Eredivisie castrates the Play Offs

Here’s Van Nijnatten’s column on the Play Offs. Just for the record: I have never been a fan. To me, the number two of the 34 odd games is the rightful owner of the CL qualification ticket. But still… Here’s Chris’ story:

Under pressure from Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV, the Eredivisie CV decided to castrate the play offs.
The only play offs we’ll have next season is the relegation games and a play off for the remaining UEFA cup ticket (the numbers 6 till 9).

Dutch pro football makes a fool of itself before the UEFA and the Dutch government.
Three years ago, the Play Offs were introduced to get more games, more excitement and more money for the clubs, in order to close the gap – a bit – with the rich football nations.
All sorts of mathematical models were used to prove the wisdom of the football clubs. The UEFA said yes to this structure and the government promised to control law and order around the extra matches. But, this idea never got the time to prove itself. Within three years, the Eredivisie CV wants to stop the play-offs.

The Big Three think they can qualify for Europe anyway. It’s not in their interest to add the play off games to their long season.
Feyenoord, Ajax and PSV allow the rest of the rest to fight over one remaining UEFA ticket.

The KNVB will now have to decide what to do. Henk Kesler, director of the KNVB, is mad as hell. “Do we really want to make complete fools of ourselves?”, he asked rhetorically.

Soon we will learn whether Kesler will put his money where his mouth is. Does he have the cojones? Because his organisation will have to say yes to this new chapter of Pro football Holland.

As far as Kesler is concerned, the play off system deserves more time to prove itself. Either that, or cancelling the play offs altogether. At least these two options are transparent.