Other Eredivisie Teams

[SE6Ajacied]

Just sitting down to watch Setanta's Dutch game and can't decide who I want to win this one.

AZ are pretty uncatchable and F-word's troubles are highly amusing so think I'll be "supporting" DSB bank rather than Fortis today.

[Kowalczyk]

Yeah, me too.

AZ will win the title anyway. There is absolutely no way we're gonna overtake them. I want Feyenoord to lose, period.

As for the 'battle for second place': Twente might drop points against Groningen, but we might drop points against NAC, too... (I kind of count on it, actually).

K.

[Rooie]

Groningen already with 10, red for Granqvist.

[Manneken Pis]

Groningen already with 10, red for Granqvist.

Twente really struggled to take advantage of the extra man.
Gronigen almost got a draw with three chances at the end.
Twente WILL drop more points before the end of the season....

[Kowalczyk]

Yup. Their unbeaten streak is very, very impressive, but they have not been very sovereign in recent weeks. A bit of luck, they really had to give everything a few times...

Meanwhile, we're improving... and don't forget we still play them in Amsterdam.

K.

[Kowalczyk]

It's official: Roda JC and Fortuna Sittard will melt together to become Sporting Limburg next season. The new club will play at Parkstad Limburg Stadium (currently the home ground of Roda), have an annual budget of more than 20 million euros. Their ambition: a steady position in Holland's top five by 2013.

It's a done deal. This Sunday's Roda vs Ajax match will be Ajax's very last game against Roda JC.

Roda and Fortuna fans hate this merger and did everything within their power to stop it. The provincial government of Limburg and regional sponsors support Sporting Limburg, but will the fans come to the stadium...? The chairman of the 'Proud of Fortuna Foundation' (a fan attempt to rescue the club) answered that question in today's de Volkskrant: "Will I go to the games? I'd rather die. I will support Fortuna until season's end. After that they'll never see me again."

K.

[Van basten]

Twente lost 2 points today against NEC

[Kowalczyk]

Twente lost 2 points today against NEC

And Johnny Goossens scored NEC's goal!

K.

[Kowalczyk]

*LOL* Volendam just beat the F-word...



'Relegation battle' is getting very exciting!

K.

[SPL]

I see Siem de Jong's brother Luik is joining Twente from de Graafschap.

[Kowalczyk]

Unbelievable but true: according to reports in the Dutch press the whole Sporting Limburg merger has fallen through.

The new club were counting on 6.5 million euros from the provincial government (this was promised to them by the chief-commissioner of the Limburg province, a bloke named Leon Frissen), but apparently he can not live up to his promises. The provincial government has vetoed the donation, or something, and the whole thing is off.

This is a surprise.

Right now it looks like Roda and Fortuna can carry on independently, but they will have to clear their debts in order to get a license for next season. It looks like Roda will succeed, but Fortuna are likely to go out of business.

Jeezz. To be continued, I'm sure.

K.

[SPL]

Ko

Am I right in thinking 1or2 other clubs from the 2nd division may go out of business. Eindhoven for instance??

[Kowalczyk]

Ko

Am I right in thinking 1or2 other clubs from the 2nd division may go out of business. Eindhoven for instance??

Correct. Each club has to submit a 'clean' financial plan to the KNVB in the summer. Clubs that fail to do so will not get a license. This summer it looks seriously bad for a few clubs, including FC Eindhoven and Fortuna Sittard.

Starting next season the bottom team will get relegated from the First Division - and there will probably be a promotion system from the Hoofdklasse (highest non-league level). This is a very good thing for the league, in my opinion. It's a step towards a 'pyramid structure' and I like that.

K.

[Kowalczyk]

Unbelievable but true: according to reports in the Dutch press the whole Sporting Limburg merger has fallen through.

The new club were counting on 6.5 million euros from the provincial government (this was promised to them by the chief-commissioner of the Limburg province, a bloke named Leon Frissen), but apparently he can not live up to his promises. The provincial government has vetoed the donation, or something, and the whole thing is off.

Okay, I've read a few more articles about this. Here's the deal.

The province of Limburg had promised to donate 6.5 million euros to Sporting Limburg, but only if both Roda JC and Fortuna Sittard would be 'debt free'. We're basically talking about people's tax money here and the province only wanted to invest if the money was actually going to be invested in the new football club, with the name of the province on their home kit, etc. The provincial government made it clear from the outset: we're not going to clear any old debts. That's not what this money is for.

