2015–16 Eredivisie

This article is about the men's competition. For the women's competition, see 2015–16 Eredivisie (women).

The 2015–16 Eredivisie season was the 60th season of the Eredivisie since its establishment in 1955. Defending champions PSV retained their title.

Eredivisie

Season	2015–16
Dates	8 August 2015 – 8 May 2016
Champions	PSV (23rd title)
Relegated	Cambuur De Graafschap
Champions League	PSV Ajax
Europa League	Feyenoord AZ Heracles
Matches played	306
Goals scored	912 (2.98 per match)
Top goalscorer	Vincent Janssen (27 goals)
Biggest home win	Ajax 6–0 Roda JC (31 October 2015)
Biggest away win	Cambuur 0–6 PSV (12 September 2015)
Highest scoring	De Graafschap 3–6 PSV (31 October 2015) Heracles 3–6 AZ (13 February 2016)
Longest winning run	10 games[1] PSV
Longest unbeaten run	21 games[1] PSV
Longest winless run	15 games[1] Cambuur
Longest losing run	7 games[1] Cambuur Feyenoord
Highest attendance	51,875[1] Ajax 2–1 Feyenoord (7 February 2016)
Lowest attendance	3,394[1] Excelsior 2–2 AZ (15 August 2015)
Total attendance	5,929,439[1]
Average attendance	19,377[1]
← 2014–15 2016–17 →

Teams

A total of 18 teams took part in the league: the top 15 teams from the 2014–15 season, two promotion/relegation playoff winners and the 2014–15 Eerste Divisie champions.

NEC, the champion of the 2014–15 Eerste Divisie, and play-off winner Roda JC returned to the Eredivisie after just one season. De Graafschap, the other play-off winner, returned to the highest level for the first time since the 2011–12 season.

ADO

Ajax

AZ

Cambuur

De Graafschap

Rotterdam

Groningen

Heerenveen

Heracles

NEC

PEC

PSV

Roda JC

Twente

Utrecht

Vitesse

Willem II

Rotterdam teams

Excelsior
Feyenoord

Location of teams in Eredivisie 2015–16

Feyenoord

Excelsior

Rotterdam Eredivisie football clubs

Club	Location	Venue	Capacity
ADO Den Haag	The Hague	Kyocera Stadion	15,000
Ajax	Amsterdam	Amsterdam ArenA	53,490
AZ	Alkmaar	AFAS Stadion	17,023
Cambuur	Leeuwarden	Cambuur Stadion	10,500
De Graafschap	Doetinchem	De Vijverberg	12,600
Excelsior	Rotterdam	Stadion Woudestein	3,531
Feyenoord	Rotterdam	De Kuip	51,177
Groningen	Groningen	Euroborg	22,550
Heerenveen	Heerenveen	Abe Lenstra Stadion	26,100
Heracles	Almelo	Polman Stadion	13,500
NEC	Nijmegen	Stadion de Goffert	12,500
PEC Zwolle	Zwolle	IJsseldelta Stadion	12,500
PSV	Eindhoven	Philips Stadion	35,000
Roda JC	Kerkrade	Parkstad Limburg Stadion	19,979
Twente	Enschede	De Grolsch Veste	30,205
Utrecht	Utrecht	Stadion Galgenwaard	23,750
Vitesse	Arnhem	GelreDome	25,500
Willem II	Tilburg	Koning Willem II Stadion	14,500

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
ADO Den Haag	Henk Fraser	Erreà	Basic-Fit Fitness
Ajax	Frank de Boer	Adidas	Ziggo
AZ	John van den Brom	Under Armour	AFAS software
Cambuur	Marcel Keizer	Quick	Bouwgroep Dijkstra Draisma
De Graafschap	Jan Vreman	Quick	ATAG
Excelsior	Alfons Groenendijk	Quick	DSW Zorgverzekeraar
Feyenoord	Giovanni van Bronckhorst	Adidas	Opel
Groningen	Erwin van de Looi	Robey	Essent
Heerenveen	Foppe de Haan	Jako	Univé
Heracles	John Stegeman	Acerbis	TenCate
NEC	Ernest Faber	Patrick	Scholten Awater
PEC Zwolle	Ron Jans	Robey	Molecaten
PSV	Phillip Cocu	Umbro	Philips
Roda JC	Darije Kalezić	Robey	KLG
Twente	René Hake	Nike	Webprint.nl
Utrecht	Erik ten Hag	Hummel	Zorg van de Zaak
Vitesse	Rob Maas	Macron	Truphone
Willem II	Jurgen Streppel	Robey	Tricorp

