Fortuna Sittard

Hi!

I started a new game with Go Ahead Eagles in Dutch 2nd league. I just got news saying that Fortuna Sittard secured themselves a playoff spot after about 9 weeks in the first season. I searched for it in the forum and real news but could not find anything about it. Really interesting and they lie at about 7th in the table and have PL in front of their team name in league table.

In the 2nd League in Holland they work with a period system next to the regular league. A season is split into 4 periods the winner of where each period also qualifies for promotion playoffs. You can check the period table by clicking the ''stage" button in the upper right side of the league table screen

The Eerstedivisie is broken up into a number of periods. The winner of each period wins an automatic playoff place, unless they win the division and get automatically promoted, won a previous period, or fail guarantee other criteria (I believe there are stadium requirements for Eredivisie). If you go to the league table and look up the stages button you'll see the periods.

Wikipedia has the full promotion rules here:

At the end of each season, the champion of the Eerste Divisie is automatically promoted to the Eredivisie. Eight other clubs enter the Nacompetitie, a promotion/relegation playoff that includes the 16th- and 17th-place clubs in the Eredivisie. The following teams qualify for the Nacompetitie:

* The club with the best record in the "first period" of the season (after 8 rounds).

* The club with the best record in the "second period" of the season (rounds 9–16).

* The club with the best record in the "third period" of the season (rounds 17–24).

* The club with the best record in the "fourth period" of the season (rounds 25–32).

* The four remaining spots are filled at the season's end by the highest-placed clubs that have not already earned automatic promotion or qualified for the Nacompetitie.

If the club that wins a period has qualified for the Nacompetitie by winning a previous period, its place is filled by the next-best club in that period that has not already qualified. Usually, the clubs that qualify for the Nacompetitie turn out to be the 2nd- through 9th-placed clubs in the final table. Clubs in the Nacompetitie face each other in a knock-out system with the numbers 16 and 17 of the Eredivisie for two places in next season's Eredivisie.

Link here.

That's very interesting. Everyday you learn something inside football, lol. Thank you guys for your responses. I haven't noticed the periods before.

Cheers

woah, crazy dutch rules, I can guess what they were up to when they thought up that.

i got to be honest, i had no idea about these rules and is now really tempted to give that league a go! can not wait!

Even though this rule is strange, use it to your advantage if possible. When I was managing FC Eindhoven I finished 4th from bottom but I beat all the teams in the playoff. Luckily Veendam took care of Utrecht and relegated them so I just had to beat them over two legs which I barely did with a spot kick in the 79th minute.

I got promoted (with Fortuna Sittard, actually) through the play-offs but I thought I'd lost on away goals. It turned out there was a deciding third match instead. Weird.

I got promoted (with Fortuna Sittard, actually) through the play-offs but I thought I'd lost on away goals. It turned out there was a deciding third match instead. Weird.

That's also at bit weird, yes. The team with the most away goals plays the third match at home if I recall correctly.

That is pretty cool. Seems like as long as you are on form during the 'right' period, it doesn't matter how you fare the rest of the season.