It's a thorn in the eye of many Dutch football fans: the closed football pyramid. For decades, the top two tiers - the only professional leagues in the country - have been closed off from the third tier and below, making relegation from the Eerste Divisie and promotion from the Tweede Divisie impossible.
The shutdown of the promotion and relegation rules traces back to Achilles '29, who won the Sunday Topklasse (then the third tier) in 2013. After AGOVV Apeldoorn and SC Veendam folded, only 16 teams were active in the Eerste Divisie.
The KNVB asked VV Katwijk and Achilles '29, the two amateur champions, to fill the spots in a two-year pilot that allowed Topklasse teams to enter the Eerste Divisie under the same licensing conditions as in the lower tier. Katwijk declined, but Achilles '29 made a leap of faith.
It resulted in absolute disaster. Achilles '29 got into immense financial trouble, were temporarily saved and enjoyed two steady seasons, but were relegated in 2017 and fell into oblivion with more financial woes. The club did not survive its transition to professional status, and it gave the KNVB a major headache.
The year before Achilles '29's relegation, the KNVB created the semiprofessional Tweede Divisie, a new league below the Eerste Divisie that included promotion to professional football. It was designed as a bridge between amateur and professional football, aiming to reintroduce relegation from the Eerste Divisie for the first time since 1970.
It took the KNVB just one year to freeze promotion to the Eerste Divisie, and the pyramid has been closed ever since.
Amateurs officially open fire
After ten years of the Tweede Divisie, some clubs have officially had enough. On Friday, Quick Boys chairman Bart van Kruistum revealed that several clubs have started a governance survey to see whether the pyramid can be re-opened.
"In the Tweede Divisie, there is a positive attitude towards an open pyramid, but this is based on sporting grounds and without all sorts of preconditions," said Van Kruistum, who's certain that there's plenty of support for a promotion/relegation system, which he said would "boost" Dutch football like it's never done before.
"What I’m hearing in the corridors is that people are actually quite keen to make that pyramid open. If you’re top of the table, you’re promoted. If you’re bottom, you’re relegated. As it should be, normally..."
Quick Boys, SV Spakenburg, IJsselmeervogels, HHC Hardenberg, VV Katwijk, and Rijnsburgse Boys - six of the biggest amateurs clubs in the country - are all interested in promotion to the Eerste Divisie. In recent years, Tweede Divisie teams have proven to be at least on par with Eerste Divisie clubs - Tweede Divisie teams have beaten Eerste Divisie teams in 12 of the 17 cup meetings in the last three years, while Tweede Divisie teams also won 7 of 28 games against Eredivisie sides.
Van Kruistum told VoetbalPrimeur. His club, Quick Boys, have won the last two Tweede Divisie titles and are looking for the big step up.
"I can tell you this: we have developed our organisation in such a way that we could easily take that step," said Van Kruistum, who ties promotion to the livelihood and competitiveness of the first team.
"Will we become the Bayern of the amateur leagues, or will we organise things in such a way that we can retain players even if we were to move up to the Eerste Divisie?"
Van Kruistum, who also advocates for a new competition set-up with 'hybrid' league, is not happy with the KNVB's attitude and is more than happy to take serious measures in the fight to open up the pyramid.
"We'd be talking about the Eredivisie, Topdivisie, Eerste Divisie and Tweede Divisie. You make the leagues a bit smaller, ensure that no club is automatically relegated from the Eerste Divisie, and add a number of Tweede Divisie clubs. And if you do get relegated, you really only have yourself to blame.
"This simply has to become a public debate. It’s unthinkable to have a league from which you cannot be relegated. To me, that’s unthinkable. If necessary, we’ll just have to go to the House of Representatives – and perhaps even to Brussels – to ensure this is banned!"
Van Kruistum adds one condition to the opening of the pyramid: "Saturday is sacrosanct as a home match day. Saturday clubs also have it stated in their articles of association that they do not wish to play on Sundays; that simply has to be respected. Ideally, away matches should be played on Friday evenings."
The KNVB stated that they're open to discussions about promotion/relegation, but that the initiative solely lies with the clubs and not the football association itself.
Paul Winters is Flashscore's Netherlands country manager, having previously worked for Flashscore's Netherlands desk. Paul is an expert on the Eredivisie and also specialises in the NFL, as well as a plethora of other sports. Residing in 'sunny' Katwijk, you can follow all of the news from the Netherlands here.
You can find Paul on X and LinkedIn.
