Netherlands Football League Championship

There had been embryonic national championships in the Netherlands in the two previous seasons, but their credibility as true championships is dented by the fact that the teams in the 'league' played an unequal number of matches.
The 1890-91 season was the first in which fixtures were arranged with appropriate symmetry.
5 teams entered, drawn from  Amsterdam, Den Haag, Haarlem and Rotterdam. For this reason the championship is often referred to not as a National league, but as a forerunner of the Eerste Klasse West. 
Taking part were:
Koninklijke HFC (Haarlem) It is the oldest club in the Netherlands. Originally a rugby club, they switched to association in 1883 and  played in the first official football match in the Netherlands  in 1886
HVV Den Haag founded in 1883 as an extension of HCC (a cricket club).
RAP (Amsterdam)  founded in  1887 by the members of three cricket clubs.
Olympia Rotterdam
W Concordia (Rotterdam)
HVV Den Haag emerged as champions.


When the Eerste Klasse Oost came into being in 1897 a play off for the National championship was held between Oost champions, Vitesse (Arnhem) and West champions, RAP Amsterdam.

RAP

The final was played in front of 750 spectators at Utrecht, RAP winning 4-2

Coupe Van der Straeten Ponthoz 1900

In 1900 the Belgian count Van der Straeten Ponthoz offered a cup to the winner of an international tournament. At the time national  leagues existed in Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland , and as the champions of these leagues were all in the tournament, the press dubbed it the continental championship.

RAP (1899)

Belgium: Antwerp FC,Racing(Brussels- entered 2 sides),Léopold FC(Brussels)

Switzerland: Grasshopper Club Zürich  

Netherlands: H.V.V.Den Haag,R.A.P.(Amsterdam) 

First Round
R.A.P.                2-1 Racing
H.V.V.                8-1 Léopold
Racing II             walk over  Antwerp FC
Grasshopper           bye

Semifinals
Grasshopper           2-3 R.A.P.
H.V.V.                3-0 Racing II

Final
R.A.P.                2-1 H.V.V.