in order to better compete financially and talent-wise with the major leagues in Europe, especially given the Champions League changes which favor the biggest leagues even more? I would assume the format would involve 36 matches (similar to Switzerland).
Switserland has half our population, so the number of teams probably is a function of that. I cannot see any financial benefit of shrinking the number of Eredivisie teams. It will cost the top teams a tremendous amount of stadium revenues. Feyenoord, Ajax and PSV are almost always sold out ( think the capacity is 95% sold during the year) and seasons tickets income would drop as less matches are offered. So no.
How do you figure there are less matches? If you have a 10-team league, you play each of the other 9 clubs four times. That is 36 matches, two more than now. Plus, the quality is concentrated among 10 clubs as opposed to 18 making the league better.
Upsets happen all the time with the current league format. all top 3 teams in the league have dropped points against clubs they should have beaten by 2-3 goals. If you do drop down to 10 teams, how do you handle relegation/promotion. If it is still two teams that means 1/5 of the clubs will be relegated in the next season. Also, what becomes of the eight teams that are dropped? Do they go into the Jupiter league, making it much bigger than it is currently? You will also cut off avenues for player development which occurs at all the teams in the Eredivisie by reducing the number of player spots in the top league. We've been talking on other threads about a crisis in Dutch football development. Shrinking the Eredivise will make it worse.
Relegation would work like this. 10th would be replaced by the Eerste Divise champ. 9th would play in a five-team playoff with 2nd-5th from Eerste Divise for the last spot. As far as revenues, they would be up as there are two more matchdays, the weaker clubs are gone, and the talent is concentrated (all 10 clubs on average will be better). As far as getting down to 10, it would be done over 4 seasons: 18, 16, 14, 12, 10. The ED would become a 16-team division, and a third professional league would be formed under it. The ED would play a 30-game schedule then have a top/bottom split and play an additional 7 matches for a 37-game schedule in total. I would also get rid of the Johan Cruijff Schaal as it is pointless.
Possible 10-team league: Ajax Feyenoord PSV Heerenveen AZ Utrecht Twente Vitesse Sparta Rotterdam PEC Zwolle
^^You have two teams that are not in the top 10 right now. Sparta just got promoted this season and was languishing for some years in the Jupiter league. PEC is in the relegation zone. Groningen has been a fairly consistent top 10 team over the years and has qualified for Europe. Your scheme does not enhance the finances for the league which is a barrier to retaining players. The Dutch league playe to a very high stadium capacity for every club but some of theose teams have small stadiums so match day income isn't very high. Feyenoord and Ajax are the only ones that have ~50K seat arenas. I think your plan would not be accepted by the Dutch FA as the clubs destined to be left out will object.
We must tighten the elite. It's an idea from Wim Jansen, if I'm not mistaken. Imagine four Klassieker during the year, it would be beneficial for our young players to multiply games of such intensity. Frankly, that would be a very good reform.
So that's going up to six times, meaning every two months. That's disgusting and a sure way to kill the competition.
If this idea would have any reality, the transformation to a multi nation competition would be far more sensible with adding teams like Anderlecht, Brugge, Celtic etc. instead of cutting back. For our top teams however it is impossible to make more money because the stadiums are already running at full capacity. Only Feyenoord could profit with the new stadium, but most likely that too would become too small for the surge in viewers to be in that scenario.
Here are some of those ideas from Wim Janssen, as translated by my friend Jan, sort of saying that a smaller domestic league would mean stronger competition and thus better players coming out of it: "I also want to propose a 10 club competition and I would like to see clubs play each other four times instead of two. Four Feyenoord – Ajax classics, four PSV – AZ Alkmaar fixtures, etc. This means every week you play a tough game and every week players need to step up.” He realizes this plan is seen as a bomb by the general assembly. “Of course! The boards of Roda and Excelsior and Go Ahead Eagles will be devastated. I get that. But if you want to reach for the top, you need to start creating resistance at domestic level. All other solutions are compromises. People doing their best to please other people. That is not what a top league needs.” And not only the Eredivisie: “It’s alarming that the best youth of the country in the under 13s and under 16s are not in the same competition! It’s ridiculous. In particular in our little country. Now, PSV doesn’t meet Ajax and Feyenoord! No wonder they win their regional competitions all the time. The D pupils and B juniors (first years) of Ajax and Feyenoord also don’t compete against each other. All three top clubs are in separate competitions. Sometimes the coaches organize something amongst themselves on a Wednesday afternoon. Not good enough! The biggest talents of the country need to compete amongst each other! Then there is the national cup competition. The winner of that competition plays Europa League football. Why do we allow amateur clubs in that? Now, the pro clubs need to play three rounds against – potentially that is – amateurs. How does that make them better players?” Personally I don't know where I stand, but think ideas to make the league more competitive must at least be entertained. http://dutchsoccersite.org/wim-jansen-revolutionise-dutch-football-pt-1/ http://dutchsoccersite.org/wim-jansen-revolutionize-dutch-football-pt-2/
No, it will not make it more competitive by playing the same teams twice more. I have high regards for Wim Jansen, but this idea is so daft that I cannot believe he really beleves it. A competition gets more competitive with more stronger teams to play against as each team has a different bag of strong points. Playing the same teams double is like making each match last for an extra hour. That's not going to make it better. As I posted before..If you want to get rid of the weaker teams you have to replace them by stronger teams, not by eliminating them. So the Beneleague/Atlantic league is then the move forwards, not the Scottish solution. Wim must set aside his memories of his coaching in Scotland. Memories tend to be looked at through rosie glasses.
I dont think anything will change, the rich leagues will continue to protect themselves as much as they can, and the rest is unwilling to break away. I really dont see an atlantic league coming, as much as I would like it. The money is elsewhere and it would take alot of people to have alot of guts to invest alot of money to get this off the grounds running and succesful.
Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV may make a marginally more amount of money in a 10 team league but it's doomed to failure as the big money comes from two sources: television and licensing (both domestic and international). Walk the streets of any large European city outside the Netherlands and look at what football shirts kids are wearing. You see the big Euro clubs but I doubt you will find anyone wearing an Ajax shirt (yes, Ajax is the most recognized of all the Dutch clubs; sorry PSV and Feyenoord fans). There is absolutely no way Dutch clubs can compete under the current situation. You could shrink to a three team league and have the "big three" play each other all the time and it's not going to matter. As long as EPL teams make €90M/year just in television money (more than the operating budgets of any Dutch club other than Ajax I believe) there is an inherent advantage. A BeNe league makes good sense from the perspective of increasing the number of quality teams but one would have to find a way to keep the good young players from leaving early. I will continue to enjoy watching the Eredivisie because any team can win on a given Sunday (or Saturday) to paraphrase the title of the iconic American football movie.
What really needs to happen is that Belgium needs to dissolve, Brussels needs to be split in half, Flanders needs to join the Netherlands, and Wallonia needs to join France.
Ahum, they fought a civil war to escape Dutch "oppression", and they are culturally totally different from Dutch. So no, that's not going to happen.