Holland. Ranked 15th. The Dutch were again in everybody’s mind and mouth, but the domestic picture was unchanged: two teams domineering and this season fighting between themselves for the title, but at the end the old winner was victorious again.
Second Division. No changes – 19 teams participated, the top 2 were directly promoted up and the ‘period’ winners had their ply-offs for the last promotion.
FC Wageningen – last with 18 points.
FC Emmen – 18th with 20 points.
RBC – 17th with 21 points.
Helmond Sport, here facing Cruijff’s Barcelona – 16th with 24 points.
DS’79 (Dordrecht) – 15th with 28 points.
Telstar – 14th with 29 points.
FC Eindhoven with Rene van de Kerkhof (top row, last at the right) – 13th with 29 points.
SC Heracles’74 – 12th with 34 points.
SC Cambuur – 11th with 34 points.
Go Ahead Eagles – 10th with 34 points. As a ‘period champions’ they had a chance to get promoted -the lowest-placed candidate.
De Graafschap -9th with 36 points.
SVV -8th with 37 points.
NAC Breda – 7th with 43 points.
SC Heerenveen – 6th with 46 points. As ‘period winner’ going to the promotion play-offs.
AZ’67 – 5th with 47 points.
NEC – 4th with 48 points. A ‘period winner’ too, so going to the promotion play-offs.
Excelsior – 3rd with 49 points and going to the promotion play-offs as a ‘period winner’.
FC Den Haag -2nd with 53 points and directly promoted.
Vitesse (Arnhem) clinched the title, beating FC Den Haag by a single point. 23 wins, 6 ties, 5 losses, 61-20 goal-difference, 54 points. Well done and happy return to top flight.
The Promotion play-off between the quarterly champions – or ‘period winners’.
Excelsior, the best among them in the regular season, this time was the worst – 4th with 1 point.
Go Ahead Eagles – 3rd with 5 points.
SC Heerenveen – 2nd with 8 points. Finished with best goal-difference, but… second.
NEC Nijmegen won the tournament with 4 wins, 2 ties, 0 losses, 9-3 goal-difference and 10 points. They got the last promotion and went up to play in the top league next season.