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Utrecht	Rob Alflen	End of contract	1 July 2015[2]	Pre-season	Erik ten Hag	1 July 2015[3]
NEC	Ruud Brood	Mutual consent	1 July 2015[4]		Ernest Faber	1 July 2015[5]
Excelsior	Marinus Dijkhuizen	Signed by Brentford	1 July 2015[6]		Alfons Groenendijk	1 July 2015[7]
Roda JC	Rick Plum	End of interim spell	1 July 2015		Darije Kalezić	1 July 2015[8]
Twente	Alfred Schreuder	Sacked	30 August 2015[9]	16th	René Hake	30 August 2015
Heerenveen	Dwight Lodeweges	Resigned	20 October 2015[10]	15th	Foppe de Haan	20 October 2015
Vitesse	Peter Bosz	Signed by Maccabi Tel Aviv	4 January 2016[11]	5th	Rob Maas	4 January 2016
Cambuur	Henk de Jong	Resigned	9 February 2016[12]	17th	Marcel Keizer	13 February 2016[13]

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	PSV Eindhoven (C)	34	26	6	2	88	32	+56	84	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Ajax	34	25	7	2	81	21	+60	82	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
3	Feyenoord	34	19	6	9	62	40	+22	63	Qualification for the Europa League group stage[a]
4	AZ	34	18	5	11	70	53	+17	59	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round
5	Utrecht	34	15	8	11	57	48	+9	53	Qualification for the European competition play-offs[b]
6	Heracles Almelo (O)	34	14	9	11	47	49	−2	51
7	Groningen	34	14	8	12	41	48	−7	50
8	PEC Zwolle	34	14	6	14	56	54	+2	48
9	Vitesse	34	12	10	12	55	38	+17	46
10	NEC	34	13	7	14	37	42	−5	46
11	ADO Den Haag	34	10	13	11	48	49	−1	43
12	Heerenveen	34	11	9	14	46	61	−15	42
13	Twente[c]	34	12	7	15	49	64	−15	40
14	Roda JC Kerkrade	34	8	10	16	34	55	−21	34
15	Excelsior	34	7	9	18	34	60	−26	30
16	Willem II (O)	34	6	11	17	35	53	−18	29	Qualification for the relegation play-offs
17	De Graafschap (R)	34	5	8	21	39	66	−27	23
18	Cambuur (R)	34	3	9	22	33	79	−46	18	Relegation to Eerste Divisie

Source: Eredivisie, NUsport, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head away goals scored; 7) Play-off (only if deciding champion, European competitions, or relegation); 8) Draw.^[16]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Feyenoord qualified for the Europa League group stage by winning the 2015–16 KNVB Cup.
2. Four teams played for one spot in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round.
3. Twente were deducted three points for breaking the financial standards set by the Royal Dutch Football Association. In May 2016 Twente had their licence for the Eredivisie revoked by KNVB and was relegated to the Eerste Divisie,^[14] but they successfully appealed this decision and stayed in the league.^[15]

