The BeNe League was the highest women's

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

league in Belgium and the Netherlands. To increase competitiveness in their national leagues, the BeNe League was a joint cooperation between the

Royal Belgian Football Association The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA; ; ; ) is the governing body of football in Belgium. It was a founding member of FIFA in 1904 and UEFA in 1954 and was based in Brussels, not far from the King Baudouin Stadium. Since October 2021, the ...

and the

Royal Dutch Football Association The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues (Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch men's and women ...

. Its first season was played in 2012–13 following the successful cooperation with the one match

BeNe Super Cup The BeNe Super Cup was a women's association football, women's football competition between the holders of the Dutch Eredivisie (women), Vrouwen Eredivisie and the Belgian Women's First Division. It was played two times. Its inaugural edition took ...

, that paired both countries' national champions. The competition qualified the highest-placed Belgian and Dutch teams to the

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

. After three seasons the league was discontinued and both nations returned to their own top-level leagues.

History

First talks of the league began in 2011. As a try-out of cooperation in 2011 the

was established. The KBVB/URBSFA approved the league on 10 December 2011. The

KNVB The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues (Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch Netherlands nati ...

approved the league on 13 February 2012.

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

then eventually gave the green light for the 2012–13 season on 23 March 2012 after its meeting of its executive committee in Istanbul. There were some problems in the second season, with two teams not returning for the season, one going bankrupt during the season and one team folding after the season for financial reasons. Following the third season, Belgium and the Netherlands will have their own top-level league again. The BeNe League initiative was ended because Dutch clubs and the Dutch FA failed to come to an agreement regarding the clubs' financial participation for the following seasons.

Champions

Twente won both seasons. Due to the different stages in the first season there was no official top scorer award given.

Format

Season 2012–13

The League is divided in two stages. In the first stage eight Dutch and eight Belgian teams will play a national League qualifying for the second stage. The second stage is divided in the Women's BeNe League A & B.

BeNe League Orange & Red

The eight Dutch and eight Belgian teams will play a national double round-robin, thus each team playing 14 matches. The number 1 until 4 qualify for the BeNe League A, the numbers 5 until 8 qualify for the BeNe League B.

BeNe League A & B

The league consists of two Leagues (A & B) in which 16 teams take part. The top four teams of each country will advance to the BeNe League A, with the bottom four teams playing the BeNe League B. Both groups then will play another double round-robin for 14 additional matches. After that the winning team in League A is the BeNe League champion. The highest placed Belgian and Dutch team will qualify to the

. The lowest Belgium team will relegate to the Second Division.

Season 2013–14

Originally, the eight Dutch and eight Belgian teams were to play in a single division in which they would play each other twice, resulting in each team playing 30 matches. However, Belgian side K. St-Truidense VV withdrew from the league before the start of the season, which meant that the season would start with 15 teams. Dutch side FC Utrecht went bankrupt on 21 January 2014 and played their final match three days later; the league soon decreed that all matches played by Utrecht would be deleted from the season table. Since the home-and-away schedule was retained, all 14 remaining teams eventually played 26 matches that counted toward the league standings. In addition to the above clubs,

Royal Antwerp Royal Antwerp Football Club, often referred to as Royal Antwerp or simply Antwerp, is a Belgian football club based in the city of Antwerp. Founded around 1880 as ''Antwerp Cricket Club'' by English students residing in Antwerp, 15 years before ...

announced it would leave the league for financial reasons upon the completion of the 2013–14 season.

References

External links

Official siteNews
at vrouwenvoetbalnederland.nl {{Football in the Netherlands Women's football leagues in the Netherlands Women's football leagues in Belgium Multi-national association football leagues in Europe Defunct top level women's association football leagues in Europe Benelux 2012 establishments in Europe 2015 disestablishments in Europe Sports leagues disestablished in 2015 Sports leagues established in 2012