Netherlands: To participate in the D2 play

A force de faire trop compliqué, ça devait bien finir par arriver en Eerste Divisie, soit l’antichambre…

Thomas Siniecki, Manager365: published on Thursday, April 23, 2026 at 9:51 pm

A force de faire trop compliqué, ça devait bien finir par arriver en Eerste Divisie, soit l’antichambre de l’élite aux Pays-Bas.

How could leaders one day decide to adopt such a regulation? To put it simply, the Dutch second division divided their season into four parts, each rewarding a kind of mini-champion who qualifies for the end-of-year playoffs (which are coming up). Except that if a mini-champion is again a mini-champion, it is the overall ranking that prevails. That’s where Bois-le-Duc had to lose to qualify for the playoffs by this means of the entire season, which will only be the case if Vitesse Arnhem does not take their place in the fourth and final mini-championship.

Landvreugd: “It’s very strange”

For that, while hoping that Vitesse achieves the worst possible result against Cambuur, as well as Dordrecht against Willem II (in case of a Vitesse victory), they must lose against La Haye in order to place the latter – already qualified by the overall ranking – at the top of the fourth phase. Finally, to fully grasp the absurdity of the situation, Bois-le-Duc has no chance of getting out of this last phase and therefore has nothing more to gain on the field, simply counting on its current position throughout the regular season. One wonders why not just follow the example of our Ligue 2 and its thrilling race for the playoffs…

The coach of Bois-le-Duc, Ulrich Landvreugd, has a hard time hiding the evidence: “We are starting to make calculations and we will have to look closely at it. It’s very strange.” Before taking a step back: “I assume we will play our game, even if we are quite depleted.” This will probably serve as justification. In a more institutional manner, the club responded to our colleagues at L’Equipe that they would not engage in speculation: “Requests regarding this match aim to question our will and interests regarding the result of the game. FC Bois-le-Duc is a professional club and plays to win, as the coaches and players have already stated after our last two games.” If you’re curious, all the matches of this last round will take place on Friday at 8pm.