| Full name | Football Club Groningen | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Pride of the North Green-White Army |
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| Founded | June 16, 1971 | ||
| Ground | Euroborg Groningen (Capacity: 22,329) |
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| Chairman | Ed Zijp | ||
| Manager | Pieter Huistra | ||
| League | Eredivisie | ||
| 2010–11 | Eredivisie, 5th | ||
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FC Groningen (Dutch pronunciation: [ɛfˈseː ˈɣroː.nɪ.ŋə(n)]) is a football club from Groningen in the Netherlands.
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The predecessor of FC Groningen was founded as Unitas in 1915. When Unitas joined the Eerste Klasse Noord their name was changed to GVAV (Groningen Football and Athletics Association). The Eerste Klasse Noord was a football league that consisted of teams from the northern provinces Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe, of which the winner went on to compete for the national title. During the days of the Eerste Klasse Noord GVAV stood in the shadow of Be Quick 1887 and Velocitas, two other sides from the city of Groningen. After the KNVB allowed professionalism in 1954 the Eerste Klasse Noord, along with the other regional leagues, ceased to exist. From the city of Groningen the teams GVAV, Be Quick 1887, Velocitas and Oosterparkers turned professional but the latter two soon had to step back to amateurism. Be Quick stayed professional until 1964, leaving GVAV as the only professional football team in the city of Groningen. In 1971 GVAV was reformed as FC Groningen.
FC Groningen enjoyed top flight football for most of their existence, although the club was relegated to the second division after the third season of their existence.
The club was then propelled back into success by the Koeman brothers, Ronald Koeman and his elder brother Erwin Koeman together with defending midfielder Jan van Dijk resulting in qualification to European football for the first time in the 1982/83 season. Their best season in the Eredivisie was during the 1990/91 season when they finished third.
The club plays its home games in the 22,000 seat Euroborg stadium. In December 2005, the club played its last match ever in the 12,500 seat Oosterpark Stadion after having played there for 72 years. The average attendance in 2004/05 was 12,500 people. This has risen to just below 22,000 people in the new stadium. There are plans to expand the stadium to a capacity of 30.000 or 40.000. The Euroborg Stadium is known to be one of the more atmospheric of all Dutch stadiums. Despite its relative short existence, it has already earned the nickname the Green Hell.
The 2005-06 season turned out to be one of the best in a long time for FC Groningen, with the club finishing 5th place in the league. This allowed Groningen to enter the play-off tournament for the UEFA Champions League third round qualification. However, they were beaten by Ajax in the finals who scored a goal two minutes before the final whistle.
By finishing fifth in the league, FC Groningen qualified for European football for the first time in 14 years, where they were defeated 4–3 on aggregate in the first round by Partizan Belgrade.
In the 2006/07 season FC Groningen again managed to get an entrance for the UEFA Cup. They ended the season on an 8th place but thanks to the play-off tournament system, in which they beat Feyenoord and FC Utrecht, they qualified for the UEFA Cup where they faced ACF Fiorentina in the first round. Both matches in Groningen and Florence ended in a draw, 1–1. FC Groningen were defeated after penalties and knocked out in the first round.
On April 13, 2008 the weststand of the Euroborg was partly set on fire during a supporters tifo-action gone bad. For this a few 1000 rolls of toiletpaper where thrown down from the stand but the large pile of toiletpaper caught fire. This happened right before the beginning of the match FC Groningen -AFC Ajax, one of the fierce rivals of FC Groningen. The match was posponed and replayed 3 days later.
At the end of the 2009–2010 season Ron Jans, who has been the manager of FC Groningen for 8 successful years, stepped down. He is now manager of another team in the Eredivisie.
Halfway through the 2009-2010 season, FC Groningen announced that Ajax Youth Coach Pieter Huistra would take charge of FC Groningen after Ron Jans' departure to SC Heerenveen. Groningen signed the Serbian attacking midfielder Dusan Tadic from Vojvodina for a reported €1,1 million, Belgian defender Jonas Ivens from KV Mechelen for €600,000 and Dutch midfielder Maikel Kieftenbeld from Go Ahead Eagles for an undisclosed fee.
