Eredivisie
Current season, competition or edition: Eredivisie 2006/2007 | |
| File:Eredivisie.jpg | |
| Sport | Football |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1954 |
| No. of teams | 18 |
| Country |  Netherlands |
| Most recent champion(s) | PSV Eindhoven |
The Eredivisie (English: Honorary Division) is the highest football league in the Netherlands.
From 1990 to 1999, the official name of the league was PTT Telecompetitie (after the sponsor, PTT Telecom), which was changed to KPN Telecompetitie in 1999 and to KPN Eredivisie in 2000. From 2002 to 2005, the league was called the Holland Casino Eredivisie. From the 2005-06 season onwards, the league will be sponsored by the Sponsorloterij lottery, but for legal reasons, its name cannot be attached to the league.
The top division consists of 18 clubs. Each club faces every other club twice during the season, once at home and once away. At the end of each season, the bottom club is automatically relegated to the second level of the Dutch league system, the Eerste Divisie (First Division), with the champion of the Eerste Divisie automatically promoted to the Eredivisie. The next two clubs from the bottom of the Eredivisie go to separate promotion/relegation playoffs. The playoffs are played in two groups. Each group has one Eredivisie club and four high-placed clubs from the Eerste Divisie. In both promotion/relegation playoff groups, each club plays a home-and-away series with the other clubs. The winner of each playoff group plays in the following season's Eredivisie, with the other teams going to the Eerste Divisie.
Ajax has won the most titles, 29. PSV Eindhoven is next with 20, and Feyenoord follows with 14. Since 1965, these three giants have won all except for one title (the 1980/81 title was going to AZ '67).
Current teams (2006-2007)
Champions
Number of titles
PositionsEuropean competitionAs of 2005-06, the champion of the Eredivisie automatically advances to the group phase of the UEFA Champions League. The KNVB introduced a playoff system in 2005-06 for the second to ninth placed clubs. One place in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, as well as three UEFA Cup spots are available for the best performing clubs in the playoffs. The remaining UEFA Cup place is awarded to the winner of the KNVB Cup. If this club is in the top 5 of teams a different schedule will be played, where numbers 2 to 5 are all guaranteed no worse than a UEFA Cup spot. This was the case in the first two seasons the playoffs were held, 2005-2006 and 2007-2008. The playoffs consist of knockout (home and away) matches, according to a complex schedule:
In these matches, the lowest ranked team gets the first home match. The return will be held at the opponent's venue. Also the number 10 to 13 enter the playoffs, with the 10th ranked team facing the 13th, while the 11th team faces number 12. Then both winners meet each other in the next round and finally challenge the loser of match G for a special situation spot. The special situation spot comes in hand when the KNVB Cup winner is among the top 7 ranked teams. In that case this team is already qualified for Europe and does not need to qualify through the playoffs, resulting in the special situation spot team to get an Intertoto ticket. The playoff system has been criticized by clubs, players and fans as the number of matches will increase. The system also makes it theoretically possible that the second-place team is forced the enter the UEFA Cup while the fifth-placed team enters the qualifying round of the Champions League (which happened in 2005-2006; AZ Alkmaar, 2nd in competition, had to play for the UEFA Cup, while Ajax Amsterdam, 5th in competition, went into the CL qualifying round). RelegationThe club at the bottom of the league (18th) is automatically relegated to the Eerste Divisie. The next-lowest two teams (16th and 17th) play in a promotion/relegation knock-out playoff known as the Nacompetitie, in which they will face eight teams from the Eerste Divisie (before the 2005-06 season, six Eerste Divisie teams were involved). Usually, the Eerste Divisie teams that play in the Nacompetitie are the 2nd- through 9th-place teams in that league. (The actual qualification rules are more complex; more detail is provided in the Eerste Divisie page.) Teams finishing above 16th automatically stay in the Eredivisie. AttendanceSince the beginning of the league, there are three clubs with an attendance much higher than the others: Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord. These clubs are followed by FC Utrecht, FC Groningen, Heerenveen and Vitesse, clubs that also have a fairly large fanbase. The average league attendance was just over 7,000 in 1990, but the league has seen a large rise in attendance with the building of many new stadiums and the expansion of several existing stadiums nationwide. Current season average attendance is 17,893, with Ajax having the largest (48,124) and Excelsior having the smallest (3,100). Season 2006-2007 average attendance:
Current average league attendance: 17.893 UEFA RankingCurrent National League Ranking
(see UEFA coefficients full list for more information) TopscorersSee also
External links |
