I say good on them. Due to finances in other leagues they are always playing catch up. If their league are okay with it I don't see the problem.
Dutch FA’s decision to excuse Ajax from league game last weekend...
- Thread starter Rozay
- Start date
It's a shame the KNVB have to resort to these measures, but it's all thanks to the ridiculously unfair decision to give certain leagues guaranteed CL spots irrespective of how well they do. Measures like these make sure the big clubs/competitions stay big and the small ones stay small.
I would disagree that it is entirely down to the make up of the CL spots (though the need to perform in order to qualify does indeed provide more incentive), I'd say it's more in the interest of the domestic competition's fairness that you don't overexert one team compared to others.
However, if you look at it from a commercial point of view, then the KNVB probably wants an exciting end to the domestic league too, rather than a months in advance pre-decided champion, because one team was exhausted and lost concentration for domestic matches. A less interesting competition to follow would be a disaster to the Eredivisie, as predictability is the death to viewer ratings/numbers and viewer ratings/numbers determine the value of said competition to potential bidders on broadcasting rights like FOX Sports and Ziggo. Especially Ajax - PSV sells much better if the championship is still to be decided at that point.
Either way, this sort of measures should be in place for all clubs involved in multiple competitions to safeguard the health of the players somewhat and keep injury chances by overexertion low. Hence as far as I'm concerned, it should apply to all clubs involved in domestic or international cups.
Ajax have just won the re-scheduled match for the record.
Has this just happened in the Premier League? Non of the quarter finalists play this weekend although other Premier League matches, including Chelsea and Arsenal's games, are happening.
No. Liverpool are playing on Friday night. The others clash with FA Cup fixtures.
United were supposed to play Wolves at the weekend but because they're in the semis on Sunday it got brought forward. City were supposed to play Cardiff but play tonight because of City's involvement in the cup. It's City v Brighton in the FA Cup on Saturday.
Spurs were meant to play Brighton but because Brighton are still in the cup they play in about 3 weeks. They might've played tonight instead, but Spurs are already playing Palace which got postponed from March 17th because Palace were in the FA Cup 6th round that weekend.
Cheers.
PSV and Feyenoord were up in arms about the decision at first. I think it's great. All clubs benefit from a domestic rival going far. Especially us, since we've lost our direct CL spot. Who cares at what exact date Ajax trash NAC Breda with 15-0.
And as this randomly got bumped, I see Zwolle, the team who were affected last time won their match against Excelsior when they had less rest than their opponents because of Ajax v Zwolle getting moved.
Not happening this weekend presumably because Ajax are in the cup final on Sunday and I doubt that could be moved, ahead of playing Juventus next midweek. They have a rather packed fixture list because of all the competitions they're in so it isn't happening before the second leg against Juve either.
Agreed. Even if (highly unlikely) we don't make top 4, I still rather see our rivals get that much needed break. It's a great advertisement for the PL (once City don't win it).
they have moved basically all upcoming Ajax games already since the draw, also already moved games with an eye on the semifinals. but as you say there's not much wiggle room anymore. For the Groningen and Vitesse games, the KNVB have said that the moves (moved forward by a day) were to make playing the games even possible at all, because they might have to move the De Graafschap game to Friday the 26th if Ajax has to play a semifinal on the 30th.
Basically the schedule you're looking at now is already the updated one
https://www.nu.nl/voetbal/5851014/knvb-wil-speelronde-33-eredivisie-verplaatsen-naar-15-mei.html
The Dutch FA just confirmed to move all Eredivisie games (round 33) from 28 april to 15 may to accommodate a longer resting period for Ajax's away leg @ Tottenham.
Thoughts?
The Dutch FA just confirmed to move all Eredivisie games (round 33) from 28 april to 15 may to accommodate a longer resting period for Ajax's away leg @ Tottenham.
Thoughts?
Think it's great. Maybe Ajax can use some of the CL money to compensate other clubs for extra costs though?
I like it. I imagine some wont like it, but smaller countries and clubs are happy and proud to help their teams. The mentality is different.
Dont be silly, Im the only Feyenoorder I know who isnt up in arms about the KNVB '''helping" Ajax. Fans are daft cnuts un small countries too
So Gameday 33 becomes Gameday 34? If it ifluences the title race that much, because they'll have a different opponent for their last game of the seaon now, I don't like it. It's one thing to accommodate within the same weekend, i.e. let Ajax and PSV play their games on Friday night, it's another thing to shift a whole Gameday for the entire league...
This is much better, they play Graafschap away now, which is where they fecked up the title on the last matchday 2 years ago, which in turn led to Ajax icon Sjaak Swart publicly wishing relegation on them. Causing quite some banter all around.
I meant on here from a more neutral perspective. That rival club fans dont like it is obvious. If the FA would do something similar for Liverpool, redcafe would go into meltdown.Dont be silly, Im the only Feyenoorder I know who isnt up in arms about the KNVB '''helping" Ajax. Fans are daft cnuts un small countries too
We play on Friday night before the Barcelona tie, but no idea if that was intentional since it was decided some time ago. We also played on Friday night in Soton before the first leg against Porto.
I'm sure the Dutch FA had their coefficient in mind when they made the decision.
Yeah they are saving the coefficient right now.
You're *not* up in arms???? What kind of fake fan are youDont be silly, Im the only Feyenoorder I know who isnt up in arms about the KNVB '''helping" Ajax. Fans are daft cnuts un small countries too
It's in everyone's interests for the smaller countries that one club does well. It's absolutely massive for the coefficient and benefits the league massively.
