History of Eredivisie

Confederation:

UEFA

Founded:

1956

Region:

Netherlands

Number of Teams:

Level:

Current champions:

AZ Alkmaar

Sponsors:

Official website:

http://www.eredivisie.nl

History

1 League Overview
- 1.1 League Ranking
2 History
3 League Format
4 League Trophies
5 League Management
6 Sponsors
7 Media Coverage
8 Important Links
9 References

League Overview

The top division of Dutch “voetbal”, the Eredivisie consists of 18 clubs. It sits above the “Eerste Divisie” in the Dutch football league system, with clubs moving between the two leagues based on promotion and relegation. The league has a high technical standard, and each year exports a number of skilled players to the bigger leagues around Europe. Holland, as a small country, has a prudently run league where transfer fees and wages are not exorbitant. As a result, the advent of the Bosman rule saw many of the top players leave for little money almost overnight, and since then players are sold at a fairly young age for high fees, in order to minimise the chances of them leaving on free transfers.

Following are the 18 clubs in the league: Ajax, AZ Alkmaar, Feyenoord, FC Groningen, SC Heerenven, Heracles Almelo, NAC Breda, NEC Nijmegen, PSV Eindhoven, Roda JC, Sparta Rotterdam, FC Twente, FC Utrecht, Vitesse Arnhem, VVV-Venlo, Willem II, ADO Den Haag, RKC Waalwijk.

League Ranking

History

Although the Eredivisie was officially founded in 1956, Dutch league football has been around since 1897. Unlike other countries, where new professional leagues were created out of existing ones, the Eredivisie was merely a professional formalisation of the existing league system. It has remained largely unchanged since its inception in 1956, although there have over the years been variations in the formats for European qualification and promotion/relegation, as well as occasionally fluctuating numbers of clubs.

This “intactness” of the league means that it is one of the oldest in the top echelons of European football, and has developed an extensive, continuous history and tradition. It has been dominated by three teams, one from each of the major cities – Ajax Amsterdam, PSV Eindhoven, and Feyenoord Rotterdam, and all of these three have tasted European glory. Ajax in particular dominated the European Cup for years, and have one of the best records in the competition.

However, Dutch football has fallen upon hard times in recent years. Holland is a tiny country, and the Eredivisie is not able to compete economically with the major leagues in Europe. Instead clubs these days aim instead to develop their youth systems, and remain “competitively profitable” – i.e. selling their talented players on, while maintaining competitive sides. The bigger teams are able to target decent European runs, although neither Ajax nor PSV have gotten past the quarter-finals of the Champions League in the last decade.

League Format

The Eredivisie follows a straightforward championsip format – each team plays the other home and away, for a total of 34 games in the season, with the team that finishes top being crowned champions. However, where in the past the subsequently placed teams qualified automatically for various European competitions, a playoff system was introduced in 2005/06 with clubs ranked 2-9 competing for European spots. The clubs ranked 2-5 compete for the second Champions League spot, and the clubs ranked 6-9 compete for the UEFA Cup spot (with an additional UEFA Cup spot becoming available if the KNVB Cup winner is already qualified for Europe).

With regards to relegation, the club placed 18th is automatically relegated to the Eerste Divisie. However the clubs ranked 16th and 17th go into separate playoff groups of 5, with the clubs ranked 2-9 from the Eerste. The winners of each group go into the Eredivisie for the following season.

League Trophies

AFC Ajax of Amsterdam are by far the most successful Dutch club, with 21 Eredivisie titles. Great rivals PSV Eindhoven are not far behind on 17, although they have greatly overpowered their Amsterdam rivals in more recent years, winning 7 titles between 1997 and 2007. Ajax however enjoyed much success at their peak – apart from their league titles, they also won three European Cups.