away supporters. 2013–present: Relegation and return At the end of the 2013–14 season, NEC prevented automatic relegation by holding Ajax to a 2–2 draw in Amsterdam on the last matchday with a brace from Alireza Jahanbakhsh. However, in the following relegation play-offs, NEC lost 4–1 on aggregate to Eerste Divisie's 16th placed Sparta Rotterdam and was relegated to the second tier of Dutch football, ending a 20 year run in the top flight. They bounced back however at the first attempt after beating Sparta 1–0 on 3 April 2015 to clinch the Eerste Divisie title with six games left. On 28 May 2017, NEC faced relegation again after two years in the Eredivisie after losing 5–1 on aggregate against NAC Breda. They reached the promotion play-offs in both the 2017–18 and 2018–19 seasons, but lost in the semi-finals on both occasions to FC Emmen and RKC Waalwijk. For the 2019–20 season, the club took the ususual step of appointing three head coaches: Adrie Bogers, Rogier Meijer and Francois Gesthuizen – the club finished in eighth place, which would have granted them a place in the play-offs, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands, there was no promotion or relegation between Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie. In May 2021, the club once again achieved promotion to the Eredivisie after beating NAC Breda 2–1 in the final of the promotion/relegation play-offs. Stadium In the early years of NEC's existence, the club played at various grounds around the city, most notably at Hazenkampseweg. The club's current home, Goffertstadion, was opened in 1939 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. It had been constructed by thousands of the city's unemployed, during a time of compulsory employment. At the time of its completion it was the third highest capacity stadium in the Netherlands, after Ajax's Olympic Stadium and De Kuip in Rotterdam. The Gofferstadion was a project by the municipal council, but upon completion both local clubs Quick 1888 and NEC refused to play there, as both had their own stadiums and did not want to pay rent for De Goffert. It therefore took until 1942 for the first match to be played, after NEC’s home ground was damaged during the Second World War and the club permanently moved to the Goffert. In 1992 the club purchased the stadium from the municipal council for the symbolic sum of 1 guilder. The stadium was renovated