Aalborg Boldspilklub is a Danish professional sports club based in the city of Aalborg. The club is also known as Aalborg BK or AaB for short. Through time the club has had branches in cricket, tennis and basketball, but currently controls teams in football, ice hockey and handball. All teams are competing in the top-flight Danish league in their respective sport. The kit sponsor for the club is hummel, and the principal sponsor for the football and handball team is the regional bank Spar Nord. In football they are the current Danish Superliga Champions.
AaB was founded on May 13, 1885 by English engineers who were building Jutland's railway system, and the first years was concentrated on the game of cricket. It was initially named Aalborg Cricketklub (Aalborg Cricketclub) but the name of the club was changed to Aalborg Boldklub (Aalborg ballclub) in 1899. Football was adopted on an amateur basis in 1902, and has since been the main sport, as the name was changed to the current Aalborg Boldspilklub af 1885 (Aalborg ballgameclub of 1885) in 1906.[1]
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The club established a men's football team in 1902. The team has been a part of the Danish Superliga championship since 1987, winning three championships in 1995, 1999 and in 2008. They qualified for the 2008/2009 UEFA Champions League and will be part of Group E along with Manchester United F.C., Villarreal CF and Celtic F.C.. Aalborg came away from Celtic Park with a point in their 2nd Champions League campaign opening match. The second game against Manchester United in Aalborg was lost 0-3. And the third game against Villarreal in Spain they lost 6-3.
Handball was adopted by AaB in 2003, when the local men's team Aalborg HSH was bought and renamed AaB Håndbold (AaB handball). Since then, the club has played in the Danish top-flight handball league, though they have never won the league title. In May 2007, AaB published the plans to take over the women's handball team of Aalborg DH, as a part of the AaB Håndbold brand, as Aalborg DH did not pass a due diligence test, the takeover was never completed. With the expanded handball section, the men's team have moved their games to Aalborg DH's venue, Gigantium Arena. AaB also owns the professional ice hockey team of AaB Ishockey, which builds on the amateur youth development of Aalborg Ishockey Klub (AIK), which built on two merged clubs AaB Ishockey and IK Aalborg. AaB Ishockey won the 1981 Danish championship. From 2004 to 2007, AaB Ishockey has won four sets of silver medals in a row. In 2005, AaB coorporated with Aalborg Basketball Klub (ABK) in order to build the AaB Basket team.[2] The basketball team was no success, and was dismantled in March 2007,[3] reverting the team to its ABK roots. AaB also has a Floorball division, which in 2007/08 has secured promotion to the best league in Denmark. The team is located and plays matches at Hornevej where the rest of AaB's training facilities are located.
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