Netherlands national football team
FIFA RANKING: 16
GOVERNING BODY:-
Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB)
HOME STADIUMS:-
Johan Cruyff Arena, Amsterdam
De Kuip, Rotterdam
CAPTAIN:-
Virgil van Dijk
COACH:-
Frank de Boer
MOST CAPPED PLAYER:-
Wesley Sneijder (134 caps)
TOP SCORER:-
Robin van Persie (50 goals)
STAR PLAYERS:-
Virgil van Dijk, Memphis Depay, Georginio Wijnaldum, Frenkie de Jong, Donny van de Beek
NICKNAME:-
Oranje, Holland, The Flying Dutchmen
RIVALS:-
Belgium
Germany
WORLD CUP:-
Appearances: 10
Best Result: Runners-up (1974, 1978, 2010)
EUROS:-
Appearances: 10
Best Result: Champions (1988)
The Netherlands national football team has represented the Netherlands in international men’s football matches since 1905.
The national team is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB), the governing body for football in the Netherlands, which is a part of UEFA, and under the jurisdiction of FIFA.
They are widely considered one of the best teams in world football to have never won a FIFA World Cup. Most of the Netherlands’ home matches are played at the Johan Cruyff Arena and the Stadion Feijenoord.
The team is colloquially referred to as Het Nederlands Elftal (The Dutch Eleven) or Oranje, after the House of Orange-Nassau and their distinctive orange jerseys.
Like the country itself, the team is sometimes (also colloquially) referred to as Holland. The fan club is known as “Het Oranje Legioen” (The Orange Legion).
The Netherlands has competed in ten FIFA World Cups, appearing in the finals three times (in 1974, 1978 and 2010).
They have won the UEFA European Championships on one occasion in 1988 when the tournament was held in (West) Germany.
Additionally, the team won a bronze medal at the Olympic tournament in 1908, 1912 and 1920.
The Netherlands has long-standing football rivalries with neighbours Belgium and Germany.
Football in the Netherlands
Football is the most popular sport in the Netherlands.
Football was introduced to the Netherlands by Pim Mulier in the 19th century when in 1879, at the age of 14, he founded Haarlemsche Football Club.
Over the next 30 years, football gained popularity in the Netherlands and the late 1890s and early 1900s saw the foundation of many new clubs, notably Sparta Rotterdam in 1888, which is the oldest professional football club in the country, AFC Ajax in 1900, Feyenoord Rotterdam in 1908, and PSV Eindhoven in 1913.
The Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) was founded on 8 December 1889 and joined FIFA in 1904 as one of the founding members alongside the Football Associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Professional football was introduced in 1954, with the establishment of the Dutch Professional Football Association (Nederlandse Beroeps Voetbal Bond, or NBVB).
The first professional game was played on 14 August 1954 between Alkmaar ’54 and SC Venlo.
The KNVB had opposed professional football for a long time, but eventually submitted to pressure and merged with the NBVB in November 1954 to form a new football association and a new (professional) league.
Since 1956, Dutch football is now known as the Eredivisie.
The second level became the Eerste Divisie (First Division).
The third level is the Tweede Divisie (Second Division).
Below that are two amateur divisions: the fourth level is the Derde Divisie (Third Division), formerly Topklasse, and the fifth level the Hoofdklasse.
The Topklasse was launched in 2010, before that time promotion to or relegation from the Eerste Divisie was not possible. In 2016, the Topklasse was renamed Derde Divisie and the Tweede Divisie was revived.
The Netherlands is unique, for its well-known men’s and women’s teams are usually dressed in orange.
They won the European Championship in 1988, and have competed in many European and World Cups.
They finished second in the 1974,1978 and 2010 World Cups and third in the UEFA Euro 1976 and 2014 World Cup tournament.
They have reached many finals (1974 World Cup, 1978 World Cup, Euro 1988, 2010 World Cup) and semi-finals (Euro 1976, 1998 World Cup, Euro 2000, Euro 2004, 2014 World Cup).
The women’s team also managed to reach the final in its just second FIFA Women’s World Cup, where they reached the 2019 Women’s World Cup but failed to win.
This means the Netherlands is the second country in the world where both men’s and women’s teams reached the final of respective gender’s World Cup yet failed to win both times, the other being Sweden.
The women won also the Women’s Euro 2017. Only the Netherlands and Germany have won both the men’s and the women’s European Championship.
Dutch football league system
The Dutch football league system consists of two fully professional leagues (Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie) and eight levels of amateur football leagues, the highest of which is called Tweede Divisie, formerly Topklasse.
