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Enabling the J.League to sustainably produce more homegrown, world-class players.
Raven equipped the J.League with a world-class academy development platform.
This gave the league full visibility of its member clubs’ operations.
With access to data-on-demand for its clubs through digital self assessment, the league was able to implement and monitor club-specific action plans to improve standards where they mattered, increasing return on investment and moving towards its ambition of becoming Asia’s most successful league.
THE CHALLENGE
The J.League wants to become the most successful league in Asia.
Despite investing heavily in its academy system, it was having little success internationally at both youth and senior levels.
The vision was to produce national talent capable of winning major trophies domestically and abroad in the best leagues in the world. Aging first team squads and a lack of home-grown players making it to the national team meant the league was failing to replenish its talent, making those major trophies unattainable.
Deficiencies in the existing academy development function was fundamental to J. League’s inability to realise its ambitions. The existing process to assess the clubs was expensive, opaque, and slow, with teams of consultants brought in to undertake reviews of the clubs, which were resource-heavy and prolonged.
The J. League gained little insight until the final report was produced about how the clubs were progressing through each year.
THE INSIGHT
Extensive research into the current state of youth development in Japan and best practice from around the world highlighted a need to sustainably improve standards.
Off the pitch, there were six key areas that needed attention. The ultimate aim was to produce leaders who could sustainably nurture home-grown prospects into world-class players and demonstrate a return on investment.
”Raven gives us unparalleled oversight over clubs’ standards, and more importantly detailed insight into how we need to improve. Never before have we had the detailed oversight or engagement with our clubs in relation to their standards. We can now tailor our support and resources to where it’s needed most, making our investment efficient and effective.”
J.League
Strengths &
weaknesses
With ongoing visibility on academies’ strengths and weaknesses, the league could develop clear, club-specific strategies for improvement.
On-demand
data
Raven provides governing bodies with benchmarking data and insights on demand, so that they can guide and monitor progress, support clubs to improve standards where they really matter, and track return on investment.
World-class players
Enables leagues to make data-based investments in the areas with the best return on investment.
How Raven achieved results:
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Consistent talent development, consistent ROI.
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Allows the J.League to make data-based investments in the key areas where they will yield the best results.
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Stay in control of development.
• Standards that reflect your vision.
• Club specific development actions.
• Empower clubs to improve.
• Engage and support early. -
Gave the J.League complete oversight of all academies strengths and areas for improvement.
The Results
58 clubs
Operating Raven across 3 leagues with over 650 active users and 100% uptime since August 2019.
1500+
J. League recommended actions adopted, which was only possible due to the improved visibility using Raven.
>£1m
GBP pa reduction in 3rd party audit costs.