Results

Home \ Away	ADO	AJX	AZ	CAM	GRA	EXC	FEY	GRO	HEE	HER	NEC	PEC	PSV	RJC	TWE	UTR	VIT	WIL
ADO Den Haag		0–1	1–2	2–1	1–1	3–3	1–0	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	0–2	2–2	2–2	2–1	1–1	2–2	1–1
Ajax	4–0		4–1	5–1	2–1	3–0	2–1	2–0	5–2	0–0	2–2	3–0	1–2	6–0	4–0	2–2	1–0	3–0
AZ	0–1	0–3		3–1	4–1	2–0	4–2	4–1	3–1	3–1	2–4	5–1	2–4	0–1	3–1	2–2	1–0	0–0
Cambuur	1–1	0–1	1–1		2–3	0–2	0–2	2–2	0–1	1–6	3–1	1–0	0–6	0–1	0–0	0–2	0–2	1–1
De Graafschap	3–1	1–1	1–3	2–2		2–0	1–2	1–2	0–1	0–1	1–1	0–3	3–6	3–0	1–1	0–1	2–2	2–2
Excelsior	2–4	0–2	2–2	1–4	3–0		2–4	2–1	1–1	1–3	2–0	2–2	1–3	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–3	0–0
Feyenoord	0–2	1–1	3–1	3–1	3–1	3–0		1–1	1–2	3–0	1–0	2–0	0–2	1–1	5–0	3–2	2–0	1–0
Groningen	2–1	1–2	2–0	2–0	3–1	2–0	1–1		3–1	2–1	0–0	2–0	0–3	1–0	1–1	1–4	0–3	2–1
Heerenveen	0–4	0–2	4–2	2–0	3–1	2–1	2–5	1–2		0–1	1–1	1–1	1–1	3–0	1–3	0–4	0–0	3–1
Heracles	1–1	0–2	3–6	3–1	2–1	0–0	2–2	2–1	2–0		3–0	2–0	2–1	0–5	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–1
NEC	4–1	0–2	0–3	2–1	2–0	1–0	3–1	1–1	2–0	1–0		2–2	0–3	1–2	2–0	1–0	2–1	1–0
PEC Zwolle	2–1	0–2	2–1	2–2	2–1	3–0	3–1	1–3	5–2	1–1	2–0		1–3	3–1	2–1	1–2	1–5	4–1
PSV	2–0	0–2	3–0	6–2	4–2	1–1	3–1	2–0	1–1	2–0	2–1	3–2		1–1	4–2	3–1	2–0	2–0
Roda JC	1–1	2–2	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–2	1–1	0–0	1–2	3–1	0–0	0–5	0–3		0–1	1–0	1–2	2–3
Twente	1–4	2–2	2–2	3–0	2–1	2–0	0–1	2–0	1–4	4–0	1–0	2–1	1–3	2–1		3–1	2–2	1–3
Utrecht	2–2	1–0	1–3	3–3	0–2	2–1	1–2	2–0	1–1	4–2	3–1	1–0	0–2	1–1	4–2		2–1	2–1
Vitesse Arnhem	2–2	1–3	0–2	4–1	3–0	0–0	0–2	5–0	3–0	1–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	3–0	5–1	1–3		0–1
Willem II	0–2	0–4	0–2	3–0	0–0	2–3	0–1	1–1	2–2	0–0	0–1	0–1	2–2	3–2	2–3	3–1	1–1

Source:
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Number of teams by provinces

Number of teams	Province	Team(s)
3	Gelderland	De Graafschap, NEC and Vitesse
	Overijssel	Heracles, PEC Zwolle, and Twente
	South Holland	ADO Den Haag, Excelsior, and Feyenoord
2	Friesland	Cambuur and Heerenveen
	North Brabant	PSV and Willem II
	North Holland	Ajax and AZ
1	Groningen	Groningen
	Limburg	Roda JC
	Utrecht	Utrecht

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[17]
1	Vincent Janssen	AZ	27
2	Luuk de Jong	PSV	26
3	Arkadiusz Milik	Ajax	21
4	Dirk Kuyt	Feyenoord	19
5	Sébastien Haller	Utrecht	17
	Hakim Ziyech	Twente
7	Mike Havenaar	ADO Den Haag	16
	Christian Santos	NEC
9	Michiel Kramer	Feyenoord	14
	Lars Veldwijk	PEC Zwolle

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Oussama Tannane4	Heracles	Cambuur	6–1	22 August 2015
Luuk de Jong	PSV	Cambuur	6–0	12 September 2015
Lars Veldwijk	PEC Zwolle	Excelsior	3–0	12 September 2015
Dirk Kuyt	Feyenoord	Heerenveen	5–2	18 October 2015
Dirk Kuyt	Feyenoord	AZ	3–1	25 October 2015
Michiel Kramer	Feyenoord	Excelsior	4–2	28 November 2015
Lucas Andersen	Willem II	Twente	3–1	28 November 2015
Vincent Janssen	AZ	Feyenoord	4–2	24 January 2016
Vincent Janssen4	AZ	PEC Zwolle	5–1	16 April 2016

