Professional football in the Netherlands has been played since the late 19th century, with the first National Title won by RAP Amsterdam, in 1898. But it took another couple decades for the dominant clubs of today’s Dutch football to emerge: Ajax (est. 1900) won their first Title in 1918; Feyenoord (est. 1908) won their first Title in 1924; PSV Eindhoven (est. 1913) won their first Title in 1929.
PSV is on course for their fourth consecutive championship. They have won the Title 6 out of the last 8 seasons. The club has won 20 Dutch Titles, overall. PSV stands for Philips Sports Vereniging (that last word means “Union”), and was formed as a sporting club of Philips, the electronics conglomerate. They play in a swank 36,600-capacity stadium in Eindhoven, which is in the southern part of the country, in the province of North Brabent. All the seats in the stadium are heated. The red and white stripes on their jersey reflect a similar, horizontal pattern on the flag of North Brabent. PSV won the 1987-’88 Champions League, and the 1977-’78 UEFA Cup. The current squad is still alive among the last 8 clubs in the 2007-’08 UEFA Cup, with their home leg v. Fiorentina coming up on 10th April (1-1 score, in the first leg). {Click here, for Wikipedia’s entry on PSV Eindhoven.}
The Eredivisie was formed in 1956. Currently, there are 18 clubs in the league. There are 1 to 2 clubs relegated each season, depending on the outcome of the relegation/promotion playoffs, which involves the 16th and 17th place finishers in the Eredivisie, and the top 8 (!) clubs in the Ereste Divisie (the second tier).
{Click here, for Wikipedia’s entry on the Eredivisie.}
{Click here, for the Eredivisie Round-Up, from the Sky Sports site.}
The Netherlands domestic league is currently ranked #8 for European competitions by UEFA {see this: scroll down to third table on page}. The National Champions automatically advance to the Champions League Group Stage. 2nd place through 5th place enter a playoff for the other Champions League spot (in the CL 3rd Round Qualifiers). There is a similar playoff for 3 UEFA Cup spots {see this}; the winner of the KNVB Cup also gains entry to the UEFA Cup. Overall, The Netherlands receives 2 Champions League spots, and 4 UEFA Cup spots.
**Click here, to see my attendance map of Netherlands football, circa 2007. **Click here, for my Hand-drawn map of Netherlands football, circa 2004.
Thanks to (colours-of-football[dot]com) for the kits. Thanks to (demis[dot]nl) fot the base map.
