woonerf.org – All about the Eredivisie

The Eredivisie is the highest football league in the Netherlands. It is currently ranked the 8th best league in Europe by UEFA.

The top division consists of 18 clubs. Each club faces every other club twice during the season, once at home and once away. At the end of each season, the bottom club is automatically relegated to the second level of the Dutch league system, the Eerste Divisie (First Division), with the champion of the Eerste Divisie automatically promoted to the Eredivisie. The next two clubs from the bottom of the Eredivisie go to separate promotion/relegation playoffs. The playoffs are played in two groups. Each group has one Eredivisie club and three high-placed clubs from the Eerste Divisie. In both promotion/relegation playoff groups, each club plays a home-and-away series with the other clubs. The winner of each playoff group plays in the following season's Eredivisie, with the other teams going to the Eerste Divisie.

AFC Ajax has won the most titles, 29. PSV Eindhoven is next with 21, and Feyenoord follows with 14. Since 1965, these three clubs have won all except for two titles (the 1980/81 and 2008/09 titles went to AZ).