The Eredivisie is growing in stature, but a gulf between the big 3 and the rest is emerging
In part 2 of my series on Dutch football, I will be examining the Eredivisie, the Dutch league.
Overview
In this instalment, three main developments will be discussed: the growing gap in resources and prestige between the big 3 (Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV) and the rest of the league, mirroring developments elsewhere in Europe; the changing position of the Eredivisie in the food chain of European football; and the paths which the Dutch league could take in the coming years.
Growing gap between top 3 and rest
That the statures of European football’s élite and its less illustrious clubs have diverged immensely in the past few years, and continue to do so, is hardly news to those who follow football. Though the Dutch Big 3 do not manoeuvre in the same circles as the 12 clubs which attached themselves to the abortive European Super League, the same processes are in motion in the Eredivisie. The Big 3 have won the last 10 Dutch titles between them, and according to Transfermarkt.nl, Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord’s squads each have a market value of over 100 million euros; with the exception of AZ Alkmaar, no other club in the Eredivisie has a squad market value of more than 40 million euros. In other respects, too, the chasm between the Big 3 and the rest of the league has been widening. The big 3 have all bought players from the Premier League in the past two transfer windows, adding a degree of top-calibre experience to their squads which the rest of the league cannot match; this great discrepancy in spending is, in turn, explained by the immense gap in tv revenue between clubs at the top and bottom of the league. In the 2020/21 season, Ajax brought in nearly 10,5 million euros from the sale of domestic tv rights, while the least well-endowed club, RKC Waalwijk, took in under 2 million. These vast disparities go some way towards explaining the yawning gap in quality between the clubs at the top and the foot of the Eredivisie table, a gap which has become increasingly evident in the past couple of seasons (Ajax’s 13-0 league win over VVV-Venlo being just one example of this.)
Role in the European footballing ecosystem (role as development league, increase in S. American players?)
Given the difference in resources between the Eredivisie’s haves and have-nots, it makes sense that ambitions, both for individual clubs and for Dutch club football as a whole, differ wildly. While Ajax sparkle in the Champions League and Feyenoord close in on final approval to build the largest stadium in the Low Countries, existence is rather more hand-to-mouth for clubs in the lower reaches of the Eredivisie, and even more so for those clubs which are relegated to the 2nd tier. The sad fate of ADO Den H[JD1] aag, bought by a Chinese owner who promised success in the Champions League but whose reign has led to relegation and the club facing administration, seems to have tamed the ambitions of the Eredivisie’s smaller outfits to compete in Europe, and grow their ‘brand’ in doing so. As a result, the Eredivisie’s top clubs find themselves in completely different positions in Europe’s footballing pyramid compared with their counterparts further down the table. As mentioned above, the Big 3 clubs have all managed to lure former Eredivisie players in the prime of their careers (players such as Sébastien Haller and Alireza Jahanbakhsh) back from England in the past two transfer windows, and perhaps more impressively Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord were all able to keep hold of key assets that were coveted by clubs in the Premier League and Serie A. This was not, however, the case for AZ Alkmaar, a club which has punched above its weight in recent years but which was unable to prevent the departure of the academy products Teun Koopmeiners, Calvin Stengs and Myron Boadu, who together had been instrumental in leading AZ to successive top-three finishes, to Atalanta, OGC Nice and Monaco respectively. These patterns point to a further divergence between the top three and the rest of the league in the European football pyramid.
