2020–21 Eredivisie

Eredivisie 2020–21
Season information
Dates	12 September 2020 – 16 May 2021
Winners	Ajax (35th title)
Relegated	FC Emmen VVV-Venlo ADO Den Haag
Domestic cup winners
KNVB Cup	Ajax
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Ajax PSV Eindhoven
Europa League	AZ
Europa Conference League	Vitesse Feyenoord
Season statistics
Matches played	306
Goals scored	920
Average	(3.01 per match)
Top goalscorer	Giorgos Giakoumakis (26 goals)
Biggest home win	Rotterdam 6–0 Haag (22 November 2020) Feyenoord 6–0 Venlo (6 March 2021)
Biggest away win	VVV-Venlo 0–13 Ajax (24 October 2020)
Highest scoring	Venlo 0–13 Ajax (24 October 2020)
← 2019–20	2021–22 →

The 2020–21 Eredivisie was the 65th season of the Eredivisie since its establishment in 1955. The season began on 12 September 2020 and concluded on 16 May 2021.

On 2 February 2021, the KNVB announced that effective immediately clubs would be allowed to make an extra substitution for suspected concussions as part of an IFAB sanctioned trial. This trial will allow teams to make up to six substitutions across four breaks in the match instead of five substitutions across three breaks in the match.

Ajax having won the title in 2018–19, are the title holders, since the 2019–20 edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the title was not awarded.

Teams

A total of 18 teams are taking part in the league.

Stadiums and locations

Club	Location	Venue	Capacity
ADO Den Haag	The Hague	Cars Jeans Stadion	15,000
Ajax	Amsterdam	Johan Cruyff Arena	54,990
AZ	Alkmaar	AFAS Stadion	17,023
Emmen	Emmen	De Oude Meerdijk	08,600
Feyenoord	Rotterdam	De Kuip	52,000
Fortuna Sittard	Sittard	Fortuna Sittard Stadion	10,300
Groningen	Groningen	Noordlease Stadion	22,550
Heerenveen	Heerenveen	Abe Lenstra Stadion	27,224
Heracles Almelo	Almelo	Polman Stadion	12,080
PEC Zwolle	Zwolle	MAC³PARK Stadion	14,000
PSV Eindhoven	Eindhoven	Philips Stadion	36,500
RKC Waalwijk	Waalwijk	Mandemakers Stadion	07,500
Sparta Rotterdam	Rotterdam	Het Kasteel	11,000
Twente	Enschede	De Grolsch Veste	30,205
Utrecht	Utrecht	Stadion Galgenwaard	23,750
Vitesse	Arnhem	GelreDome	21,248
VVV-Venlo	Venlo	Seacon Stadion – De Koel	08,000
Willem II	Tilburg	Koning Willem II Stadion	14,500

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
ADO Den Haag	Alan Pardew	Aaron Meijers	Erreà	Cars Jeans
Ajax	Erik ten Hag	Dušan Tadić	Adidas	Ziggo
AZ	Arne Slot	Teun Koopmeiners	Under Armour	AFAS Software
Emmen	Dick Lukkien	Anco Jansen	Hummel	Hitachi Capital Mobility
Feyenoord	Dick Advocaat	Steven Berghuis	Adidas	Droomparken
Fortuna Sittard	Sjors Ultee	Wessel Dammers	Masita	Sparr Finance
Groningen	Danny Buijs	Mike te Wierik	Puma	Payt
Heerenveen	Johnny Jansen	Hicham Faik	Jako	Ausnutria
Heracles Almelo	Frank Wormuth	Robin Pröpper	Acerbis	Asito
PEC Zwolle	John Stegeman	Bram van Polen	Craft	Molecaten
PSV Eindhoven	Ernest Faber (interim)	Ibrahim Afellay	Umbro	Metropoolregio Brainport Eindhoven
RKC Waalwijk	Fred Grim	Kevin Vermeulen	Stanno	Mandemakers Keukens
Sparta Rotterdam	Henk Fraser	Adil Auassar	Robey	D&S Groep
Twente	Gonzalo García García	Wout Brama	Sondico	Pure Energie
Utrecht	John van den Brom	Willem Janssen	Nike	Zorg van de zaak
Vitesse	Edward Sturing	Bryan Linssen	Nike	Royal Burgers' Zoo & Netherlands Open Air Museum
VVV-Venlo	Hans de Koning	Danny Post	Masita	Seacon Logistics
Willem II	Adrie Koster	Jordens Peters	Robey	Destil

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
ADO Den Haag	Alan Pardew	End of contract	30 June 2020	Preseason	Aleksandar Ranković	1 July 2020
Fortuna Sittard	Sjors Ultee	Different role			Kevin Hofland
PSV Eindhoven	Ernest Faber (interim)	End of interim spell			Roger Schmidt
Twente	Gonzalo García García	End of contract			Ron Jans
Vitesse	Edward Sturing (interim)	End of interim spell			Thomas Letsch
FC Utrecht	John van den Brom	Signed by Genk	7 November 2020	8th	René Hake	7 November 2020
ADO Den Haag	Aleksandar Ranković	Sacked	8 November 2020	16th	Ruud Brood	10 November 2020
Fortuna Sittard	Kevin Hofland		11 November 2020	18th	Sjors Ultee	2 December 2020
AZ	Arne Slot		4 December 2020	7th	Pascal Jansen (ad int.)	4 December 2020
Willem II	Adrie Koster		26 January 2021	17th	Željko Petrović	29 January 2021
PEC Zwolle	John Stegeman		20 February 2021	13th	Lee-Roy Echteld (ad int.)	24 February 2021
	Lee-Roy Echteld (ad int.)	End of interim spell	27 February 2021	12th	Bert Konterman (ad int.)	27 February 2021
VVV-Venlo	Hans de Koning	Sacked	16 March 2021	15th	Jos Luhukay	17 March 2021

