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's national teams.
For three seasons in the 2010s, the KNVB and
its Belgian counterpart operated a joint top-level women's league, the
BeNe League, until the two countries dissolved the league after the 2014–15 season and re-established their own top-level leagues. The KNVB is based in the central municipality of
Zeist. With over 1.2 million members, the KNVB is the single largest sports association in the Netherlands.
History
In 1889, the Nederlandse Voetbal en Athletiek Bond was founded. Due to certain disagreements, several football clubs ended their association with it and joined together to form Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond (KNVB) which was later renamed to its present name.
It was one of the founding members of
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...
in 1904 and one of the first non-British football associations in Europe.
The first Dutch football club was formed in 1879 in
Haarlem
Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...
.
The
Netherlands Football League Championship had already existed unofficially for a decade when the association was founded. The KNVB strongly disapproved of the professionalism of football in 1909. It said that "it will protest against it by all means necessary."
In 2012, the KNVB launched an 11-point action plan, called 'Football for everyone' to promote gay football players in
coming out
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...
. It released a 30-second video named 'Gay? It doesn't matter'; prepared by broadcaster BNN. The video was also broadcast during the Dutch national football teams World Cup qualifier match against
Andorra held in October 2012.
During the
2014 FIFA World Cup, it collaborated with Royal Philips to open six football clinics across Brazil. Bert van Oostveen is the current Secretary-General of KNVB.
Management
Current sponsorships
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Adecco
*
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...
*
Heineken
*
ING Group
*
KPN
*
Nike
*
PricewaterhouseCoopers
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Staatsloterij
*
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...
See also
*
Netherlands men's national football team
*
Netherlands women's national football team
References
External links
*
KNVB.com – official website in EnglishOnsOranje.nl – website of the Netherlands national football team
Netherlands National Football Team Historyat VoetbalStats.nl
at FIFA site
{{Use dmy dates, date=January 2021
Dutch
Football in the Netherlands
Football
Organisations based in the Netherlands with royal patronage
1889 establishments in the Netherlands
Sports organizations established in 1889
Organisations based in Utrecht (province)
Sport in Zeist
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...