The changing position of the Eredivisie in Europe’s footballing landscape is also indicated by the ability of the big 3 to attract Latin American, and, increasingly, African talent, a trend which Ajax in particular have driven and benefited from. Since the signing of David Neres in January 2017, Ajax have purchased a further six players from Latin America, including Antony and Nicolas Tagliafico; of those, all but one (the flopped centre-half Lisandro Magallan) are still at the club, despite interest from abroad. Feyenoord and PSV have also made increased forays into the Latin American market in recent years. Though the phenomenon of South American players beginning their European careers in the Netherlands goes back decades, the big Dutch clubs are now better able to keep hold of South American stars for longer than was previously the case. There are a couple of factors which may help explain this change. One is the increased prestige of the Eredivisie as a result of Ajax’s strong performances in European competition, which have elevated the Eredivisie’s profile and exposure outside of the Netherlands. Another, related, factor is the increased income generated by European successes, which again has primarily benefited Ajax, who brought in over 100 million euros during their run to the semi-final of the 2018/19 Champions League and another 50 million during last season’s campaign in Europe; this entails that the sale of players is not necessary to fund purchases, which allows a stronger side to be assembled. The knock-on effects of the pandemic may also help account for the longer stay of top players in the Eredivisie. While top clubs across Europe suffered enormous losses during the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons, Ajax and PSV both saw their total capital increase during the ravages of COVID. Whether the trend of the Eredivisie being a longer-term home for top players from outside Europe continues is uncertain, but the increased reputation of the Dutch league means that remaining longer in the Netherlands may remain an attractive proposition.
Visions for future
Given the immense gap in resources between the Eredivisie’s top three and its smaller clubs, it may come as little surprise that there is a stark difference in vision over the right course for Dutch football to chart in the coming years between the top clubs and the rest of the league. Even disregarding the idea of a BeNeLiga, in which the top clubs from the Netherlands and Belgium would participate and which would relegate the national competition to a second-rate affair, cracks in the Eredivisie’s have begun to show. This is evident in the ongoing discussion over the creation of a new NL League, which would make Dutch league football independent from the KNVB, the Dutch FA. While 30 of the 34 clubs in the top two tiers of Dutch football have gone on record as supporting the proposed new setup, Ajax and Feyenoord are both in opposition, with Ajax’s commercial director Menno van Geleen explaining that ‘we [Ajax] would rather have a well-substantiated plan of how we can grow together and become Europe’s sixth-biggest league, than a plan outlining how Ajax’s European profits will be divided.’ While one of the key stated ambitions of the NL League’s backers is to make the Dutch league the ‘best of the rest’ behind Europe’s Big 5 leagues, van Geleen’s comment is indicative of the different perspectives from which Dutch clubs look at the future. Ajax, and to a lesser extent PSV and Feyenoord, already belong to the upper echelons of European football, with their resources and historical successes. Although the big 3 might also benefit in the long run from a stronger domestic league, which would lead to more lucrative foreign tv rights deals and allow Eredivisie clubs to attract a higher calibre of players, it is also understandable why a club like Ajax have reservations about changes which might threaten their current position in the Dutch and European football pyramids.
Concluding thoughts
With these considerations in mind, where does the Eredivisie stand in the era of the superclubs, as domestic competitions seemingly grow less important to Europe’s élite sides and game is increasingly dominated by a clique of about a dozen top clubs? As seen above, the same phenomenon of the top clubs distancing further distancing themselves from their competition is also taking place in the Netherlands, albeit on a smaller scale. Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV may not be able to spend 50 million euros to purchase players from Champions League clubs, but their ability to attract the likes of Haller, Jahanbakhsh and Davy Pröpper, players in the primes of their careers with Premier League experience, indicates both the big 3’s greater stature compared with their peers in the Eredivisie, for whom such transfers would be unfeasible, and the prominent position still occupied by the Eredivisie’s top clubs in the structure of European football. Spurred on by Ajax’s deep European runs in recent years, the Eredivisie has re-established itself as a respectable sub-top European competition, currently seventh in UEFA’s league coefficient table. Given this new position of strength, the ambition recently expressed by several prominent figures within Dutch football to make the Eredivisie into the sixth-biggest league in Europe seems within reach. As across the continent, however, it is far from certain whether the big clubs will continue to diverge from the rest of the pack, or if a prospective NL League, with greater tv revenue for all clubs and increased international exposure, might help bridge the gap. These are tumultuous times throughout European football, and the Eredivisie is no exception.
Inthehalfspace 