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Ajax  (C)	34	28	4	2	102	23	+79	88	Qualification to Champions League group stage
2	PSV	34	21	9	4	74	35	+39	72	Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round
3	AZ	34	21	8	5	75	41	+34	71	Qualification to Europa League play-off round
4	Vitesse	34	18	7	9	52	38	+14	61	Qualification to Europa Conference League third qualifying round
5	Feyenoord	34	16	11	7	64	36	+28	59	Qualification to European competition play-offs
6	Utrecht	34	13	14	7	52	41	+11	53
7	Groningen	34	14	8	12	40	37	+3	50
8	Sparta Rotterdam	34	13	8	13	49	48	+1	47
9	Heracles	34	12	8	14	42	53	−11	44
10	Twente	34	10	11	13	48	50	−2	41
11	Fortuna Sittard	34	12	5	17	50	58	−8	41
12	Heerenveen	34	9	12	13	43	49	−6	39
13	PEC Zwolle	34	9	11	14	44	53	−9	38
14	Willem II	34	8	7	19	40	68	−28	31
15	RKC Waalwijk	34	7	9	18	33	55	−22	30
16	Emmen	34	7	9	18	40	68	−28	30	Qualification to Relegation play-offs
17	VVV-Venlo	34	6	5	23	43	91	−48	23	Relegation to Eerste Divisie
18	ADO Den Haag	34	4	10	20	29	76	−47	22

Source: Eredivisie
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Play-offs

European competition play-offs

Four teams will play for a spot in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League second qualifying round.

Bracket

		Semifinals (19 May)				Final (23 May)
	1	Feyenoord	2
	4	Sparta Rotterdam	0
						1	Feyenoord	2
						2	Utrecht	0
	2	FC Utrecht	1
	3	FC Groningen	0

Semifinals

19 May 2021	FC Utrecht	1–0	FC Groningen	Utrecht
18:45 CEST	Gustafson  77'	Report		Stadium: Galgenwaard Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Danny Makkelie

19 May 2021	Feyenoord	2–0	Sparta Rotterdam	Rotterdam
21:00 CEST	Berghuis  31' (pen.) Beugelsdijk  33' (o.g.)	Report		Stadium: De Kuip Attendance: 6,500 Referee: Jochem Kamphuis

Final

22 May 2021	Feyenoord	2–0	Utrecht	Rotterdam
20:00 CEST	Sinisterra  25' Linssen  90'	Report		Stadium: De Kuip Attendance: 6,500 Referee: Dennis Higler

Promotion/relegation play-offs

Seven teams, six from the 2020–21 Eerste Divisie and one from the Eredivisie, will play for a spot in the 2021–22 Eredivisie. The remaining six teams will play in the 2021–22 Eerste Divisie. The highest seeded team or the team from the Eredivisie will always play at home.

Teams

Team	Rank	seed
Emmen	16	1
De Graafschap	3	2
Almere City	4	3
NAC Breda	5	4
Volendam	6	5
N.E.C.	7	6
Roda JC	8	7

Bracket

	First round (15 May)					Semifinals (20 May)					Final (23 May)
						1	Emmen	1 (3)
						4	NAC Breda (p)	1 (4)
	4	NAC Breda	4
	5	Volendam	1
											4	NAC Breda	1
											6	N.E.C.	2
	3	Almere City	0
	6	N.E.C.	4
						6	N.E.C.	3
						7	Roda JC	0
	2	De Graafschap	2
	7	Roda JC	3

First round

15 May 2021	NAC Breda	4–1	FC Volendam	Breda
	De Rooij  33' Adilehou  52' Fiorini  65' Maria  86'	Report	78' Mulattieri	Stadium: Rat Verlegh Stadion Attendance: 0 Referee: Pol van Boekel

15 May 2021	De Graafschap	2–3	Roda JC	Doetinchem
	Van Mieghem  13' Van de Pavert  37'	Report	11' Vente  72', 75' Goppel	Stadium: De Vijverberg Attendance: 0 Referee: Edwin van de Graaf

15 May 2021	Almere City FC	0–4	NEC Nijmegen	Almere
		Report	36', 75' Okita  40' (pen.) Bruijn  70' Vet	Stadium: Yanmar Stadion Attendance: 0 Referee: Kevin Blom

Semifinals

20 May 2021	NEC Nijmegen	3–0	Roda JC	Nijmegen
	Van Rooij  5' Janga  45'+2' Okita  60'	Report		Stadium: Stadion de Goffert Attendance: 1,500 Referee: Jeroen Manschot

20 May 2021	FC Emmen	1–1 (3–4 pen)	NAC Breda	Emmen
	Hendriks  80' (o.g.)	Report	Immers  16'	Stadium: De Oude Meerdijk Attendance: 1,200 Referee: Allard Lindhout
		Penalties
	De Leeuw Araujo Veendorp Bijl Peña		Van Hooijdonk Fiorini Jansen Malone El Allouchi

Final

23 May 2021	NAC Breda	1–2	N.E.C.	Breda
18:00 CEST	Van Hooijdonk  70'	Report	26' Odenthal  89' Okita	Stadium: Rat Verlegh Stadion Attendance: 2,500 Referee: Björn Kuipers

Kits

External links

• Official website (Dutch)