FC Groningen

Groningen
Full name Football Club Groningen
Nickname(s) Pride of the North
Green-White Army
Founded 16 June 1971 (1971-06-16)
Ground Euroborg
Groningen, Netherlands
Ground Capacity 22,579
Chairman Bert Middel
Manager Ernest Faber
League Eredivisie
2015–16 Eredivisie, 7th
Website Club home page

Football Club Groningen (Dutch pronunciation: [ɛfˈseː ˈɣroːnɪŋə(n)]) is a Dutch professional football club based in Groningen. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest football league of the Netherlands.

The club was founded in 1971 when predecessor GVAV changed its name to FC Groningen. Their home stadium was the Oosterpark Stadion from 1971 to 2005, while they currently play at the Euroborg (2006–present).

The best result in the Eredivisie was third place in 1991 and 2006. The club won the KNVB Cup in 2014–15. The worst result in the Eredivisie was relegation to the Eerste Divisie in 1974 and 1998.

History

The origins of football in Groningen

Velocitas 1897

The origins of football in Groningen are dated back to 1887, when students of the city gymnasium established the cricket and football club Be Quick. Initially, cricket was the club's main activity with football being a mere winter pastime, but in the mid-1890s football gained a more prominent status within the club. In 1895, Be Quick became a founder member of the first football league in the northern Netherlands (comprising the provinces Groningen, Friesland, and Drenthe), which initially consisted of mere three clubs (LAC Frisia from Leeuwarden and Achilles 1894 from Assen being the others). The league was named Tweede Klasse Noord (Second Northern Division, or literary: Second Class North). There was no First Northern Division, but the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) regarded the level of play in the northern league to be too low to be rewarded with First Class status. This meant that the northern champion could not participate in the nationwide championship in which the winners of the other Dutch regional leagues competed for the national title.

In 1897, the city of Groningen got its second football club with the foundation of Velocitas, which became the labour-class rival of the elitist Be Quick. Mimicking Be Quick and Achilles from Assen, the founders of Velocitas also adopted a "foreign" name for their club. Be Quick and Velocitas remained the most successful football clubs in the city of Groningen until the mid-twentieth century, winning 26 northern championship titles between them (18 won by Be Quick and eight by Velocitas).

Timbertown and the foundation of GVAV

GVAV

Football in Groningen received a boost during World War I, in which the Netherlands remained neutral. In 1914, about 1,400 soldiers from the English 63rd Division who were involved in the Siege of Antwerp were forced to flee across the border into the Netherlands when Antwerp was overrun by German troops. Because of the neutral status of the Netherlands, the troops were disarmed interned in an encampment in the city of Groningen for the duration of the war.

The English military men baptized their encampment "Timbertown," which developed into a lively little city of its own. Football was an important pastime for the English soldiers, who organized a league amongst themselves, consisting of sides named after the division's battalions Collingwood, Hawke and Benbow. The English also interacted with the local community outside the gates of Timbertown. The battalion teams played numerous exhibition matches against local opposition and participated in local cup competitions, in which the English often demonstrated a superior level of play. Local interest for these matches was high and aroused much enthusiasm for the game of football in Groningen. Several English military men went on to coach and play for Be Quick, most notably Arnold Birch and Harry Waites, which helped to raise the standard of the game in Groningen. In 1916, the northern league finally was rewarded with First Class status, and in 1920 Be Quick went on to win the national title. To date, this is the only time that a team from the northern Netherlands was crowned Dutch national football champions.

In 1915, a couple of locals inspired by the English players established football club Unitas, which is the oldest predecessor of FC Groningen. When in 1917 Unitas joined First Class level of the Groningen Football Association the club was demanded to drop its name because there already existed several other clubs in the country named Unitas. The newly adopted name was GVAV (the Dutch acronym for "Groningen Football and Athletics Association"). In 1921, GVAV merged with athletic club Rapiditas. The new official club name became GVAV-Rapiditas, but the football team usually was just referred to as "GVAV." In 1926, GVAV promoted to the Eerste Klasse Noord for the first time in its existence. The club remained active at the highest northern level until the abolishment of the regional leagues in 1950. During the days of the Eerste Klasse Noord GVAV stood in the shadow of multiple Northern-champions Be Quick and Velocitas. GVAV succeeded in winning the Northern championship only once, in 1940.

