Royal Dutch Football Association

The Royal Dutch Football Association (Dutch: Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond [Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkoːnɪŋkləkə ˈneːdərˌlɑntsə ˈvudbɑlˌbɔnt]], or KNVB [ˌkaːʔɛnveːˈbeː]) is the governing body of football in 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 reestablished their own top-level leagues. The KNVB is based in the central municipality of Zeist. It is the single largest sports association in the Netherlands.

History

In 1889, the Nederlandschen Voetbal en Athlestischen Bond was founded. Due to certain disagreements several football clubs ended their association with it and together to form Koninklijke Belgische Voetbalbond (KBVB) which was later renamed to present name. It was one of the founding members of FIFA in 1904 and the first non-British football association in Europe. The first Dutch football club was formed in 1879 in Haarlem. The Netherlands Football League Championship had already existed for a decade unofficially when the association was founded. The KNVB strongly disapproved the professionalism of football in 1909. It said that "it will protest against it by all means necessary." In 2012 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's teams World Cup qualifier match against Andorra held in October 2012.