The situation involves Den Bosch, in the qualifying round for the promotion play=offs to the Eredivisie, in the Netherlands.
When regulations and mathematics allow it, a team may have more to gain… if they lose on the last matchday. This is the situation for Den Bosch in the Dutch Second Division: heading into the 38th and final matchday, which takes place on Friday (7 pm), a defeat at home against ADO Den Haag could guarantee them access to the promotion play-offs, something that a draw or a win might not achieve.
To understand this scenario, it is important to understand the rules regarding direct promotion and access to the promotion play=offs in the Dutch Second Division.
The top two teams in the championship secure direct promotion to the Eredivisie, and those have already been determined: ADO Den Haag is in the lead and has already won the title, with 86 points. SC Cambuur is second with 75 points and has also already secured promotion.
Then, there are six clubs that will compete in a promotion play-off. And this is where Den Bosch comes in, in a situation where they have more to gain by losing against ADO Den Haag. This is because the Dutch Second Division is divided into four periods: the first period consists of the first ten matchdays, the second the following ten matchdays, and then there are the third and fourth periods, each of nine matchdays. Essentially, matchdays 1 to 10 is the first period, matchdays 11 to 20 the second, matchdays 21 to 29 the third, and matchdays 30 to 38 the fourth. And, in the play-off, the winners of each of these four periods participate, or the clubs with the best overall ranking in the 38 matchdays that did not win any of those periods.
Well, the first two periods were won by ADO Den Haag and the third by Cambuur, both already directly promoted. And the fourth and final period is led by Willem II (19 points), followed by ADO Den Haag (18) and, in third place, is Vitesse (17 points), which is the biggest threat to Den Bosch. Why? That’s what we’ll explain next.
At this point, and as a result of the outcome of the first three periods, Willem II (third in the overall standings with 65 points), De Graafschap (fourth with 63), Almere City (fifth with 58), RKC Waalwijk (seventh with 55) and Roda (eighth with 55) have already secured access to the play-offs, as they are the highest-ranked teams that did not win any of the three periods already completed. In between, there is PSV Eindhoven’s B team (Jong PSV), which is sixth with 56 points, but does not count towards promotion.
So, what about the other playoff spot? Den Bosch has already secured ninth place in the overall standings with 51 points, but Vitesse (11th with 44 points) is also in the fight in the fourth quarter of the championship. We recall that they are in third place with 17 points, behind Willem II (19 points and already guaranteed a playoff spot) and ADO Den Haag (18 points, champions and already promoted). Therefore, if Vitesse finishes in one of the top two places in the fourth quarter, due to the conditions of ADO Den Haag and Willem II, they will inherit the playoff spot.
In the final round, as we have already mentioned, Den Bosch hosts the already crowned champion ADO Den Haag, while Vitesse visits the already promoted Cambuur. The leader of the fourth quarter, Willem II, visits Dordrecht. Therefore, a victory for ADO Den Haag against Den Bosch would be beneficial for them, because it would keep Vitesse consistently below ADO Den Haag in the fourth quarter. Furthermore, if Willem II wins against Dordrecht, it also prevents Vitesse from overtaking them in the fourth quarter standings and puts Den Bosch in the play-offs.
With the scenarios presented, Friday night promises to be exciting.
The Federation reacts and says what it expects.
Faced with this unusual scenario, a source from the Dutch federation (KNVB) stated that they did not fear any kind of intentional result, hoping for sporting fairness and competition for victory.
We expect that everyone participating in a game wants to win that game. Furthermore, we cannot anticipate this situation,” said a source from the KNVB, quoted by the portal ad.nl.