Dutch FA Swaps Cash For Footballing Integrity

By: chris | April 28th, 2008

The KNVB has taken the advice of nearly everybody involved with Dutch football and scrapped the playoff system which decides who goes to Europe and to which competition. As it stood, the teams which finished 2nd thru 5th went into a two-tiered playoff of home and away legs, in which the 5th plays the 2nd, 3rd plays the 4th and the winner of each games squares off for the lone remaining Champions League spot (large version of the above table here). So a team could finish 5th in the Eredivisie, get hot at the right time and wind up in Champions League qualifying. It actually happened in the inaugural season, when Ajax leaped over AZ in 2nd for the right to CL cash, despite finishing in 4th and 14 points from AZ. Lame.

The playoff system was designed to pump up fan interest (cash), attendance (cash) and cash (cash) way, way back in 2005-06. The little experiment has run its course and the new system will be very straightforward and used by most leagues in Europe:

1. CL Groups
2. CL Qualifying
3. UEFA Cup
4. UEFA Cup

Of course, the playoffs aren’t gone altogether, and the last remaining UEFA Cup spot will go to the winner of a playoff between the 5th and 8th place teams. Seeing the 5th place Dutch team left at home is much better than seeing the team in second going straight to the UEFA Cup.

This will be yet another experiment, one which will be evaluated after next season, but it’s a much better system than the alternative. At least this one intends to reward the right teams instead of fatten up wallets.

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Category: Dutch Eredivisie

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Marco P.

Here's a crazy idea: how about we make the Champions League what it should be, a "Champions" league. Get rid of all the 2nd, 3rd, 4th-placed bullcrap.

Ah, one can only dream...
Ian Rose

I think "swaps" is right. Headlines are usually present tense, and it's true that the most recent thing is that they swapped the old way (cash) for the new way (integrity). And I don't think anyone's suggesting that the Eredivisie is the only money-grubbing league. They pretty much all are.
Matt

Not that I am an eager defender of the KNVB, but shouldn't this headline say "swapped" rather than "swaps"? They are changing it back, after all. And it is not like the Eredivisie is the only league running after the cash. Remember when the EPL wanted to play in other countries?
Ian Rose

About time. That system was pretty ridiculous, and Dutch teams in Europe are better off without it. It will be interesting to look at their UEFA coefficient in a few years and compare.
francis

Cash$