Not that Second Division was strong – the numbers of participants fluctuated a bit, but it was not due to relegation, but largely economic reasons changed the numbers: occasionally a club was no longer able to keep professional team and dropped out of the league; occasionally a club decided to try professionalism, applied for league membership, and, if meeting the requirements, was accepted. The quality in Second Division was not great and the Dutch Federation knew that all too well, so there was elaborated promotional system – the second league champion were directly promoted, the second spot was decided by a play-off tournament between the winners of four segments of the regular championship. Which meant that the second in the final table may not even appear in this final tournament, but what the heck: there was no great difference between the stronger second division teams. As for relegation, nobody had to worry about such misfortune as long as they had money. So Heracles finished last – 19th – this year, but it did not matter. More interesting was the plunge FC Amsterdam took: they finished 16th, obviously in permanent crisis. It was clear that even the biggest Dutch cities were unable to keep two decent clubs – Ajax was practically the maximum for Amsterdam and Feyenoord – for Rotterdam. There was hardly any second division club coming close to the most first division members: even the strongest were hardly able to last for long among the best. Nothing new… and because of that Second Division would be mentioned only in terms of curiosities.
Just because they had relatively stronger past, Telstar should have been among the favourites. By past and presence are different things: Telstar already settled for run-of-the-mill second division football and finished 11th.
FC Volendam finished 3rd.
Third row, from left: Jaap Braan, Bas du Mortier, Jos Cornelisse, Jaap Jonk, Marcel Boonstra, Frank Kramer, Leo Tholens (fysiotherapeut)
Middle row: Bruin Steur (trainer), Cees Molenaar, Dick Helling, Piet Koning, Dick de Boer, Cees Guyt, D. Maurer (trainer)
Sitting: René Tol, Cees Sul, Theo Mooyer, Klaas Tuyp, Frans Hoek, Cor Smit, Wim Tol, Wim Kwakman.
One of the teams, at least in theory, which should have been aiming at promotion. They finished high, but… did not even qualify for the promotional play-off.
Cambuur, 9th in the final table, perhaps illustrates the second division best:
It is their performance, not the players or the coach, but the exotic picture. May be there was light at the end of the tunnel, but the symbolism is lost. Bricks… Nice photography, though, and Dutch clubs had an interesting tradition going back to the early 1960s of making unusual team pictures.
Haarlem won the league. They had no rivals this season, finishing 8 points ahead of the second placed and were directly promoted. Well done, of course – and better things were to come. For the moment, the only second division team really improving.
The second promotional spot was decided by the play-off tournament. In another country such final would be unthinkable: the contenders were SC Heerenveen – 2nd, De Graafschap – 7th, FC Den Bosch – 6th, and DS’79 – 5th. Reason insists on easy win by Heerenveen, having strong season. Den Bosch, a former decent member of first division also would be considered as having a chance. But reason does not work very well in football – DS’79 finished last, Den Bosch was 3rd, Heerenveen – second, and De Graafschap won the play-offs by a single point.
Well done- the lowest among the competitors, according the final league table, were the best when mattered most. ‘Superboeren’ – ‘Super Peasants’ – were going to play first division football for a second time: they were promoted in 1973 for the first time, but did not last. Now they had to try again. Not bad for a relatively young club, founded in 1954 – especially if compared to ancient club like Be Quick.