The Eredivisie 2008–09 is the 53rd season of

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

since its establishment in 1955. PSV were the reigning champions. The season began on 29 August 2008 with a game between Vitesse Arnhem and

FC Groningen Football Club Groningen () is a Dutch professional association football club based in Groningen, province of Groningen. Founded on 16 June 1971 as the successor of GVAV, the team compete in the Eredivisie, the highest tier of Dutch football. G ...

and ended on 10 May 2009. A total of 18 teams take part in the league, consisting of 16 who competed in the previous season and two promoted from the

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...

. The teams promoted from the

at the end of the previous season were champions FC Volendam, and play-off winners ADO Den Haag. AZ clinched their second title, their first coming in 1981.

Overview

League table

Results

Top goalscorers

Last updated: 11 May 2009
Source
ESPN Top Scorers
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Play-offs

European competition (best of 3)

Contrary to the play-offs of previous years, only teams placed 6th through 9th compete in a play-off tournament for one spot in the

second qualifying round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

of the UEFA Europa League 2009–10.

Semi-finals

Final

Relegation

The 16th and 17th placed teams, along with the teams from

, participate in a play-off for two spots in 2009–10 Eredivisie.

Round 1

Round 2 (best of 3)

Round 3 (best of 3)

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional football club based in Waalwijk, that is currently competing in the Eredivisie. Its name is derived from 'Rooms Katholieke Combinatie' ('Roman Catholic Combination' in Dutch) and was established as a merger ...

and

Roda JC Sportvereniging Roda Juliana Combinatie Kerkrade (; Ripuarian: ), also known as Roda JC Kerkrade () or commonly Roda JC or Roda, is a Dutch professional football club based in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Roda JC Kerkrade plays in the Eerste Divisi ...

will play in Eredivisie 2009–10.

Facts and statistics

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

lost the opening match 2–1 away at Willem II. This was Ajax' first opening round defeat since the 1988–89 season. * Ajax and

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

both lost their opening matches. The last times this happened was in the 1965–66 season. * ADO Den Haag topped the league table after two matches. The last time ADO was in first place was on 16 January 1971. * NAC Breda led the Eredivisie after round six. This was the first time in club history that NAC were in first place of the Eredivisie. * A record 6,067,288 spectators passed through the turnstiles, an average of 19,827 per match.

Television rights

The Dutch public broadcaster NOS broadcast the match highlights after beating rival broadcaster RTL for the contract. The new

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

channel

Eredivisie Live Fox Sports Eredivisie was a Dutch premium television service owned by Eredivisie Media & Marketing CV in which Fox Networks Group Benelux (part of Fox) has 51% share. The football clubs (Eredivisie CV) together with Endemol own 49%. There were 3 c ...

broadcast the live matches. In Australia the Eredivisie was broadcast live and exclusive by

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2008-09 Eredivisie Eredivisie seasons

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...