The 1969-70 KNVB Cup was the 53rd edition of the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

national

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

annual knockout tournament for the

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

. It began on 19 October 1969 and ended with the final on 27 May 1970. Eventual champions Ajax lost to

AZ '67 Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known internationally as AZ Alkmaar, or simply and most commonly as AZ () in the Netherlands, is a Dutch professional football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan district. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest ...

in the Third Round of the competition, however were placed into the Quarter Final as

lucky losers ''Lucky Losers'' is a 1950 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine starring The Bowery Boys. The film was released on May 14, 1950, by Monogram Pictures and is the eighteenth film in the series. It had the working title of ''High Stakes ...

. This lucky loser rule had been in use for multiple years due to the KNVB Cup only allowing professional clubs was immediately abolished due to the backlash. Defending champions

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

lost in the Second Round to GVAV-Rapiditas.

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

contested in the

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renamed the UEFA Cup Winne ...

, since Ajax were league champions of the 1969-70 Eredivisie, and would reach the semi finals. There were 53 teams competing in the KNVB Cup, with

getting a bye into the Second Round.

First Round

The matches of the first round were played on 19 August 1969. Cupholders

received a bye for this round. Of the Eredivisie sides in the First Round, 3 were eliminated,

SV SVV SV SVV, short for Sportvereniging Schiedamse Voetbal Verenigingen, is a Dutch football (soccer), football club from Schiedam. Founded in 1904, the club won the Dutch national football title in 1949. In 1991, the professional branch of SVV and n ...

NEC Nijmegen NEC Nijmegen (''Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie''), commonly known as NEC (), is a professional Dutch association football club based in Nijmegen. The club currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, following promotion ...

, and

Holland Sport Scheveningse Voetbal Vereniging Scheveningen is an association football club from Scheveningen, a district of The Hague, Netherlands. The club was founded 1 July 1919. It is currently playing in the Tweede Divisie, the third tier of football in ...

Second Round

Feyenoord, the reigning champions, after being given a bye to the second round, were defeated by GVAV-Rapiditas. AGOVV got a bye in the Second Round and skipped to the Third Round.

Third Round

There were only an irregular 14 teams in the Third Round, meaning to make up 8 teams for the Quarter Finals, one losing team would be selected as lucky loser to advance to the Quarter Final despite losing in the Third Round. This would be

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), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

. Out of the 14 teams, 11 were in the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

, 2 were in the

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

, and 1 was in the

Tweede Divisie Tweede Divisie (; ) is the highest amateur (and historically the lowest professional) football league in the Netherlands. It was established in 1956, together with the Eredivisie and the Eerste Divisie. Between 1956 and 1960 and between 1962 and 19 ...

, AGOVV, who had gotten a bye in the Second Round. Three of the seven matches would be determined by penalties.

Quarter Final

Out of the 8 reamining teams, 7 were from the

, while Elinkwijk was the only team remaining from the second tier. The Quarter Finals took place on the 22nd of April.

Semi Final

All 4 clubs that took part in the Semi Finals were in the

. Ajax and PSV Eindhoven advanced to the final after winning in the Semi Final. The Semi Finals, as usual, took place in neutral stadiums, although

ended up playing in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

in the

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports ...

, which Ajax used as their home ground for European matches.

Final

The 1970 KNVB Cup final took place between Ajax and PSV Eindhoven on the 27th of May, 1970. The match took place in a neutral ground, in

De Vliert

De Vliert () is a multi-use stadium in 's-Hertoge ...

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

, with an attendance of 30,000. The goals for Ajax came from

Piet Keizer Petrus Johannes "Piet" Keizer (14 June 1943 – 10 February 2017) was a Dutch professional footballer who played as a left winger. As part of the "Total Football" Ajax Amsterdam team of the 1960s and 1970s, Keizer was particularly notable durin ...

and

Johan Cruyff Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016), internationally known as Johan Cruyff (), was a Dutch professional Association football, football player and Manager (association football), manager. Regarded as one of the greatest ...

. The final took place after Ajax won the

1969–70 Eredivisie The Dutch Eredivisie in the 1969–70 season was contested by 18 teams. Ajax won the championship. Feyenoord won the European Cup and therefore also qualified for that tournament as defending champions. League standings Results See also * ...

, and this was their 5th Cup title. As Ajax had already won the title, PSV qualified for the

1970–71 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1970–71 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup football club tournament was won by Chelsea in a replay against Real Madrid. Defending champions Manchester City were eliminated by Chelsea in the semi-finals, only the second ever tie in the ...

References

Voetbal Archieven, KNVB Beker 1969/70
{{DEFAULTSORT:1969-70 KNVB Cup KNVB Cup seasons