Eredivisie

The Eredivisie is the top professional division in the Netherlands, founded in 1956. It is an open structure, sharing promotion and relegation with the Eerste Divisie below it.

Its global reputation rests on player development. Dutch clubs have invested seriously in youth systems for decades, and the coaching ideas developed in the Netherlands have had an outsized influence on European football. A great many players and coaches who went on to succeed in the larger leagues passed through here first.

In practice it operates as a selling league. Clubs tend to move their best players to wealthier competitions in their early twenties and promote the next group behind them, so squads turn over faster than in the bigger leagues.

Eighteen clubs play each other home and away: 34 matches per club and 306 across the season, the same as the Bundesliga and Ligue 1. Three points for a win, one for a draw.

Clubs level on points are separated by goal difference first, then goals scored.

One consistently visible trait is a higher goals-per-match rate than the other major European leagues. Part of that is the attacking tradition; part is a wider quality gap between the top of the table and the bottom.

The leading clubs take the UEFA places the league's coefficient earns, and the winner of the KNVB Beker, the domestic cup, also qualifies for Europe.

Dutch football leans on play-offs more than most of Europe. Beyond the relegation play-offs involving clubs from the Eerste Divisie, play-offs have in several seasons also decided which clubs take European places.

The bottom club is relegated directly, while those just above it enter play-offs to keep their status — so the season is not over for the clubs at the bottom when the final league round finishes.

The season starts in early August and finishes in May, around a winter break from the middle of December to the middle of January.

Most Dutch kick-offs fall in the afternoon and evening locally. Every time shown on this page is already converted to your own zone.

The tabs above separate fixtures, results and the full 18-club table with each side's last five results.

Scores update on their own while matches are in progress, with no refresh needed.