Dutch Premier League 2011-12: Eredivisie Schedule & Match Times

The Eredivisie is the top flight football league in the Netherlands and was begun in 1956. Professional football in the country began merely two years earlier, in 1954. The league is currently ranked the ninth best in Europe based on UEFA’s league coefficient.

The Dutch premier league is contested by 18 clubs, with each club having to face every other, twice during the season, in home and away games. At the end of each season, the bottom club is automatically relegated to the second level of the Dutch league system, which is known as the Eerste Divisie (First Division); the champion team of the Eerste Divisie is automatically promoted to the Eredivisie.

In case you want to know what time it will be in the capital city of your country when the next match in the Eredivisie begins, take a look at the following table.

Important: To find the information more quickly, enter the name of your country in the search bar above the table.

The 16th and 17th placed teams at the bottom of the Eredivisie have to play promotion/relegation playoffs. The playoffs are played in two groups, with each group comprising one Eredivisie club and three high-ranked clubs from the Eerste Divisie. Both promotion/relegation playoff groups have two-leg contests between the clubs. The winner of each playoff group plays in the premier league in the following season, and the losers go to the Eerste Divisie.

The team with the most points of the end of the Eredivisie season is crowned the Dutch national champion club. AFC Ajax is credited with having won 22 times, the most titles. PSV Eindhoven is the next most successful team, with 18 titles, followed by Feyenoord who have won nine. These three clubs have been the most dominant in the last 46 years, having won all but three titles (AZ won in 1981 and 2009, while FC Twente won in 2010).

Between 1990 and 1999, the league was renamed as the PTT Telecompetitie after the sponsor, PTT Telecom, and later to KPN Telecompetitie in 1999 followed by KPN Eredivisie in 2000. Between 2002 and 2005, the league was renamed as the Holland Casino Eredivisie. Since the 2005-06 season, the Sponsorloterij lottery has been sponsoring the league, but the sponsors name has not been used in the league title, for legal reasons.

The current champions are AFC Ajax; apart from the champions the following are the other teams contseting the title in the ongoing season: ADO Den Haag, AZ, De Graafschap, Excelsior, FC Groningen, FC Twente, FC Utrecht, Feyenoord, Heracles Almelo, NAC Breda, NEC, PSV, RKC Waalwijk, Roda JC, SC Heerenveen, Vitesse and VVV-Venlo.

Tags: Holland, Netherlands, UEFA

Category: Football, Match Time, UEFA