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The Royal Dutch Football Association (Template:Langx, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}; KNVB {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) 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.<ref name="Philips">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
HistoryEdit
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.<ref name="HamilChadwick2010">Template:Cite book</ref> It was one of the founding members of FIFA in 1904 and one of the first non-British football associations in Europe.<ref name="Laine">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Self-published inline The first Dutch football club was formed in 1879 in Haarlem.<ref name="NaurightParrish2012">Template:Cite book</ref> 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."<ref name="Uden2004">Template:Cite book</ref> In 2012, the KNVB launched an 11-point action plan, called 'Football for everyone' to promote gay football players in coming out. 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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.<ref name="Philips" />
ManagementEdit
Current sponsorshipsEdit
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Template:Official website Template:In lang
- KNVB.com – official website in English
- OnsOranje.nl – website of the Netherlands national football team Template:In lang
- Netherlands National Football Team History at VoetbalStats.nl Template:In lang
- Netherlands at FIFA site
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