Ajax Amsterdam is the biggest club in the Netherlands. The record champions is currently the only remaining Dutch team that’s still active in Europe. Ajax plays an away match against Real Madrid on 5 march in an attempt to overcome a 1-2 loss in the home match. 6 days before this second Champions League round of 16 match, the Amsterdam club plays a cup match against Feyenoord in Rotterdam. The Dutch FA decided to reschedule the Eredivisie match in between these matches, in order to give Ajax enough time to prepare for the match against Real Madrid. This decision caused a lot of fuzz in the Netherlands, since PSV decided to appeal against this decision.
Dutch football in Europe
There has been a meeting between the Dutch FA, Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord and the broadcasting company Fox Sports. All concerning parties agreed to help the teams in Europe to be well prepared for their European matches. This 2018-2019 season, was the first time the Eredivsie champions didn’t automatically qualified for the Champions League. 2017-2018 Eredivisie champion PSV, played CL qualification matches before the start of this season. The same rule will be applied for the 2019-2020 Champions League season. Thanks to Ajax’ good results in the Champions League tournament this season, the Netherlands passed several countries on the UEFA Ranking. Austria however is still able to pass the Netherlands. This will mean there is still no fixed Champions League ticket in the 2020-2021 season.
PSV’s complaints against Ajax Amsterdam
PSV believes Ajax will get an unfair advantage in the Eredivisie titlerace. PSV is currently 4 points ahead of Ajax, so if they will win every match from now on, they will be crowned champions of the Netherlands. Therefore it’s a bit strange that they react in this way. Rescheduling Ajax versus PEC Zwolle means Ajax will play 3 Eredivisie matches in one week later in March. This doesn’t really sound like an advantage in the Eredivisie. Therefore I really don’t get what PSV is talking about. If they would have performed a little bit better and tried to win some matches in the Champions League this season, they could have improved the Dutch ranking on the UEFA table. I do understand why PEC Zwolle is complaining, since it actually influences their schedule.