the Football Headquarters in the future.

However, I would like to reiterate that strengthening the Urawa Reds team will continue to be an organizational effort, not an individual effort, as it has always been.
I am confident that the experience that the Football Headquarters has accumulated as an organization, and the presence of the Football Headquarters staff, who have a strong commitment to the Urawa Reds club and work hard every day with all their might, will provide strong support to Sports Director Satoshi Horinouchi.
Needless to say, Sports Director Satoshi Horinouchi himself has been one of the Football Headquarters staff members who has a strong passion for the Urawa Reds club and who dedicates himself to his daily duties.

Furthermore, the Football Headquarters still has challenges and room for improvement and growth as an organisation, and naturally, we will not become complacent and will continue to steadily work to strengthen the team and the organisation. However, there are also areas in which our growth can be seen by our fans and supporters.
One example is the appointment of former manager Maciej Skorza.
As you all know, the manager is a great contributor who has brought so much to Urawa Reds, but his name was not initially on the list of candidates for the position.
However, based on original data research by analysts from the Football Headquarters and an on-site investigation by Sports Director Satoshi Horinouchi, it was determined that the manager's characteristics matched to a high degree with the type of manager Urawa Reds currently need, and he was added to the list, which ultimately led to his appointment.
Team formation, including the selection of the manager, is done through the verbalization and quantification of concepts within the Football Headquarters, data research by analysts, scouting reports on numerous matches both domestically and internationally, and information gathering by overseas scouts, resulting in a system that combines subjective and objective analysis.
The background to the case of former manager Maciej Skorza was not only the skills of the analyst in question and Sports Director Satoshi Horinouchi, but also the fact that the definition of "the manager Urawa Reds need now" was clearly understood within the Football Headquarters, without relying on individual interpretation, which created an environment that was conducive to the generation of collective knowledge, and which enabled action to be taken without slowing down decision-making.We believe this incident gives us a glimpse of the growth of the Football Headquarters as an organization.


Based on the team concept of "maximizing each individual's ability," "playing with a positive, aggressive and passionate attitude," and "playing seamlessly in offense and defense, without allowing the opponent to rest," Urawa Reds will continue to devote their efforts to building an attractive, club-led team that can produce results, and will also strive to build an organization that can continuously achieve these goals.
We strongly believe that in order to strengthen our team and remain a club that is enthusiastically supported, we need the right kind of effort, strong will, love and respect for our supporters, and results. Manager Per-Mathias Hoegmo, along with all the players and staff, will do everything in their power to win our first league title in 18 seasons since 2006, so we ask for your continued enthusiastic support.

Urawa Red Diamonds Representative Makoto Taguchi