De Topklasse – Dutch Football gets a Pyramid

FC Oss fans prepare for a new league – De Topklasse

All recent headlines and focus in the Netherlands may have been taken by the impressive World Cup campaign and, domestically, the emergence of FC Twente Enschede – who became the first different winners of the Eredivisie not named Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV or AZ Alkmaar since 1963/64 – quite a staggering fact considering the popularity of football within the country.

But sadly, last season we lost one club from the Dutch professional game, and very nearly lost one more. In Janury, FC Haarlem, the club who provided the opposition for Spartak Moscow in the 1982-83 UEFA Cup – a tie which saw the away leg sadly overshadowed by the “Luzhniki Disaster” – where as many as 340 people were crushed to death in the exits from the stadium, declared bankruptcy and resigned from the Eerste Divisie.

Thankfully a few months later they successfully announced a merger with the Haarlem amateur club HFC Kennemerland. The new club will be called Haarlem Kennemerland, and will play home games at Haarlem Stadion, thus continuing the legacy of the old HFC club.

We also came very close to losing BV Veendam. The Black Yellow Angels declared bankruptcy after the end of the Eerste Divisie season in April, and were kicked out of professional football by the KNVB – nearly ending 115 years of football at De Langeleegte. However, Veendam appealed against the decision of the judges involved, using “changed circumstances” as an argument for their appeal. Having submitted a satisfactorily reduced budget to the KNVB at the start of June however, Veendam kept their professional licence and survived another day.

The main focus of this article however, is the overhaul and massive changes to the League structure in Dutch football which will start at the 2010/11 Season.

Eredivisie & Eerste – the top level

The Dutch started running a full National League in 1956. Before this it followed the old German system. Each area of the country would hold it’s own Championship and then the winners of these various competitions would then face each other in a series of play-offs to decide who would be given the title of “Dutch Champions”.

This National system initially operated on a three division basis. The Eredivisie (Honorary Division) and the Eerste Divisie (First Division) are still running today.

The third tier – the aptly named Tweede Divisie (Second Division) ran for 15 years before being wound up in 1971. As a consequence – 6 of the Tweede Divisie clubs (champions De Volewijckers along with FC Eindhoven, VVV, Fortuna Vlaardingen, PEC – who became FC Zwolle and Roda JC) were elevated to Eerste Divisie status. The 10 clubs who were left in the Tweede Divisie dropped down to amateur status. This left the Eerste Divisie as the lowest level of professional football in the country.

Amateur football in the Netherlands ran parallel to the professional game – with their own governing body (the Centraal Overleg Hoofdklassers) and own league competitions – in which there was no direct movement between the Amateur and Professional Leagues. The only scenarios which would see clubs move was if a professional club had it’s licence removed due to financial or other problems or an amateur club passed a series of checks and applications, meeting quite stringent criteria much like the SPL operates today.

Within this “Hoofdklasse” there are two parallel competitions – the Saturday Leagues and the Sunday Leagues.

Amateur football – split by religion

To explain, the clubs in the Saturday Leagues were traditionally Protestant clubs, whom were not allowed to play on Sunday due to religious reasons (as was the case until recently in Northern Ireland). On the other side – the Sunday League clubs were Catholic in foundation – whose players had to work on Saturdays and therefore could only play on Sundays.

Each of these Leagues is split into 3 Regionalised sub divisions, whose winners playoff first against each other to determine the Saturday and Sunday Champions. These two champions then play each other to determine the “National Amateur Champions”.

In the past few years, the amateur game has become rapidly more “professionalised”, with players receiving pay from their clubs which, coupled with investment in facilites and stadia, has lessened a once very wide gap between the two setups.

Plans for a true “pyramid” system have been on the agenda since 1999. On that occasion it was the Eerste Divisie clubs whom rejected the calls.

De Topklasse – A new era

The first season of the Topklasse will take the following format. It will be made up of two divisions of 16 clubs – the “Saturday League” and the “Sunday League” (thereby preserving the historical aspect of the Hoofdklasse) At the end of last season, the bottom two teams in the Eerste Divisie, whose size has been reduced from 20 to 18 clubs, and the top four clubs from each of the six Hoofdklasse divisions – a total of 26 clubs – automatically joined the new level.

The relegated clubs from the Eerste Divisie were FC Oss and Haarlem, who withdrew due to bankruptcy. Haarlem Kennemerland must restart in the Tweede Klasse, which will be the 6th level in the Dutch Pyramid after the restructuring. This left another playoff position in the Topklasse for promoted Hoofdklasse clubs.

Thus, 25 clubs were subsequently joined by another seven clubs who came through a series of playoffs  in April/May consisting of the clubs that finished in 5th or 6th place in their groups within the Hoofdklasse. The lucky seven are HHC Hardenburg, SC Genemuiden and VV Katwijk from the Saturday leagues, Dijkse Boys, HVV Hollandia and VVSB from the Sunday Hoofdklasse. ARC also came in through the second phase, replacing Haarlem.

At the end of the season, the winners of the two Topklasse divisions will play each other (plans are to do this over two legs). The winner of these games will be promoted to the Eerste Divisie, replacing the team that finishes 18th. However, should the winner refuse the promotion place – then the losing finalists will be offered the promotion place. If, in the extreme case of BOTH teams refusing promotion, then no promotion and relegation will take place between the Eerste Divisie and Topklasse.

Dutch National TV station RTL7 has committed itself to provide coverage of the new League with two 1-hour highlight shows planned every weekend. Aptly, one on a Saturday night, the other on a Sunday night.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the new Topklasse will change football in the Netherlands. We might well see the emergence of a new set of clubs moving into the full professional leagues in the next few years. I’ve been to clubs like JVC Cuijk and SV Venray and for clubs at that level, the facilities, crowds and passion is impressive. The Holy Grail for these clubs must be a chance to mix it with the big boys in the Eredivisie.

I for one can’t wait!

Chris Rock is a contributor to Just-Football specialising in Norwegian football. He also runs the blog ‘The Worcestershire Referee.’

(photo 1 credit – Fanclub De Trouwe Oss website)

Dutch Eredivisie, Dutch Football, Eerste Divisie, Holland, Politics and Society, Topklasse