PSV manager treating potential title-clincher as any other game; Ticket prices soar

PSV manager Peter Bosz has said he will treat the match against Sparta Rotterdam as any other match, even though the Eindhoven club only needs to avoid defeat to clinch the Eredivisie title. “That is all peripheral matters. I am not thinking about it at all. And I said the same to the people at the club,” the 60-year-old from Apeldoorn said.

“I am trying to prepare for it like it was any other game. It is about Sparta. That is what we are talking about,” Bosz added.

Although the manager is not thinking about potentially winning the title this weekend, PSV fans clearly expect it. This was shown by some tickets from the second-hand goods website Marktplaats being offered for up to 800 euros.

PSV was not happy about this. “It is not allowed, and we are alert to who the people are who are coming to the match,” the club stated. Selling match tickets secondhand is forbidden. If caught, the person involved will receive a maximum 450 euro fine from the KNVB and an 18-month stadium ban.

For PSV it is an issue regarding safety in the stadium. “We want to know who our guests are. Also, the resale is a place to sell your ticket if you cannot make it.”

PSV could win its 25th Eredivisie title, its first since 2018 under Phillip Cocu. Ajax has the most league titles in the Netherlands, with 36.

It would be their fourth league title in 16 years. The Eindhoven club started this century well, winning seven out of nine league titles between 2000 and 2008. But PSV’s dominance faded after this.

The Eindhoven club is still the most successful since the turn of the millennium, with eleven titles. Ajax is second with nine titles. Feyenoord won two, with AZ and Twente each winning one league title.

PSV has some injury concerns going into Sunday. Noa Lang and Isaac Babadi will possibly miss the match due to injury. One of the side’s best players this season, Sergiño Dest, recently tore a ligament, leaving him out for the rest of the season.

Even if the title is settled this weekend, team captain Luuk de Jong will still have something to play for. The striker is currently the top scorer in the Eredivisie this season, along with Vangelis Pavlidis of AZ. Both players have scored 27 times this season.

De Jong already finished as Eredivisie's top scorer once in his first spell at the club in the 2018-19 season. But he had to share the title with Dusan Tadic of Ajax.