If the stories in the papers are correct, Roda JC are now as good as 'debt free'. They met the requirements. But the people at Fortuna were unable to raise enough money and then they decided to simply 'move' their debt into an empty, non-existent PLC, or holding, or something like that. I hope this makes sense. This kind of thing probably happens in every country: companies 'playing' with their debts, moving it from one empty PLC to the next. Anyway, the province did not accept that and vetoed the donation. Merger is off.

I have to say: the province are totally and absolutely right.

Right now it looks like Fortuna will go out of business. Roda will survive (perhaps not as an Eredivisie club, but that's a different story).

K.

[martinkohout]

PSV are bringing Fred Rutten back to take over next year.

[jamcocteau]

Great reults for Ajax tonight - both AZ and Twente lost.

Now we have to win tomorrow. AZ still to come to ArenA next week and then have Twente away and Herenveen at home......lets pick up 12 points and see what happens

[Orange14]

Was it three years ago when AZ lost everything going down the stretch?

[Jinne]

No, that was 2 years ago. Only back then they had just one chance. Now they still have three. Would be the laugh of the season though if they would fail. It was some real choking they showed us last night and they still have the numbers 2,3 and 4 from the league to face.

[Kowalczyk]

The chance of Ajax winning the league title is 1% or less. We will have to win everything, they will have to lose eveything from now on.... It ain't gonna happen.

But I have to say: I know how nervous you get (as a fan) when you're almost there - and it's nice to know that we get the opportunity to give them bad dreams about the 'worst case scenario' for two looooong weeks.

Yesterday evening was the dream scenario for them: they were on a roll (very impressive unbeaten streak), home game, full stadium, party atmosphere and also: the Vitesse match was by far the 'easiest' of their remaining fixtures.

I think they'll wrap it up sooner rather than later, but it's nice to know that they're a bit worried right now nd that we f**ked up their party. They can win it without playing a game themselves today (if we drop points against PSV), which is always a bit of a 'dead' way to clinch the title. Yesterday evening would have been so much nicer for them...

If we beat PSV today, they'll think: oh dear, and next week we go to the ArenA... And if we beat them there they will really get nervous (two chances wasted, two more to go... against Heerenveen and Twente).

AZ will win it, no doubt about it, but this surely is nice.

K.

[DanK]

It will make the Ajax - AZ game have a bit more bite...

[Kowalczyk]

Clubs with more than one official Dutch championship:

Ajax: 29
PSV: 21
Feyenoord: 14
HVV: 10
Sparta Rotterdam: 6
RAP: 5
Go Ahead Eagles: 4
HBS, HFC & Willem II: 3
AZ, Heracles Almelo, RCH & ADO Den Haag: 2

Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, Sparta Rotterdam, Willem II, AZ, Heracles Almelo and ADO Den Haag play in the Eredivisie.
Go Ahead Eagles now play in the First Division of Dutch professional football.
HBS (from The Hague; now HBS-Craeyenhout) and RCH (from Heemstede) and play in the Hoofdklasse, the highest level of Dutch amateur football.
HVV (from The Hague) now play in the Second Class of Dutch amateur football.
HFC (from Haarlem) are now called Koninklijke HFC ('Royal HFC') and play at a very low level of Dutch amateur football (District West I, Class 2B)
RAP (from Amsterdam) no longer exist.

K.

[Kowalczyk]

Welcome back to the Eredivisie, VVV-Venlo.

They grabbed the First Division title this evening. Venlo's celebrating.

K.

[DanK]

Welcome back to the Eredivisie, VVV-Venlo.

They grabbed the First Division title this evening. Venlo's celebrating.

K.

Maybe Roda should have merged with them...

[Van basten]

Twente lost 2 points today. It's about the time to left them behind

[Kowalczyk]

Absolutely crazy stuff at the bottom of the Eredivisie, by the way...

Totally insane.

After 90 minutes of football these were the scores:

Roda JC - Willem II: 0-0
NAC Breda - De Graafschap: 0-0
FC Volendam - FC Groningen: 0-0

But then the whole thing exploded: Roda lost (Willem scored in after two minutes of stoppage time), De Graafschap won (they scored after three minutes of stoppage time) and Volendam lost (Groningen scored after four minutes of stoppage time)!

Can you believe it?

Situation is now as follows:

14. Heracles Almelo: 33-31 (34-52)
15. ADO Den Haag: 33-29 (38-57)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
16. De Graafschap: 33-29 (22-56)
17. FC Volendam: 33-28 (36-65)
-----------------------------------
18. Roda JC: 33-27 (35-56)

Relevant fixtures on matchday 34:

Feyenoord - Roda JC
Heracles Almelo - FC Utrecht
ADO Den Haag - Vitesse
De Graafschap - FC Volendam

K.