Dutch court ruling averts Eredivisie chaos, backs Dutch FA on ineligible player match

UTRECHT, Netherlands — A court ruling Monday seemed to put to bed the possibility of total chaos in the Dutch soccer league, where ineligible players played in 133 matches this season according to soccer officials.

The preliminary relief judge of the district court of central Netherlands ruled that the Dutch FA competition board was entitled to decide that a match between Go Ahead Eagles and NAC Breda did not need to be replayed, even though one of the players taking part was ineligible.

NAC had requested the competition board to declare its 6-0 defeat on March 15 invalid as Go Ahead Eagles defender Dean James was ineligible to play because he no longer held Dutch nationality. James had taken up Indonesian citizenship to play for the Asian country, meaning he surrendered his Dutch citizenship and required a work permit to play in the league.

The court said that the Dutch FA has the discretionary power to decide whether or not a match is declared invalid, and that the decision was taken with sufficient care.

Martine Erich, a press judge with the court in Utrecht, told The Associated Press the ruling means that no games will have to be played again.

“This case was only about this one game, but no new cases have been registered yet, so I think the competition will just stay as it is and that the games will not be played again,” she said.

PSV Eindhoven was crowned Eredivisie champion for a third straight year and 27th time overall last month.

NAC said in a message on its website that it would study the decision and discuss it with club advisers before commenting. NAC’s legal battle was also against relegation. The team from Breda is currently 17th in the 18-team Eredivisie and facing automatic relegation to the second tier.