Dormant for a few months, the debate on the format of the championship is waking up. The formula that we still know this season is supposed to stop at the end of 2022-23, to return to a D1A at 16, with playoffs 1 to six, as before. Three teams are therefore supposed to go down in May 2023. A subject of terror for many circle presidents accustomed to the right column of the ranking who know that the D1B can be a dead end.
This is why informal discussions have intensified between members of K13 (the D1A clubs that are not in the G5) and D1B. Already extended for a year when it was supposed to end this season, the 18-member model receives the majority of votes from these clubs when a mini-referendum is organized, which they have recently done. And too bad for the studies recently commissioned which advocate a more restricted elite.
But this camp knows that it will not alone achieve the two-thirds majority of the votes necessary to vote to maintain the 18. Discussions with members of the G5 favorable to the BeNeLeague have therefore led all of them to draw up a compromise at the Belgian, a preliminary draft of what our D1A could be at the end of this TV contract, in 2025: a championship at 18 with a classic one-way phase of 17 days, then BeNeLeague playoffs for the first six, which would cross the best six of Eredivisie. The other 12? They would play a second round between them to avoid relegation and for the last European ticket.
Will the Netherlands be convinced by the formula? It is to be seen, especially since there are still a lot of details to be settled. But the “little ones” are ready to give an agreement in principle on this project, in exchange for maintaining the D1 at 18. “All this is a big negotiation… even a form of blackmail”summarizes this leader of D1A.
The subject will inevitably be on the table of the general assembly scheduled for March 28. And the pressure will mount.
