Eredivisie

The Eredivisie, meaning "Honour Division" or "Premier Division," is the top professional men's football league in the Netherlands and the highest tier of the Dutch league system. For sponsorship reasons, it is also called the VriendenLoterij Eredivisie. Established in 1956, the league came two years after professional football was first introduced in the country. As of the 2024–25 season, UEFA ranks it as the seventh-best league in Europe.

The league features 18 clubs. Each team plays every other club twice per season—once at home and once away. At the end of the season, the two lowest-placed clubs are relegated to the second-tier Eerste Divisie, while the champion and runner-up of that division are promoted. The club finishing third from the bottom enters a promotion/relegation playoff with six high-placed teams from the Eerste Divisie.

The Eredivisie winner is crowned Dutch national champion. Ajax holds the record with 36 titles, followed by PSV Eindhoven with 27 and Feyenoord with 16. Since 1965, these three clubs have won all but three Eredivisie titles: AZ won in 1981 and 2009, and Twente won in 2010. Ajax, PSV, and Feyenoord are known as the "Big Three" or "Traditional Top Three" of Dutch football, and they are the only clubs in their current form never to have been relegated from the Eredivisie.

A fourth club, Utrecht, was formed in 1970 from a merger of three city clubs; one of its predecessors, VV DOS, also never faced relegation. The league has undergone several name changes due to sponsorship. From 1990 to 1999, it was the PTT Telecompetitie, then became KPN Telecompetitie in 1999 after PTT Telecom rebranded, and KPN Eredivisie in 2000. Between 2002 and 2005, it was called the Holland Casino Eredivisie.

Since the 2005–06 season, the Vriendenloterij has sponsored the league, but legal concerns—the Dutch government objected to another gambling company name—prevented its use until the 2025–26 season, when it will be rebranded as VriendenLoterij Eredivisie. In August 2012, Rupert Murdoch secured the league’s broadcast rights for 12 years starting in 2013–14, at a cost of €1 billion. Under this deal, the five largest clubs received €5 million per season.

The 2019–20 Eredivisie season was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the Eredivisie, the Dutch national championship, founded in 1898, was decided through playoffs among regional league winners. It was an amateur competition; the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) banned payments and suspended players caught receiving salaries or transfer fees. In the early 1950s, many national team players left to play abroad for financial gain, prompting the KNVB to suspend them from the national team.

After the 1953 North Sea flood, Dutch players abroad—mostly in France—organized a charity match against France in Paris. The KNVB boycotted it, but the Dutch team won 2–1, showing the public the potential of professional football. In response, a dissident professional association, the NBVB, founded its own league for the 1954–55 season. On 3 July 1954, the KNVB met with amateur club chairmen worried about losing players; this "bedroom conference" led to the KNVB reluctantly accepting semi-professionalism.

Both the KNVB and NBVB started separate competitions. The first professional match was between Alkmaar and Venlo. After eleven rounds, the leagues merged in November 1954, canceling both and creating a new combined competition. Clubs like De Graafschap, Amsterdam, Alkmaar, and Fortuna '54 from the NBVB joined, while others merged into teams such as Rapid J.C., Holland Sport, and Roda Sport.

Willem II won the first semi-professional league. For the 1956–57 season, the KNVB abandoned regional leagues and founded the Eredivisie, where the 18 best clubs played directly for the title without playoffs. The inaugural members were Ajax, BVC, BVV, DOS, EVV, Elinkwijk, SC Enschede, Feijenoord, Fortuna '54, GVAV, MVV, NAC, NOAD, PSV, Rapid J.C., Sparta, VVV '03, and Willem II. Ajax won the first Eredivisie title.

The league has had 18 clubs from 1956 to 1962, 16 from 1962 to 1966, and 18 clubs from 1966 onward. Current Teams (2024–25) [Maps included in original] The table below includes all winners of the Dutch top division, including the pre-Eredivisie Netherlands Football League Championship. Many of these teams did not win the Eredivisie title, which began in 1956. * As Rapid JC. Since the league’s start, Ajax, PSV, and Feyenoord have drawn much higher attendance than other clubs. Heerenveen, Utrecht, and Groningen also have sizable fanbases. Average league attendance was just over 7,000 in 1990 but has risen sharply since.