In 1935, GVAV moved from the "Stadspark" (City Park) in the south side of the city (where it shared its accommodation with Velocitas) to the Oosterpark Stadium in the newly built Oosterparkwijk (East Park District), which was constructed to provide housing for the working class. The Oosterpark Stadium would remain the home of GVAV, and later FC Groningen, until 2005.

GVAV (white sleeves) against DWS in 1967

The rise of GVAV

The regional leagues, among which the First Northern Division, ceased to exist in 1950. For the next four seasons, Dutch football clubs were divided more randomly over four separate leagues of which the four winners went on to compete for the national title. In the 1951–52 season, the three Groningen clubs from the First Northern Division were joined at First Class level by VV Oosterparkers, a fourth side from the city of Groningen who were founded shortly after liberation in 1945 and shared the Oosterpark ground with GVAV. Oosterparkers immediately relegated from First Class level, returning the next season, and going back down again the year after that. In 1952, Velocitas also suffered relegation from the Eerste Klasse, leaving GVAV and Be Quick as the sole representation from the city of Groningen at the highest tier of Dutch football.

VV Oosterparkers

The season 1954–55 saw the inauguration of professionalism in the Dutch football league. A new nationwide league structure, consisting of Eredivisie, Eerste Divisie (First Division), and Tweede Divisie (Second Division), was planned to commence in 1956. Results in the 1954–55 and 1955–56 seasons determined the make-up of these new divisions. GVAV was able to make the cut two times in a row, qualifying for the Eredivisie, while Be Quick missed out for two consecutive seasons. This led to Be Quick ending up in the newly formed Tweede Divisie. Also Velocitas and Oosterparkers failed to qualify for the Eerste Divisie, and together with Be Quick ended up at the nationwide third tier for the inaugural season of the new nationwide league structure. The four years between the 1951-51 and the 1955–56 season had turned out to be crucial in determining the new relations in football in Groningen. In 1951, four Groningen clubs were active at First Class level. Five years later, GVAV was in the Eredivisie among the 18 best teams in the country, while Be Quick, Velocitas, and Oosterparks were ranked two tiers below.

At the introduction of professional football in the Dutch football leagues in 1954, Be Quick suffered from internal division. Be Quick's long history and respected stature led to the club containing numerous outspoken and conservative factions. In addition, resistance against professionalism in general tended to be bigger at elitists clubs. Many Be Quick members opposed the plans of their club joining the professional leagues, among which most notably several players from the title winning squad of 1920.[1] Be Quick did become professional, but because of the internal strife it was not able to develop its full potential as a professional football club. No such obstacles existed at GVAV, were chairman Jan Hekman faced no internal resistance in his ambition to make GVAV the city's number one professional football team. Labour class teams Velocitas and Oosterparkers, at their turn, had insufficient financial backing to compete with GVAV in the professional leagues.

Oosterparkers remained professional for three seasons, after which they voluntarily left the professional leagues and went back to amateurism. Velocitas held on for one more season after which they also relegated from the professional leagues. Be Quick initially was more successful. The club won promotion to the second tier in 1960 (the same year GVAV promoted back to the Eredivisie after they had relegated from the national top tier two seasons before), but after mere two years they relegated back to the bottom level of Dutch professional football. Be Quick stayed professional until 1964, after which they voluntarily stepped back to the amateur league and left GVAV as the only professional football team in the city of Groningen.

