For those interested in the structure of Dutch football... (Vak425 asked me this once, so at least one person will be interested...)

As you know we have two professional divisions: the (Holland Casino) Eredivisie and the First Division (officially named Gouden Gids Divisie. 'Yellow Pages Division').

Below that is the amateur section, although most clubs higher amateur levels do pay their players, sometimes in sneaky, semi-official ways (or in goods, such as cars, houses and stuff). In practice some amateur players make better money than First Division players.

Dutch amateur football is divided in two big segments, namely the Saturday and the Sunday section. This has to do with the fact that Holland used to be a very calvinist country in the past, so that clubs from several religious places refused to play on Sundays. Both the Saturday and the Sunday section of amateur football are divided in five Klassen ('Classes'): the highest level is de Hoofdklasse, or 'Top Class'. Below that are the First, Second, Third and Fourth Classes. Every 'Class' is also divided in a number of divisions (indicated by letters: A, B, C), based on region, in order to create as many regional derbies as possible.

Example: in order to make exactly clear in what league a certain amateur side is playing, you will have to give an indication such as 'Saturday's Top Class, Division B', or 'Sunday's Third Class, Division A'.

As you know Ajax also has an amateur section consisting of three teams, all playing in Saturday amateur football. In this case this is not for religious reasons, but due to the fact that Ajax-1 traditionally plays on Sundays. Ajax's top amateur team, known as the 'Saturday-1' team, got promoted to the Top Class of Saturday amateur football last year.

At season's end the champions of the three Saturday Top Class divisions play each other in a poule system. The winner is the over-all 'Saturday champion' of The Netherlands. Exactly the same happens in Sunday football. The over-all Saturday champions and the over-all Sunday champions, finally, play each other in two legs, to determine the over-all amateur champion of The Netherlands.

As I said relegation is impossible from the First Division and promotion to professional football is impossible from the Top Class. The reason for this is that there still are a lot of amateur clubs that do not want to 'go professional'. However, there's always a number of amateur clubs in the 'waiting room' with the ambition to go professional.

They will normally have to wait until a First Division side goes bankrupt (which has happened regularly in Dutch football, to clubs such as SC Amersfoort, FC Wageningen and SVV and VC Vlissingen). Top Class clubs that want to be assigned the vacant spot of such a club have to meet very struct KNVB conditions: their ground has to meet strict safety measures, they must be financially healthy and they must have won at least a so-called 'period championship' in their Top Class division in the season before they make the jump.

Sometimes, when an amateur club is very ambitious and very healthy the KNVB will make an exception. This happened this season to AGOVV Apeldoorn: they entered the First Division although no other club disappeared. For that reason the First Division now consists of 19 clubs, so that one of them is 'free' each weekend.

The only way in which professional teams and amateur teams can play each other in an official game is in the Amstel Cup. Every season 48 amateur clubs qualify for the first round: the champions of all six Top Class divisions (Saturday A,B and C, as well as Sunday A, B and C), plus all winners of a 'period championship' in those divisions.

So there is - in a way - a link between professional football and the Top Class of amateur football: we can bump into them for the cup.

For the true freaks amongst you, here are the names of the 37 professional clubs and the names of the 84 Top Class amateur clubs of this season... (city name in brackets).

Eredivisie
Ajax (Amsterdam)
Feyenoord (Rotterdam)
PSV (Eindhoven)
FC Utrecht (Utrecht)
SC Heerenveen (Heerenveen)
FC Twente (Enschede)
Vitesse (Arnhem)
NEC (Nijmegen)
NAC Breda (Breda)
FC Groningen (Groningen)
Willem II (Tilburg)
Roda JC (Kerkrade)
FC Zwolle (Zwolle)
ADO Den Haag (The Hague)
FC Volendam (Volendam)
AZ (Alkmaar)
RBC Roosendaal (Roosendaal)
RKC Waalwijk (Waalwijk)

First Division
AGOVV Apeldoorn (Apeldoorn)
Cambuur Leeuwarden (Leeuwarden)
FC Den Bosch (Den Bosch)
FC Dordrecht (Dordrecht)
FC Eindhoven (Eindhoven)
Emmen (Emmen)
Excelsior (Rotterdam)
Fortuna Sittard (Sittard)
Go Ahead Eagles (Deventer)
De Graafschap (Doetinchem)
FC Haarlem (Haarlem)
Helmond Sport (Helmond)
Heracles Almelo (Almelo)
MVV (Maastricht)
Sparta Rotterdam (Rotterdam)
Stormvogels Telstar (Velsen/IJmuiden)
TOP Oss (Oss)
BV Veendam (Veendam)
VVV (Venlo)

