Earlier years in Fujieda The club were originally based in
Fujieda, Shizuoka and was founded as
Chūō Bōhan SC in 1982 by the workers of security company Chuo Bohan in
Fujieda, Shizuoka. They were promoted to the
Japan Soccer League Division 2 in 1991. The club then participated in the newly founded
former Japan Football League Division 2 in 1992 and were promoted to Division 1 in 1993. They changed their name to
Fujieda Blux with intention to be a J.League member. However, with difficulties to have a stadium that met J.League requirements, and with local competition from
Júbilo Iwata and
Shimizu S-Pulse, the football fan base in
Shizuoka prefecture was already considered saturated.
Move to Fukuoka (1994) As a result, in 1994, the club decided to move to Fukuoka where the community was eager to have a J.League club. They adopted new name
Fukuoka Blux and became a J.League associate member, while the amateur club of Chūō Bōhan was active in Fujieda until 2006.
1995 (JFL) The first season in Fukuoka saw them win the JFL championship with help from Argentine
Hugo Maradona and they were promoted to J.League. After becoming the champions of
1995 Japan Football League as Fukuoka Blux the team was admitted to the J.League in
1996 season.
1996–1998 (J.League) Fukuoka Blux eventually decided to change their name to
Avispa Fukuoka, in order to avoid a potential trademark dispute with men's clothier Brooks Brothers. "Avispa" itself means "
wasp" in Spanish. The club acquired experienced players such as former Japanese international
Satoshi Tsunami and defender Hideaki Mori but they finished lowly 15th in the 1996 season. They finished bottom of the league two consecutive seasons (1997 to 1998), but were able to narrowly avoid relegation. This was because J.League were building foundation of J.League 2 for 1999. Therefore, no clubs were relegated and there were relegation/promotion play-offs for the first time at the end of 1998 season, in which Avispa were involved. Around this time, forward
Yoshiteru Yamashita and midfielder
Chikara Fujimoto were chosen for the
Japanese national team.
1999–2001 (J1) In 1999, they again reinforced the squad by acquiring experienced players such as former internationals
Nobuyuki Kojima and
Yasutoshi Miura as well as Yugoslavian
Nenad Maslovar. They won a fierce relegation battle and eventually stayed up. In 2000, Argentine
David Bisconti and Romanian
Pavel Badea were transferred to Fukuoka and they finished club record 6th in the second stage. In 2001, the club acquired former Korean international
Noh Jung-Yoon and
Yoshika Matsubara but they finished 15th and were relegated to J2.
2002–2005 (J2) In 2002, they kept experienced players and released younger players such as
Daisuke Nakaharai and Yoshiteru Yamashita but they finished 8th out of 10. In 2002, with new manager Hiroshi Matsuda, they decided to recruit and nurture young players who graduated from local high schools instead of acquiring experienced footballers from other clubs. They initially struggled but came back well and finished 4th. In 2004, they finished 3rd and qualified for the play-offs but
Kashiwa Reysol dashed their promotion hope by beating them home and away (the scoreline was both 2–0). In 2005, they finished 2nd and gained an automatic promotion to J1. Avispa players
Hokuto Nakamura and
Tomokazu Nagira represented Japan for the
2005 World Youth Championship in the Netherlands.
2006 (J1) They had been involved in a relegation battle from the beginning of the season. They finished 16th and were relegated to J2 after the
promotion/relegation play-offs against
Vissel Kobe, which they tied twice, 0–0 in Kobe, then 1–1 at their home game. Like many J2 teams this has led to financial issues. The
Daily Yomiuri reported that in 2006 Avispa needed 535 million
yen in loans from the local prefectural and municipal governments.
2007–2008 (J2) With relegation came another new manager, the former German international
Pierre Littbarski. "Litti" arrived from the Australian A-League, bringing with him several experienced players such as
Mark Rudan,
Joel Griffiths and
Ufuk Talay, but he was unable to steer Avispa to any notable success. Having finished 7th in 2007, an inability to compete near the top of the league led to Littbarski's sacking in mid-2008. He was replaced by former Avispa player
Yoshiyuki Shinoda.
2009 (J2) The departure of Littbarski coincided with the departure of the club's Australian players, who were largely replaced with youngsters from a number of Kyushu-based universities. After a reasonable start, Avispa's form has tailed off sharply, with a recent five-game losing streak including 6–0 and 5–0 thrashings away at
Ventforet Kofu and
Mito HollyHock respectively. The club finished in the lower half of the J2 table with promotion hopes dashed for another year.
2010 (J2) Yoshiyuki Shinoda bolstered his squad for the 2010 season by adding more players from local University teams, and picked up midfielders
Kosuke Nakamachi and
Genki Nagasato who had previously played together at
Shonan Bellmare. The season started slowly with the team picking up only 1 point out of a possible 15 in March, but then saw a dramatic improvement in performance as they went on to win 17 of the next 25 games including a come from behind victory against promotion rivals
JEF United. As JEF United went on to drop more points Avispa secured promotion back to J1 with 2 games of the season left to play. Popular striker
Tetsuya Okubo was released at the end of the season, along with 4 other players as the squad was prepared for J1.
2011 (J1) Avispa Fukuoka returned to the J1 League in 2011 after earning promotion from J2 the previous season. They struggled throughout the campaign and were relegated after finishing 17th in the table. Despite occasional strong performances — including a 5–0 away victory over Montedio Yamagata in November — Avispa were unable to avoid the drop.
2012 (J2) The team was looking to bounce straight back to J1 upon their return to the second tier but endured the worst season in the history of the club as they finished a lowly 18th in the table; only winning 9 games all season and conceding 68 goals (only
Gainare Tottori would concede more in the season). The end of the season saw
Koji Maeda part ways with the club as they looked to rebuild towards a better 2013.
2013 (J2) The club returned to hiring a non-Japanese manager for the first time since
Pierre Littbarski as Slovenian
Marijan Pusnik arrived. His arrival saw a greater emphasis given towards the development of young players at the club as rookies
Yuta Mishima and
Takeshi Kanamori were given chances in the first team. Results on the pitch immediately improved and the club were competing around the play-off positions until a slump in form mid-season coincided with the announcement that the club needed ¥50 million to remain solvent. The club finished in 14th position, but found the money to stay afloat, with Pusnik agreeing to remain as manager for another season.
2014 (J2) Avispa finished in 16th place. Pušnik's contract was not renewed and he returned to Slovenia.
2015 (J2) The club hired new coach
Masami Ihara who twice handled
Kashiwa Reysol in a caretaker capacity. They finished third and were promoted back to J1 in winning the promotion playoffs.
2016 (J1) Avispa finished in 18th place and relegated to J2. League.
2017 (J2) Avispa finished in fourth place. In the "J1 promotion play-off", Avispa won the semi-final game 1–0 against
Tokyo Verdy. In the final game however, the team had a scoreless draw, 0-0, with
Nagoya Grampus leaving them in third place, meaning Avispa could not be promoted to J1.
2021–present (J1) A second-place finish in the
2020 J2 League saw Avispa returned to J1 League for the first time since 2016. On 4 November 2023, Avispa won the
J.League Cup by defeating two-time winners
Urawa Red Diamonds 2–1 in the final match of
2023 edition. It was the first major trophy in the history of the club. On 31 October 2024, it was announced that head coach
Shigetoshi Hasebe who has led Avispa for five years, would be leaving the club at the end of the season. ==Current players==