GVAV becomes FC Groningen (1971)

In the early 1960s, GVAV found itself in financial difficulties. This instigated the establishment of the Stichting Betaald Voetbal GVAV (Professional Football Foundation GVAV) in 1963, consisting of GVAV-Rapiditas, the Groningen municipality government, and an organization representing local businesses. All three parties were shareholder for 300.000 Guilders. It was planned that this sum was paid back in three years, but the Foundation soon turned out not being able to do so. GVAV even needed additional annual financial support from the municipality government in order to survive. The future of professional football in Groningen remained uncertain.[2][3]

Early in 1970, Harm Brink, the chairman of Groningen amateur football club GRC, stated that Groningen amateur football clubs needed to support the local professional team. He suggested that the amateur clubs should put their best players to the local professional club's disposal. However, he recognized that the name "GVAV" might be an obstacle in such a cooperation and proposed the foundation of a "Sport Club Groningen." Groningen's amateur clubs supported Brink's plan, but confirmed to have little faith in the connection between GVAV-Rapiditas and the Professional Football Foundation GVAV. The local businesses and municipality government declared to be willing to remit the Foundation's debts from 1963, under the condition that GVAV-Rapiditas would cut its ties with the city's professional team.

In 1970, GVAV's financial woes worsened when the club relegated from the Eredivisie. The advocators of the establishment of FC Groningen hoped to commence the 1970–71 season under the new name, but this plan failed as the GVAV members assembly rejected the proposals. Later that year, however, the GVAV members did vote in favor. In June 1971, FC Groningen was officially established. GVAV's traditional blue, white, and red were dropped in favor of the municipality colors green and white. Because GVAV promoted back to the Eredivisie in 1971, Groningen started its existence at the top national tier.

One day before the official foundation of FC Groningen, tragedy struck. In Rotterdam, GVAV goalkeeper Tonny van Leeuwen was awarded with the honor of being the country's best goalkeeper of the 1970–71 season, in which he had only conceded seven goals. Van Leeuwen was offered a room for the night in Rotterdam, but the goalkeeper choose to drive back to his home in a village close to Groningen. On his way back up north, Van Leeuwen's car collided with a truck coming from the opposite direction, killing him instantly. His wife sitting next to him survived.

A difficult first decade (1971–1980)

In its first two seasons, Groningen finished 12th and 13th respectively in the Eredivisie (out of 18), but in the 1973–74 season, the club finished bottom of the table and relegated to the Eerste Divisie. Financial woes worsened at the same time. In 1974, Groningen came very close to bankruptcy, but was saved by the municipality government once again. A swift return to the top flight came very close when Groningen finished second in 1975 with an equal number of points of champions NEC, who won the title by a slightly better goal difference. In subsequent seasons, Groningen finished fourth, eighth (the lowest ever league finish in the history of the club) and sixth of the Eerste Divisie. In 1978, Groningen came very close to promotion via the post-season mini-league, consisting of four clubs from the Eerste Divisie. In the last round of play, MVV caught up with Groningen's seemingly comfortable lead in goal difference after an unexpected 5–0 victory over Excelsior, while FC Groningen drew 0–0 with Wageningen. In these years, average crowds fell to between 5,000 and 6,000. To date, this is the lowest seasonal average in FC Groningen's history.

From the mid-1970s, the seeds for success were sown. In 1975, FC Groningen established a youth academy from which came the backbone of the team that eventually won promotion back to the Eredivisie. In 1977, the club appointed as manager Theo Verlangen, under whose leadership results gradually improved. In the 1978–79 season, Groningen finished second again, one point behind league winners Excelsior. Yet in 1980, Groningen were rather comfortable champions of the Eerste Divisie and returned to the Eredivisie after a six-year absence.

Later years

Groningen was then propelled into success by the Koeman brothers, Ronald and elder brother Erwin, together with defending midfielder Jan van Dijk, whom secured qualification to European football for the first time in the 1982–83 season. The club's best season in the Eredivisie came in 1990–91 season when they finished third.

2005–present

The 2005–06 season turned out to be one of the best in a long time for Groningen, with the club finishing fifth in the league. This allowed Groningen to enter the play-off tournament for the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League third round qualification. However, they were beaten by Ajax in the finals, which scored a goal two minutes before the final whistle.

By finishing fifth in the league, Groningen qualified for European football, in the UEFA Cup for the first time in 14 years, where they were defeated 4–3 on aggregate in the first round by Partizan.

In the 2006–07 season, Groningen again managed to gain entrance to the UEFA Cup. They ended the season in eighth, but due to the play-off tournament system, in which they beat Feyenoord and Utrecht, they qualified for the UEFA Cup where they faced Fiorentina in the first round. Both matches in Groningen and Florence ended in 1–1 draws, but Groningen were defeated after penalties.