Sunday Top Class, Division A (region: west)
ADO '20 (Heemskerk)
AFC (Amsterdam)
AFC '34 (Alkmaar)
Argon (Mijdrecht)
Elinkwijk (Utrecht)
Hollandia (Hoorn)
FC Kranenburg (The Hague)
Nieuwenhoorn (Nieuwenhoorn)
FC Omniworld (Almere)
SVVSMC (Schiedam)
TEC (Tiel)
TONEGIDO (Voorburg)
Türkiyemspor (Amsterdam)
Westlandia (Naaldwijk)

Sunday Top Class, Division B (region: south)
De Baronie (Breda)
Deurne (Deurne)
Gemert (Gemert)
Groene Ster (Heerlerheide)
JVC Cuijk (Cuijk)
SV Meerssen (Meerssen)
Nuenen (Nuenen)
OJC Rosmalen (Rosmalen)
Panningen (Panningen)
Schijndel/SBA Euro (Schijndel)
TOP (Oss, amateur section of professional club)
UDI '19/Beter Bed (Uden)
UNA (Veldhoven)
FC Vinkenslag (Maastricht)

Sunday Top Class, Division C (region: north/east)
Achilles '29 (Groesbeek)
Achilles 1894 (Assen)
AGOVV (Apeldoorn, amateur section of professional club)
Appingedam (Appingedam)
Babberich (Babberich)
De Bataven (Gendt)
Be Quick Groningen (Groningen)
Hoogeveen (Hoogeveen)
HSC '21/Brein (Haaksbergen)
SC Joure (Joure)
Koninklijke UD (Deventer)
Quick '20 (Oldenzaal)
ROHDA Raalte (Raalte)
De Treffers (Groesbeek)

Saturday Top Class, Division A (region: south/west)
Achilles Veen (Veen)
ARC (Alphen aan den Rijn)
ASWH (Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht)
Capelle (Capelle)
Excelsior Maassluis (Maassluis)
Hoek (Hoek)
Katwijk (Katwijk)
Kloetinge (Kloetinge)
FC Lisse (Lisse)
Noordwijk (Noordwijk)
Quick Boys (Katwijk)
Rijnsburgse Boys (Rijnsburg)
Scheveningen (Scheveningen, which is today a The Hague district)
Ter Leede (Sassenheim)

Saturday Top Class, Division B (south/west)
Ajax (Amsterdam, amateur section of professional club)
Bennekom (Bennekom)
Delta Sport (Vlaardingen)
DOVO (Veenendaal)
GVVV (Veenendaal)
Heerjansdam (Heerjansdam)
SV Huizen (Huizen)
IJsselmeervogels (Spakenburg)
Marken (Marken)
SHO (Oud-Beijerland)
Spakenburg (Spakenburg)
Sparta Nijkerk (Nijkerk)
TOGR (Rotterdam)
Zwart-Wit '28 (Rotterdam)

Saturday Top Class, Division C (region: north/east)
ACV (Assen)
Be Quick '28 (Zwolle)
CSV Apeldoorn (Apeldoorn)
ASV Dronten (Dronten)
DOSK (Kampen)
Flevo Boys (Emmeloord)
Genemuiden (Genemuiden)
Harkemase Boys (Harkema)
Nunspeet (Nunspeet)
Oranje Nassau (Groningen)
SDC Putten (Putten)
Urk (Urk)
VVOG (Harderwijk)
WHC (Wezep)

It is remarkable that many of Holland's best amateur clubs come from very, very calvinistic little places. Those clubs are deeply rooted in society in those little towns. Several local derbies are known as historic grudge games. Examples:

Quick Boys vs Katwijk (in the coastal town of Katwijk)
Spakenburg vs IJsselmeervogels (in Spakenburg)
DOVO vs GVVV (in Veenendaal)

If you ever want to check out how our Saturday-1 team is doing, check these pages on KNVB.nl...

Saturday Top Class B
Latest results and table
Upcoming fixtures