X-League

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The X-League (Xリーグ) is the top-level professional gridiron football league in Japan. It was founded in 1971 as the Japan American Football League and organized the first X Bowl in 1987. The league changed its name to the X League in 1997. The league is divided into four divisions (Premier, X1, X2, and X3) with promotion and relegation between them outside of the Premier. Teams are split into different divisions or blocks, depending on the tier. There are two types of teams, one being a company team in which only employees of that particular sponsoring company may play, and the other being a club team for which anyone can try out. Game rules are based on those of the NCAA college division in the United States, with the exception of the length of quarters, which are 12 minutes instead of 15 during the first stage of the season, and no overtime in the regular season. The Japanese national team, which has won the first and second editions of the American Football World Cup and was runner-up, finishing second to the American team, in the 2007 installment of the tournament, was made up almost entirely of players from this league. Americans are often recruited to play for X League teams, with a strict rule of three per team. No more than two foreign players per team are allowed on the field of play at a time.