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The Eredivisie (Dutch pronunciation: ; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division"), also known as VriendenLoterij Eredivisie for sponsorship reasons, 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 of professional football in the Netherlands. As of the 2024–25 season, it is ranked the seventh-best league in Europe by UEFA. The Eredivisie consists of 18 clubs. Each club meets every other club twice during the season, once at home and once away. At the end of each season, the two clubs at the bottom are relegated to the second level of the Dutch league system, the Eerste Divisie (First Division), while the champion and runner-up of the Eerste Divisie are automatically promoted to the Eredivisie. The club finishing third from the bottom of the Eredivisie goes to separate promotion/relegation play-offs with six high-placed clubs from the Eerste Divisie. The winner of the Eredivisie claims the Dutch national championship. Ajax have won the most titles with 36. PSV Eindhoven are next with 27, and Feyenoord follow with 16. Since 1965, these three clubs have won all but three Eredivisie titles (the 1981 and 2009 titles went to AZ and Twente won in 2010). Ajax, PSV, and Feyenoord are known as the "Big Three" or "Traditional Top Three" of Dutch football. They are the only clubs in their current form to have never been relegated out of the Eredivisie. A fourth club, Utrecht, is the product of a 1970 merger between three of that city's clubs, one of which, VV DOS, had also never been relegated out of the Eredivisie. From 1990 to 1999, the official name of the league was PTT Telecompetitie (after the sponsor, PTT Telecom), which was changed to KPN Telecompetitie (because PTT Telecom changed its name to KPN Telecom) 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 Vriendenloterij (lottery), but for legal reasons its name could not be attached to the league (the Dutch government was against the name, because the Eredivisie would, after Holland Casino's sponsorship, yet again be sponsored by a company providing games of chance). From the 2025–2026 season the eredivisie will be rebranded to VriendenLoterij Eredivisie. In August 2012, it was made public that tycoon Rupert Murdoch had secured the rights to the Eredivisie for 12 years at a cost of €1 billion, beginning in the 2013–14 season. Within this deal, the five largest Eredivisie clubs were to receive €5 million per season. In 2020, the Eredivisie was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.