Not really everyone though. What does the bottom half of the league care if the champions qualify directly or have to play some qualifiers. Not like they share in the profits from the CL. Still in this case there was no choice. UEFA rules that there needs to be two full days between games and the way it was, there wasnt.
Actually, every team gets money from the European run. Some of it is divided across the league. Also, bottom half teams benefit from more Europa League places. Always a chance with more places that an underdog can make the places.
It is? Never heard that before..
Yeah a tiny percentage of it. Will try and find figures. I'm an Aberdeen fan and we got a little bit of money for Celtic making group stages in past.
Edit:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45978052
Might be a Scottish thing actually, unsure if other countries do this.
Ah okay, fair enough then. Still this is just a feck up by our FA in not taking the chance of a club making the semis into consideration before the start of the season.
Edited that post with a link.
In fairness, it is pretty unlikely for a Dutch side to make the Semi's in recent history. Won't be a problem in future I imagine.
I hope Im wrong, but I think that Ajax going this far is an incident and not the new norm. Our league just doesnt have the appeal for Ajax to retain great players to consistently challenge for theCL.
none of the comments so far have actually mentioned why this has had to happen
The UEFA requires a "full" 48 hour rest period (counted from 00:01 morning after a match basically) between matches. With the game scheduled on Sunday, and the CL on Tuesday night, this wasn't the case. That Saturday, however, is Kingsday in the Netherlands, the big national celebration and bank holiday and stuff so no matches can be played that day. Doetinchem (where De Graafschap are from) wouldn't allow a friday game either because the night before Kingsday is the biggest night out of the year for many/most, so police won't be able to handle both at the same time.
Because of this, there's literally no possible way to move the De Graafschap match. the KNVB sent a request to UEFA that Ajax be allowed to play both legs on Wednesdays instead of tuesday/Wednesday and this was refused.
so then there's only the option of postponing the De Graafschap - Ajax game but with Ajax playing the cup final the following Sunday, and CL again the next wednesday, they would have to play that one De Graafschap - Ajax days after the rest of the league had already finished meaning Ajax, fighting for the title, and De Graafschap, fighting for relegation, would know exactly what they did or did not need to achieve in that final game, which is a far more unfair situation towards the league's integrity as a whole.
So yeah, the only option really was to delay this, but now they also have to delay the play-offs because they squeezed everything so stupidly tight together to avoid a couple midweek matches earlier in this season half.
it's not to give Ajax rest before the Spurs match, it's so that Ajax' schedule can even meet the UEFA regulations in the first place
The UEFA requires a "full" 48 hour rest period (counted from 00:01 morning after a match basically) between matches. With the game scheduled on Sunday, and the CL on Tuesday night, this wasn't the case. That Saturday, however, is Kingsday in the Netherlands, the big national celebration and bank holiday and stuff so no matches can be played that day. Doetinchem (where De Graafschap are from) wouldn't allow a friday game either because the night before Kingsday is the biggest night out of the year for many/most, so police won't be able to handle both at the same time.
Because of this, there's literally no possible way to move the De Graafschap match. the KNVB sent a request to UEFA that Ajax be allowed to play both legs on Wednesdays instead of tuesday/Wednesday and this was refused.
so then there's only the option of postponing the De Graafschap - Ajax game but with Ajax playing the cup final the following Sunday, and CL again the next wednesday, they would have to play that one De Graafschap - Ajax days after the rest of the league had already finished meaning Ajax, fighting for the title, and De Graafschap, fighting for relegation, would know exactly what they did or did not need to achieve in that final game, which is a far more unfair situation towards the league's integrity as a whole.
So yeah, the only option really was to delay this, but now they also have to delay the play-offs because they squeezed everything so stupidly tight together to avoid a couple midweek matches earlier in this season half.
it's not to give Ajax rest before the Spurs match, it's so that Ajax' schedule can even meet the UEFA regulations in the first place
I actually did mention that
though in far less detail admittedly.Now that it affects us, I AM OUTRAGED about this.
No, it makes sense though to be honest, even before the very comprehensive explanation from @Ajaxsuarez above.
No, it makes sense though to be honest, even before the very comprehensive explanation from @Ajaxsuarez above.
Yeah, it is completely the fault of the KNVB to not take into account CL matches. It is a cup and therefore to be treated as a potential event for all teams involved. Even if they have to get through qualifiers first.
The KNVB had ample chances to correct this mistake even after Ajax went through to the knock-out phase. But they took no action till they absolutely had to. Probably because it would have cost them potentially needless work.
Regardless, when you get thrown out the domestic cup, on any amateur or professional level, your schedule will still acknowledge and reflect that you could have played a match in that cup that day.
The KNVB has been sleeping, making assumptions and been lazy: absolutely dreadful preparation. I’m happy all teams have agreed to the move, though I doubt they had a real choice or are happy to change the date, particularly to a wednesday for a final round. Championship celebrations will be somewhat weirdly times too in that respect.
The KNVB had ample chances to correct this mistake even after Ajax went through to the knock-out phase. But they took no action till they absolutely had to. Probably because it would have cost them potentially needless work.
Regardless, when you get thrown out the domestic cup, on any amateur or professional level, your schedule will still acknowledge and reflect that you could have played a match in that cup that day.
The KNVB has been sleeping, making assumptions and been lazy: absolutely dreadful preparation. I’m happy all teams have agreed to the move, though I doubt they had a real choice or are happy to change the date, particularly to a wednesday for a final round. Championship celebrations will be somewhat weirdly times too in that respect.