All the leagues are connected by a promotion and relegation system, but in order to be promoted to the Eerste Divisie a club has to submit a solid business plan to be approved by the Royal Dutch Football Association, as well as meet certain stadium demands, and some other demands that the association stated for all the teams in the top two leagues.
The association obliges every team from the two fully professional leagues to contract 16 players full-time, in order to keep these leagues fully professional.
In 2016, Tweede Divisie was reintroduced as the top amateur level and placed between the Eerste Divisie and the Derde Divisie.
Level 1 – Eredivisie
The Eredivisie is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands.
The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. As of the 2020–21 season, it is ranked the 8th best league in Europe by UEFA.
The Eredivisie consists of 18 clubs. Each club meets every other club twice during the season, once at home and once away.
At the end of each season, the two clubs at the bottom are automatically relegated to the second level of the Dutch league system, the Eerste Divisie (First Division), while the champion and runner-up of the Eerste Divisie are automatically promoted to the Eredivisie.
The club finishing third from the bottom of the Eredivisie goes to separate promotion/relegation play-offs with eight high-placed clubs from the Eerste Divisie.
The winner of the Eredivisie claims the Dutch national championship.
Ajax has won the most titles, with 35 national titles. PSV Eindhoven are next with 24, and Feyenoord follow with 15.
Since 1965, these three clubs have won all but three Eredivisie titles (the 1981 and 2009 titles went to AZ and FC Twente won the 2010 title).
Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord are known as the “Big Three” or “Traditional Top Three” of Dutch football.
They are the only clubs in their current forms to have never been relegated out of the Eredivisie since its formation.
A fourth club, FC Utrecht, is the product of a 1970 merger between three of the city’s clubs, one of which, VV DOS, had also never been relegated out of the Eredivisie.
From 1990 to 1999, the official name of the league was PTT Telecompetitie (after the sponsor, PTT Telecom), which was changed to KPN Telecompetitie (because PTT Telecom changed its name to KPN Telecom in 1999) and to KPN Eredivisie in 2000.
From 2002 to 2005, the league was called the Holland Casino Eredivisie. Since the 2005–06 season, the league has been sponsored by the Sponsorloterij (lottery), but for legal reasons, its name could not be attached to the league (the Dutch government was against the name, because the Eredivisie would, after Holland Casino’s sponsorship, yet again be sponsored by a company providing games of chance).
On 8 August 2012, it was made public that tycoon Rupert Murdoch had secured the rights to the Eredivisie for 12 years at the expense of 1 billion euros, beginning in the 2013–14 season.
Within this deal, the five largest Eredivisie clubs should receive 5 million euros per year for the duration of the contract.
In 2020, the Eredivisie was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Level 2 – Eerste Divisie
The Eerste Divisie is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands.
It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems.
It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship, while previously it was known as Jupiler League for the same reason.
The league features 20 teams and FC Volendam is the most successful team in the second division of Dutch football.
Level 3 – Tweede Divisie
The Tweede Divisie is the highest amateur (and historically, the lowest professional) football league in the Netherlands.
It was established in 1956, together with the Eredivisie and the Eerste Divisie.
Between 1956 and 1960 and between 1962 and 1966, the league consisted of two divisions, Tweede Divisie A and Tweede Divisie B. The league was disbanded in 1971.
Six clubs were promoted to the Eerste Divisie (De Volewijckers, FC Eindhoven, FC VVV, Fortuna Vlaardingen, PEC and Roda JC), while the other eleven teams became amateur clubs.
Plans for a new, amateur Tweede Divisie, to be made up of 4 reserve teams and 14 Topklasse clubs, were approved in a KNVB assembly in December 2014.
Thus, the Topklasse, renamed the Derde Divisie (English: Third Division), and leagues below decremented by one level, and furthermore, promotion and relegation among the second to fourth divisions were implemented starting in 2016-17.
Despite its amateurism, the league obligates its clubs to have a minimum number of players under contract.
No first team will be promoted to the Eerste Divisie until after 2022–23, but from the end of 2020–21 at first, the highest-ranked second (i.e., reserve) team gains promotion, while the lowest-ranked reserves are relegated to a new under-21 division.
An under-23 competition has been established for the Tweede Divisie’s amateur clubs that are not directly eligible for its under-21 equivalent.
Due to the 2020–21 season’s cancellation, promotion or relegation is likely to be deferred to the end of 2021–22.
Level 4 – Derde Divisie
The Derde Divisie, formerly known as Topklasse, is the fourth tier of football in the Netherlands, which had its inaugural season as the third tier in 2010–11 and as the fourth tier in 2016–17.
The league is placed between the Tweede Divisie and the Hoofdklasse, the third and fifth tiers of Dutch football, respectively.
