Holland. Interesting season – not that much of what happened on the pitch, but around it. It was the last season Cruijff played and, typically, he was controversial to the end. Apart from that, it was the same dog fight between Feyenoord, Ajax, and PSV Eindhoven.
Second Division. The top two teams directly promoted and 4 teams competed for the 3rd promotion after the end of season. No relegation as such, but there was something like promotion from the lower ranks of Dutch football – it was not exactly clear how and why, but there was newly promoted team playing this season – RBC Roosendaal. Technically, that meant only one thing: the club got professional status, for bellow Second Division was the vast seas of amateur football. There was no connection between professional and amateur football, as a rule, but… times were changing. And maintaining professional status was a difficult task – there have been many changes, amalgamations, bankruptcies and near bankruptcies in the past. So, new member of the risky professional football was established – the newcomers did more or less well: 14th in the league of 17 teams this season. But second division leaves little memories, so here will be just a brief glance:
FC Den Haag was 7th with 35 points.
De Graafschap – 6th with 36 points.
Telstar – 5th with 37 points.
Spcl. Cambuur – 4th with 38 points.
NAC Breda – 3rd with 41 points. None of those teams was even near direct promotion.
Twente – 2nd with 47 points. Fought for the first place and lost it, but did not matter: most important was the quick return to top flight and the boys did it. Third row from left: Henk Eysink(physio), Martin Koopman, Billy Ashcroft, Andre van Gerven, Theo Snelders, Andre van Benthem, Evert Bleuming, Jan Steenbeeke(masseur).
Middle row: Epi Drost(assistant-coach), Tonnie Harleman, John Scheve, Jan Pouls, Fred Rutten, Jan Sorensen, Fritz Korbach(coach).
Front row: Michael Birkedal, Rini Plasmans, Martien Vreijsen, Rene Roord, Jan van Gestel.
Far cry from the team of the mid-70s, but too good to rot in second division.
MVV Maasticht – 1st with 48 points. At last. MVV spent some years in second division, which was hardly acceptable. At last they got promoted and it did not hurt to win Second Division too.
So, MVV Maastricht and Twente earned direct promotion and 4 teams moved to the tournament for the third spot – as ever, those 4 were selected on partial merit: the season was divided into 4 sections and the best team of each went to the play-off. NAC Breda, NEC Nijmegen, VVV Venlo, and De Graafschap. The outcome was logical: NAC Breda was 3rd in the final table, thus showing good form at the end of the year and near the promotional tournament. The others meantime dropped down – VVV Venlo finished 10th in the championship. NAC Breda won the tournament quite easily and was the 3rd promoted team his year.