Note

⁴ Player scored 4 goals

Assists

Rank	Player	Club	Assists[17]
1	Édouard Duplan	ADO Den Haag	11
2	Rick Karsdorp	Feyenoord	10
	Jürgen Locadia	PSV
	Lars Veldwijk	PEC Zwolle
	Hakim Ziyech	Twente
6	Andrés Guardado	PSV	9
	Joris van Overeem	AZ
8	Dabney dos Santos	AZ	8
	Nemanja Gudelj	Ajax
	Luuk de Jong	PSV
	Davy Klaassen	Ajax
	Sam Larsson	Heerenveen

Discipline

Player

• Most yellow cards: 10^[18]
  • Lucas Bijker (Heerenveen)
  • Funso Ojo (Willem II)
• Most red cards: 2^[18]
  • Joey van den Berg (Heerenveen)
  • Ouasim Bouy (PEC Zwolle)
  • Sander Fischer (Excelsior)
  • Derrick Luckassen (AZ)
  • Mark van der Maarel (Utrecht)
  • Harm Zeinstra (Cambuur)

Club

• Most yellow cards: 65^[18]
  • Heerenveen
• Most red cards: 5^[18]
  • Cambuur
  • Utrecht

Attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Ajax	681,147	51,875	48,494	48,653	−1.5%†
2	Feyenoord	617,500	47,500	47,500	47,500	+4.6%†
3	PSV	433,600	35,000	32,000	33,354	+2.7%†
4	Twente	334,300	24,900	24,900	24,900	−12.7%†
5	Heerenveen	300,051	24,645	20,100	22,373	−8.0%†
6	Groningen	271,765	21,241	19,277	20,259	+0.3%†
8	Utrecht	228,313	16,364	16,364	16,364	−1.7%†
9	AZ	207,862	16,673	14,144	15,409	−0.7%†
10	Roda JC	202,624	13,472	13,130	13,301	+24.2%1
7	Vitesse Arnhem	233,393	13,212	13,212	13,212	−23.2%†
15	ADO Den Haag	155,929	13,125	12,293	12,709	+6.1%†
14	Heracles	157,095	12,084	12,084	12,084	+45.1%†
13	PEC Zwolle	158,608	12,123	11,650	11,887	−2.7%†
12	NEC	161,589	12,321	10,240	11,281	+18.3%1
11	Willem II	173,862	11,000	11,000	11,000	−9.1%†
17	Cambuur	126,874	10,000	9,630	9,815	+1.1%†
16	De Graafschap	146,477	8,100	8,100	8,100	+64.4%1
18	Excelsior	49,821	3,394	3,394	3,394	−3.5%†
	League total	498,612	48,494	3,394	18,467	−1.5%†

Updated to games played on 23 August 2015
Source: World football
Notes:
Median attendances of the 2014–15 season will be shown until the league starts.
1: Team played last season in Eerste Divisie

Play-offs

European competition

Four teams played for a spot in the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round.

	Semi-finals						Final
	PEC Zwolle	0	2	2
	Utrecht	0	5	5
							Heracles*	1	2	3
							Utrecht	1	0	1
	Groningen	2	1	3
	Heracles (e)	1	5	6

Key: * = Play-off winners, (a) = Wins because of away goals rule, (e) = Wins after extra time in second leg, (p) = Wins after penalty shoot-out.

Promotion/relegation play-offs

Ten teams, two from the Eredivisie and eight from the Eerste Divisie, played for two spots in the 2016–17 Eredivisie, the remaining eight teams play in the 2016–17 Eerste Divisie.

	First round						Second round						Third round
	MVV Maastricht	2	2	4
	Volendam	1	1	2
							MVV Maastricht	0	1	1
							De Graafschap	1	2	3
													De Graafschap	1	1	2
													Go Ahead Eagles*	4	1	5
							Go Ahead Eagles	1	2	3
							VVV-Venlo	0	2	2
	Almere City	4	4	8
	Emmen	1	1	2
							Almere City	0	2	2
							Willem II	1	5	6
													Willem II*	1	3	4
													NAC Breda	2	1	3
							FC Eindhoven	1	0	1
							NAC Breda	0	2	2

Key: * = Play-off winners, (a) = Wins because of away goals rule, (e) = Wins after extra time in second leg, (p) = Wins after penalty shoot-out.