Koninklijke HFC

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Koninklijke HFC (Royal Haarlemsche Football Club) is a football team in Haarlem, The Netherlands. It is the oldest team in Dutch history, being established in 1879 by Pim Mulier. During the first years the team played rugby but due to financial problems they switched to association football. The first official football match in the Netherlands was played in 1886 between HFC and Amsterdam Sport.

In 1899 they moved from their home ground "De Koekamp" to the "Spanjaardslaan" where they still play their matches in 2006. In that period the Spanjaardslaan was part of Heemstede, but switched back to Haarlem in 1927. The Netherlands national football team played two of their international matches at the Spanjaardslaan. Both matches were versus Belgium, resulting in a 1-2 loss and a 7-0 win.

Before the Dutch championship was officially established HFC won four unofficial national titles in 1890, 1891, 1893 and 1895. Three times in the club's history they won the KNVB Cup (1904, 1913 and 1915). De club was named Koninklijk (Royal) in 1959, 80 years after the club was founded. Since 1923 the first team of HFC plays the opening match of a new year versus a selection of former Dutch international players on January 1. With more than 1600 members HFC is one of the largest football clubs in the Netherlands.