Groningen started the competition with two draws against Ajax (2-2) and AZ (1-1). The team went on an eight match unbeaten run til they got beaten by leading champions FC Twente (4-2). The first half of the season was the best ever in Groningen's history, going into the winter break with no less than 39 points and a third place. The first match of the second half of the season ended in a 1-2 loss against FC Twente, ending an impressive run of 10 wins and 1 draw at Euroborg Stadium. After a cup-loss at FC Utrecht (3-2), Groningen went on beating rivals SC Heerenveen, with former manager Ron Jans, 4-1, with two goals from Dusan Tadic. A week later Groningen recorded their biggest ever win in the Eredivisie. Bottom of the table Willem II was thrashed with 7-1, with top scorer Tim Matavz scoring his first ever hat-trick in league football. Then followed a period of heavy losses against Roda JC, Heracles Almelo (both 1-4) and Feyenoord (1-5) before breaking the deadlock with a 0-1 win at NAC Breda. Groningen went climbing again in the table to draw their final game against PSV (0-0), only just missing out on direct Europa League qualification.
In the play-offs Groningen started with a 2-3 loss away at Heracles Almelo. They were supported by their two away goals and won the second leg at home, beating their opponents 2-1 to progress to the Final of the play offs for European qualification, in which they will take on season sensation ADO Den Haag. The first leg will be played in Den Haag on the 26th of May and the return match took place on the 29th of May in Euroborg Stadium. At the end of the first half, it was 1-1, meaning ADO Den Haag got the ticket. But at full time, it was 5-1 for FC Groningen, thanks to a penalty in the last minute, meaning there had to be penalties to decide who gets the ticket. Matavz and Sparv missed for Groningen, meaning Den Haag got the ticket after all.
When GVAV was reformed as FC Groningen in 1971 a competition was subscriped to come up with a new crest. The winning design was created by Reint Rozema. It showed a rather abstract character G, referring to Groningen. The "simple but strong shape of the crest" (as it was described by Rozema) had to symbolize the nature of the people of Groningen. The crest's form was inspired by the truncated icosahedron pattern of a football. In 1993 the mythical flying horse Pegasus was added to the crest. The supporters resisted against this alternation and the crest was restored to its original form in 1996.
FC Groningen's official colours are the city's green and white. However the crest was green and white from the beginning, the team's first ever home kit was blue. After the club's first season, the purple kit was exchanged for a green and white one. FC Groningen have played in these colours ever since. The design of the shirt has differed until 1991, when a kit with two vertical stripes was adopted as FC Groningen's standard.[1] Since 2006 the colour purple has been revived as the team's third colour and is used in the away kits.[2]
Below is a table with FC Groningen's domestic results since the introduction of the Eredivisie in 1956.
| Domestic Results since 1956 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic league | League result | Qualification to | KNVB Cup season | Cup result |
| 2010–11 Eredivisie | 5th | - (losing EL play-offs) | 2010-11 | quarter final |
| 2009–10 Eredivisie | 8th | - (losing EL play-offs) | 2009-10 | round of 16 |
| 2008–09 Eredivisie | 6th | - (losing EL play-offs) | 2008-09 | round of 16 |
| 2007–08 Eredivisie | 7th | - (losing UC play-offs) | 2007-08 | third round |
| 2006–07 Eredivisie | 8th | UEFA Cup (winning UC play-offs) | 2006-07 | third round |
