The Eredivisie is the highest football league in the Netherlands. Eredivisie was founded in 1956 two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands.
The top division consists of 18 clubs. Each club faces every other club twice during the season. At the end of each season, the bottom club is automatically relegated to the second level of the Dutch league system, the Eerste Divisie (First Division), with the champion of the Eerste Divisie automatically promoted to the Eredivisie. The next two clubs from the bottom of the Eredivisie go to separate promotion/relegation playoffs. The playoffs are played in two groups. Each group has one Eredivisie club and three high-placed clubs from the Eerste Divisie. In both promotion/relegation playoff groups, each club plays a home-and-away series with the other clubs. The winner of each playoff group plays in the following season's Eredivisie, with the other teams going to the Eerste Divisie.
The winner of the Eredivisie claims the Dutch national championship. AFC Ajax has won the most titles, 22 (30 national titles).
From 1990 to 1999, the official name of the league was PTT Telecompetitie (after the sponsor, PTT Telecom), which was changed to KPN Telecompetitie in 1999 and to KPN Eredivisie in 2000. From 2002 to 2005, the league was called the Holland Casino Eredivisie. Since the 2005-06 season, the league has been sponsored by the Sponsorloterij lottery, but for legal reasons, its name is not attached to the league.
The Eredivisie 2011/2012 will end in June 2012. AFC Ajax is the defending champions after winning Eredivisie 2010/2011.
Who wins Eredivisie 2011/2012?