The introduction of the then Topklasse resulted from discussions between the Royal Dutch Football Association, the Coöperatie Eerste Divisie (the clubs in the Eerste Divisie) and the Centraal Overleg Hoofdklassers (the clubs in the Hoofdklasse).
Level 5 – Hoofdklasse
The Hoofdklasse is the second-highest league of amateur football in the Netherlands, and the fifth tier in general.
Clubs in the Saturday Hoofdklasse A and Sunday Hoofdklasse A are from the central, northern and western parts of the Netherlands.
Clubs in the Saturday Hoofdklasse B and Sunday Hoofdklasse B are from the central, eastern and southern parts of the Netherlands.
Level 6 – Eerste Klasse
The Eerste Klasse started as the 1st tier of football in the Netherlands and is now the 6th tier.
The league is divided into eleven divisions, five for Saturday clubs and six for Sunday clubs. These divisions correspond to the six districts of the Royal Dutch Football Association: each district organises a Saturday competition and a Sunday competition, except for South II, which only has a Sunday competition.
Each division consists of 14 teams. The champion of the Eerste Klasse divisions are promoted to the Hoofdklasse.
Furthermore, a season is divided into 2 periods of eight matches each. The winners of these periods qualify for promotion playoffs, provided they finish in the top nine overall in the season.
The numbers 11 and 12 in the final rankings play relegation playoffs, and the numbers 13 and 14 relegated to the Tweede Klasse.
Level 7 – Tweede Klasse
The Tweede Klasse is the seventh tier of football in the Netherlands and the fifth tier of Dutch amateur football.
The league is divided into 22 divisions, with 10 played on Saturday and 12 on Sunday.
Each division consists of 14 teams. The champions are promoted to the Eerste Klasse (First Class), and the teams finishing 13th and 14th are relegated to the Derde Klasse (Third Class).
Each season is divided into a number of periods. The winners of these periods qualify for promotion playoffs, provided they finish in the top nine overall in the season.
The teams finishing 12th in the final rankings play relegation playoffs.
Level 8 – Derde Klasse
The Derde Klasse is the eighth tier of football in the Netherlands and the sixth tier of Dutch amateur football.
The league is divided into 44 divisions, with 20 played on Saturday and 24 on Sunday.
Each division consists of 14 teams. The champions are promoted to the Tweede Klasse, the teams finishing 13th and 14th are relegated to the Vierde Klasse.
Each season is divided into a number of periods. The winner of these periods qualify for promotion playoffs, provided they finish in the top nine overall in the season.
The teams finishing 12th in the final rankings play relegation playoffs.
Level 9 – Vierde Klasse
The Vierde Klasse is the ninth tier of football in the Netherlands and the seventh tier of Dutch amateur football. This is the lowest league in the West II region.
The league is divided into 64 divisions, with 32 played on Saturday and 32 on Sunday. Each division consists of 12 to 14 teams.
The champions are promoted to the Derde Klasse, the bottom two teams are relegated to the Vijfde Klasse (only in districts where a Vijfde Klasse exists).
Each season is divided into a number of periods. The winner of these periods qualify for promotion playoffs, provided they finish in the top nine overall in the season.
The teams finishing third from bottom in the final rankings play relegation playoffs.
Level 10 – Vijfde Klasse
The Vijfde Klasse is the tenth and lowest tier of football in the Netherlands and the eighth tier of Dutch amateur football.
The league is divided into 37 divisions, with 5 played on Saturday and 32 on Sunday. Each division consists of 11 to 14 teams.
The champions are promoted to the Vierde Klasse. Each season is divided into a number of periods.
The winner of these periods qualify for promotion playoffs, provided they finish in the top nine overall in the season.
Since the Vijfde Klasse is the lowest football tier, no teams are relegated or play relegation playoffs.
Cup competitions
KNVB Cup
The KNVB Beker, branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898.
It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the Netherlands, it is often referred to as the Dutch Cup.
The tournament consists of all teams from the top four tiers of Dutch league football (Eredivisie, Eerste Divisie, Tweede Divisie and Derde Divisie), as well as the 24 semi-finalists (or replacements) of the six KNVB District Cups.
The finals of the tournament traditionally take place in De Kuip and has been held there every season since the 1989 final.
The winners of the cup compete against the winners of the Eredivisie for the Johan Cruyff Shield, which acts as the curtain-raiser for the following season.
Johan Cruyff Shield
The Johan Cruyff Shield (Johan Cruijff Schaal) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup.
The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national football league, Eredivisie, and the winner of the national KNVB Cup.
In the event of a team winning both the Eredivisie and the KNVB Cup, the Johan Cruyff Shield will be contested between that team and the runner up in the national league.
The match traditionally opens the Dutch football season in August one week before the Eredivisie starts.