Another joint Belgian/Dutch league?

The Belgians and Dutch are no strangers to sharing a league and correcting a joint league and now the talks are back on after three seasons of working without each other. On the Belgian side of things, it may not be because a lack of clubs, in fact, the Belgian Elite League has more clubs in it, a total of six compared to five for the Dutch Eredivisie. According to RBIHF President Pascal Nuchelmans the problem is simply Belgium is too small a country to develop the sport at a higher level. After the break up of the North Sea Cup, the RBIHF reformed the Belgian League, in its place came the Elite League, a 10 club league. Unfortunately after the first season, the league was reduced down to 7 clubs after Eeklo was forced to drop out because their ice rink was being converted into a karting track while Gullegem and Charleroi dropped out for unknown (likely financial) reasons. This season, the third, Herentals had removed their second until however the Belgian Cup stayed at seven clubs since Gullegem has returned to test the waters in their possible return to the league. Despite the number of clubs in Belgium dropping, the talent of the league was still there and has seen some very entertaining matches and for the past two seasons, the Belgian Cup Final has been broadcasted on National TV while various matches throughout the season have been on youtube. The upcoming play-offs are to be broadcasted on Sport 10.

The Eredivisie has been heading in the opposite direction and over the summer was questions if the league would even be played this season after numerous clubs failed to confirm their status in the league. The now five club league after Dordrecht Lions spent just a single season in the league but were forced to return to Eerste divisie due to financial problems and historic club HYS The Hague due to both financial problems and rink issues. During the summer, both Eindhoven Kemphanen and Eaters Limburg failed to give their answer to the Federation as they struggled with finding sponsors and money but ultimately joined. The problems over the summer grew the frustration with league power houses Flyers Heerenveen and Trappers Tilburg who started to explore their options in the German third Division, Oberliga. Tilburg ended up coming the closest to jumping ship this season as they filed their paperwork with the LEV on time but didnt get permission from the NIJB while Heerenveen said they would go but where denied, not only because of the NIJB, but because they didnt file their paperwork on time. 

Neither Heerenveen or Tilburg used the Oberliga as a safty net, instead both really want to go there and in February was in attendance of the Oberliga meetings. The NIJB has this time basically signed off on the two top clubs leaving and it will see the Eredivise drop to just three clubs, two of which are Dutch. So this brings up the question, what to do now? Merge with the Belgians to form a brand new top league in the low countries.

The idea on the table at the moment is to see the 10 current clubs from the Dutch Eerste divisie, 6 clubs from the Elite League and remaining 3 clubs from the Eredivise to form a 19 club league. The Eerste divisie and Elite League clubs are no strangers, they usually play each other in warm up matches. What will be discussed in the coming weeks would be how many matches this new league will have, what should the number of imports be and many other topics.

Tweets by @eurohockey