Thank you for your continued enthusiastic support for Urawa Reds.

As announced in a release from the club, we have relieved Per-Mathias Hoegmo, who has led Urawa Reds with high aspirations and a dedicated attitude, from his position as manager, and have appointed Maciej Skorza, who led Urawa Reds in the 2023 season, as the new manager.

We take very seriously the fact that this will be our fourth change of manager in the approximately four and a half years since the launch of the Football Headquarters for the 2020 season.

I understand that the Urawa Reds team is made possible by the passion and love of all those who care about Urawa Reds, including the fans and supporters, our hometown, our partners, players, and staff.
As the person in charge of Urawa Reds, a team that is so dear to all of you, I would like to explain below what was on my mind when making this decision and what I want to do with the team.

The 2024 season has begun with the aim of surpassing last season's results, specifically winning the J1 League, by building on the strong defense we have built up over the previous year and improving our offensive performance.
At the same time, as a club we aim to build a team that is always in a position to aim for victory, not just in a one-year period.
We believe that working toward these goals will lead to the creation of a team that can compete alongside rival clubs from around the world at the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025, and we have been working backwards from that point to improve the entire team through daily training.

With regard to this decision, it is true that there was a strong conflict about changing the manager in such a short period of time when organizing the team with the aim of continuity. However, rather than aiming to keep the manager, the decision was made based on the results of a comprehensive evaluation from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, including the results of all 28 official matches to date, the degree to which the style has been ingrained through matches and training, and the management skills of the players and coaching staff, including off the pitch.

Overall, I have to say that the team's current level of completion is lagging behind the growth curve that was set at the start.
Naturally, we did not make a decision with a simplistic, blaming mindset that the manager was entirely to blame. Rather, we took into consideration changes to the squad due to players joining and leaving the club mid-season, poor condition of players due to injury or illness, and other variables, and after careful consideration of the measures that should be taken and the timing of doing so, as well as secondary impacts, both direct and indirect, we reaffirmed the importance of continuing in the direction of growth and accelerating the speed of growth, and decided to change managers at this time as a means to achieve this.

Urawa Reds will aim to combine the solid defence they demonstrated last season with their strengthened offence this season at a high level.
Based on our assessment that he is the manager with the greatest potential to achieve this, we have appointed Maciej Skorza as our next manager.
We fully understand that defense and offense are inseparable in football, and that a strong defense requires strong defensive awareness and hard work from front line players. In other words, we fully understand that it is not possible to mechanically achieve the combination of "defense in the 2023 season + offense in the 2024 season." However, we have considered what position the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup holds for Urawa Reds Red Diamonds as a team and as a club, how we should compete there, what we should do in the time we have left, and what decisions will be necessary to achieve this, and have decided to take on this difficult challenge.
We are determined to continue to utilize what we have built up based on our team concept over the past eight months, and when things do not go as expected, rather than resetting, we will go back to where we need to be and continue building from there.

As a club called Urawa Reds, our approach to football is such that there is not a single game in which we do not aim to win.
All of our players and staff are determined to run, fight and persevere to the end, aiming to win all remaining official matches this season and to improve the team, so we ask for your continued support.

Urawa Red Diamonds Sports Director: Satoshi Horinouchi