The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. MBisanz ^talk 00:43, 1 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Empire of Japan national football team[edit]

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As tagged, I found nothing at all (apart from mirrors) to confirm it existed and it has not been significantly changed since existing in March 2011 (and the author has made no other edits aside from a few changes at other football articles). I'm inviting taggers @Calamondin12, Smileguy91, Shirt58, and Jetstreamer: and I'm also letting GiantSnowman who always comments at football AfDs. SwisterTwister talk 17:46, 24 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in WikiProject Football's list of association football-related deletions. Giant Snowman 17:52, 24 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Delete - if sources can be found then the information should be added to Japan national football team#History, no need for a separate article. Giant Snowman 17:54, 24 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Redirect to Japan national football team. Clearly this does not merit a standalone article, but it seems a plausible search term. Sir Sputnik (talk) 17:55, 24 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Delete. This article appears to be a hoax. A few notes:
- The RSSSF includes an archive [1] of Japan's international results, which nowhere mentions these matches.
- The Japan Football Association, according to its own website,[2] did not exist until 1921.
- Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and New Granada (Colombia) did not exist in those forms during the years specified. Similarly, Ukraine was not an independent nation in 1917.
- Records for the German Football Association (DFB) list only two matches against Japan, in 2004 and 2006 [3]. The DFB's archive includes every match played by Germany during its imperial, Nazi and divided periods, so clearly Germany did not meet Japan in 1911 or 1913.
- RSSSF's Brazilian archive [4] mentions only three opponents for Brazil in 1916: Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. The list never mentions any 1916 match against Japan.
- RSSSF records for the Catalan [5] and Basque [6] regional selections do not include matches against Japan from this time period.

Finally, the results simply do not seem plausible (a 28-0 Japanese victory over Brazil in any year?). The evidence in this case appears substantial. Calamondin12 (talk) 20:02, 24 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)@SwisterTwister: Thanks for pinging us.
Delete No sources have ben provided for just a collection of doubtful match results. This is not encyclopedic, as no context has been provided. I stay firm in my position of deleting the article.--Jetstreamer ^Talk 20:06, 24 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
delete: created and maintained of multiple socks of a hoaxer who was also messing with other articles. Needs detailed investigation and removal of damage. Staszek Lem (talk) 20:12, 24 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Delete - clearly fiction. Doesn't even qualify as a hoax, given the farcical match-ups with nations that didn't exist until years later, or hadn't existed for decades. Nfitz (talk) 01:56, 25 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Japan-related deletion discussions. SwisterTwister talk 02:29, 25 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Delete - patent nonsense, as evidenced by content such as "Catalonia has a strong rivalry with the Empire of Japan" -- ChrisTheDude (talk) 07:39, 26 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Delete. I declined the speedy deletion of this article. The rationale I gave was that "there is sufficient context to identify the subject of the article", which I thought was good enough at the time. I don't think that was a bad decision on my part: there was an Empire of Japan, and it is plausible that there was a football team from that part of the history of Japan that played international football against other national football teams. But that assertion lacks anything in the way of on-line or off-line find-able reliable sources. From what I can see, this article fails WP:VER and should be deleted, but no prejudice to be re-created with reliable sources.--Shirt58 (talk) 12:34, 26 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Delete - I totally agree with the users suggesting that this is a hoax. Spiderone 20:58, 26 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Note - This may start classifying as snow delete. SwisterTwister talk 21:23, 26 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Delete as a clear hoax (the Soviet Union did not exist in 1913). Someone with knowledge of the subject should go over this user's edits. Some, such as the ones on the Japanese national football team on past results, are still standing.Michitaro (talk) 00:14, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.