| 2005–06 Eredivisie | 1st | UEFA Cup (losing CL play-offs) | 2005-06 | quarter final |
| 2004–05 Eredivisie | 12th | - | 2004-05 | second round |
| 2003–04 Eredivisie | 13th | - | 2003-04 | third round |
| 2002–03 Eredivisie | 15th | - | 2002-03 | quarter final |
| 2001–02 Eredivisie | 15th | - | 2001-02 | quarter final |
| 2000–01 Eredivisie | 14th | - | 2000-01 | third round |
| 1999–2000 Eerste Divisie | 3rd | Eredivisie (winning promotion/releg. play-offs) | 1999-2000 | second round |
| 1998–99 Eerste Divisie | 2nd | promotion/relegation play-offs: no promotion | 1998-99 | round of 16 |
| 1997–98 Eredivisie | 17th | Eerste Divisie (losing promo./releg. play-offs) | 1997-98 | round of 16 |
| 1996–97 Eredivisie | 10th | Intertoto Cup | 1996-97 | round of 16 |
| 1995–96 Eredivisie | 9th | Intertoto Cup | 1995-96 | second round |
| 1994–95 Eredivisie | 13th | Intertoto Cup | 1994-95 | second round |
| 1993–94 Eredivisie | 14th | - | 1993-94 | second round |
| 1992–93 Eredivisie | 12th | - | 1992-93 | quarter final |
| 1991–92 Eredivisie | 5th | UEFA Cup | 1991-92 | round of 16 |
| 1990–91 Eredivisie | 3rd | UEFA Cup | 1990-91 | round of 16 |
| 1989–90 Eredivisie | 9th | - | 1989-90 | round of 16 |
| 1988–89 Eredivisie | 6th | Cup Winners' Cup | 1988-89 | final |
| 1987–88 Eredivisie | 11th | UEFA Cup (after winning UC play-offs) | 1987-88 | second round |
| 1986–87 Eredivisie | 13th | - | 1986-87 | semi-final |
| 1985–86 Eredivisie | 4th | UEFA Cup | 1985-86 | quarter final |
| 1984–85 Eredivisie | 5th | - | 1984-85 | first round |
| 1983–84 Eredivisie | 7th | - | 1983-84 | semi-final |
| 1982–83 Eredivisie | 5th | UEFA Cup | 1982-83 | quarter final |
| 1981–82 Eredivisie | 7th | - | 1981-82 | second round |
| 1980–81 Eredivisie | 15th | - | 1980-81 | quarter final |
| 1979–80 Eerste Divisie | 1st | Eredivisie (promotion) | 1979-80 | first round |
| 1978–79 Eerste Divisie | 2nd | promotion/relegation play-offs: no promotion | 1978-79 | first round |
| 1977–78 Eerste Divisie | 6th | promotion/relegation play-offs: no promotion | 1977-78 | round of 16 |
| 1976–77 Eerste Divisie | 8th | - | 1976-77 | quarter final |
| 1975–76 Eerste Divisie | 4th | - | 1975-76 | first round |
| 1974–75 Eerste Divisie | 2nd | promotion/relegation play-offs: no promotion | 1974-75 | second round |
| 1973–74 Eredivisie | 18th | Eerste Divisie (relegation) | 1973-74 | quarter final |
| 1972–73 Eredivisie | 13th | - | 1972-73 | second round |
| 1971–72 Eredivisie | 12th | - | 1971-72 | round of 16 |
| 1970–71 Eerste Divisie | 2nd | Eredivisie (promotion) | 1970-71 | quarter final |
| 1969–70 Eredivisie | 17th | Eerste Divisie (relegation) | 1969-70 | semi-final |
| 1968–69 Eredivisie | 11th | - | 1968-69 | second round |
| 1967–68 Eredivisie | 6th | - | 1967-68 | group stage |
| 1966–67 Eredivisie | 9th | - | 1966-67 | first round |
| 1965–66 Eredivisie | 6th | - | 1965-66 | group stage |
| 1964–65 Eredivisie | 14th | - | 1964-65 | second round |
| 1963–64 Eredivisie | 8th | - | 1963-64 | first round |
| 1962–63 Eredivisie | 8th | - | 1962-63 | quarter final |
| 1961–62 Eredivisie | 13th | - | 1961-62 | ? |
| 1960–61 Eredivisie | 6th | - | 1960-61 | ? |
| 1959–60 Eerste Divisie | 1st | Eredivisie (promotion) | not held | not held |
| 1958–59 Eerste Divisie | 3rd (group B) | - | 1958-59 | ? |
| 1957–58 Eredivisie | 17th | Eerste Divisie (relegation) | 1957-58 | ? |
| 1956–57 Eredivisie | 14th | - | 1956-57 | ? |
As of 1 August 2011
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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This list contains notable players who played for FC Groningen. They are shown by nationality and between brackets the periods they have been active for FC Groningen.
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