Eredivisie

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Countries	Netherlands
Confederation	UEFA
Founded	1956
Number of teams	18
Levels on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Eerste Divisie
Domestic cup(s)	KNVB Cup Johan Cruijff Shield
International cup(s)	Champions League Europa League
Current champions	AFC Ajax (2011–12)
Most championships	AFC Ajax (31)
TV partners	Eredivisie Live NOS
Website	Eredivisie.nl
2011–12 Eredivisie

The Eredivisie (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɪː.rə.di.ˌvi.zi]; English: Honorary Division) is the highest football league in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956 two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is currently ranked the eighth best league in Europe by UEFA.

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 three 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.

The winner of the Eredivisie claims the Dutch national championship. AFC Ajax has won the most titles, 23 (31 national titles). PSV Eindhoven is next with 18 (21), and Feyenoord follows with 9 (14). Since 1965, these three clubs have won all except for three titles (the 1981 and 2009 titles went to AZ and FC Twente won the 2010 title).

From 1990 to 1999, the official name of the league was PTT Telecompetitie [ˌpeɪ̯.teɪ̯.ˈteɪ̯ ˈteɪ̯.lə.kɔm.pə.ˌti.(t)si] (after the sponsor, PTT Telecom), which was changed to KPN Telecompetitie [ˌkaː.peɪ̯ʔ.ˈɛn ˈteɪ̯.lə.kɔm.pə.ˌti.(t)si] in 1999 and to KPN Eredivisie [ˌkaː.peɪ̯ʔ.ˈɛn ˈɪː.rə.di.ˌvi.zi] in 2000. From 2002 to 2005, the league was called the Holland Casino Eredivisie [ˈɦɔ.lɑnt ˈkaː.sɪ.noʊ̯ ˈɪː.rə.di.ˌvi.zi]. Since the 2005–06 season, the league has been sponsored by the Sponsorloterij [ˌspɔn.sɔr.lo.tə.ˈrɛi̯] lottery, but for legal reasons, its name is not attached to the league.

Current teams (2012–13)[link]

¹ Only the Eredivisie titles (starting in the 1956–57 season) are displayed here
² Obtained as DOS
³ Obtained as Rapid JC

National champions[link]

Dutch titles[link]

Eredivisie titles[link]

By town or city[link]

Playoffs[link]

European competition[link]

Relegation[link]

Attendance[link]

Since the beginning of the league, there have been three clubs with an attendance much higher than the others: Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord. Clubs like Heerenveen, FC Twente and FC Groningen also have fairly large fanbases. The regular season average league attendance was just over 7,000 in 1990, but this figure has risen sharply over the years thanks to the opening of new stadiums and the expansion of existing ones nationwide. Average attendance for the 2008–09 season was 19,827, with AFC Ajax having the largest (49,014) and FC Volendam having the smallest (5,460). Ajax' figures however differ from those provided by the Amsterdam ArenA since the club counts all tickets sold instead of the number of people going through the turnstiles.

Season 2008–09 average attendance

All-time ranking (since the introduction of the Eredivisie in 1956)[link]

Last updated following the 2011–12 season