On 13 April 2008, part of the west stand of the Euroborg was set on fire when a supporters' tifo-action went wrong. This happened when thousand rolls of toilet paper were thrown down from the stand and the large pile of toilet paper caught fire just before the beginning of the match between Groningen and Ajax, a fierce rival of the club. The match was postponed and replayed three days later.

At the end of the 2009–10 season, Ron Jans, who had been the manager of Groningen for eight years, stepped down to become the head coach of Heerenveen, the local rival of Groningen. Halfway through the year, Groningen announced that Ajax youth coach Pieter Huistra would take charge of Groningen after Jans' departure. Groningen would then sign the Serbian attacking midfielder Dušan Tadić from Vojvodina for a reported €1.1 million, Belgian defender Jonas Ivens from Mechelen for €600,000 and Dutch midfielder Maikel Kieftenbeld from Go Ahead Eagles for an undisclosed fee to reinforce the squad.

Groningen began the 2010–11 competition with two draws against Ajax (2–2) and AZ (1–1), followed by an eight-match unbeaten run until falling to incumbent champions 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 Twente, ending an impressive run of ten wins and one draw at Euroborg. After a KNVB Cup loss at Utrecht (3–2), Groningen went on to beat rivals Heerenveen and former manager Ron Jans 4–1, with Dušan Tadić scoring two of the goals. One week later, Groningen recorded their largest ever win in the Eredivisie, thrashing bottom-of-the-table club Willem II 7–1, with top scorer Tim Matavž 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 climbed 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 began with a 3–2 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 playoffs for European qualification, in which they took on season sensation ADO Den Haag. The first leg was played in The Hague on 26 May, resulting in a 5–1 defeat, while the return leg was played on 29 May. At the end of full-time, the scorline was 5–1 to Groningen thanks to a last-minute penalty to set-up tiebreaking penalties. Tim Matavž and Tim Sparv both missed for Groningen, resulting in Den Haag securing European qualification.

The 2011–12 close season saw the departures of key members of the Groningen squad: after three years, captain Andreas Granqvist moved on to sign for Italian Serie A side Genoa, while the previous season's top scorer, Tim Matavž, joined Eredivisie rivals PSV. Fredrik Stenman also departed the club, joining Belgian side Club Brugge.

The new season started with ups and downs for Pieter Huistra's side. Inexplicable losses away from home were followed by home wins against Ajax (1–0) and Feyenoord (6–0), as well as a draw against Twente (1–1). The new side was full of inexperienced players, but Groningen managed to end the first half of the season in eighth. Groningen decided to extend the deal with manager Huistra by one year, just days after being thrashed away at PSV (6–1).

The second half of the season was disastrous. Groningen only managed to win two games (Excelsior 0–1 and PSV 3–0) and they finished in a disappointing 14th place. This fell way short of the target set at the beginning of the season and Huistra was sacked by the Groningen board for his failure to motivate the side.

On 23 May 2012, Groningen announced that the 43-year-old Robert Maaskant would be the new manager for the 2012–13 season, signing a one-year contract. There were a lot of controversies before the season had even started. Maaskant was unhappy with the new signings, particularly Serbian winger Filip Kostić. Despite finishing a respectable seventh-place, the style of play was far from encouraging, with mostly destructive football exhibited by the squad. Maaskant was also known for his controversial statements about certain players, all of which damaged Groningen's reputation as a quiet and decent club. On 11 March 2013, the club announced it would not be renewing Maaskant's contract.[4]

On 4 April 2013, it was announced that Erwin van de Looi – previously assistant to Robert Maaskant – was assigned as new manager for the 2013–14 and 2014–15 seasons.[5]

The club announced that it would not set any competitive targets for the 2013–14 season due to the club's poor financial state. In anticipation, Groningen did not make any major signings, instead bringing in Brazilian defender Eric Botteghin from NAC Breda and Dutch midfielder Tjaronn Chery on loan from ADO Den Haag, who joined permanently after the season had finished. Groningen began the domestic campaign well, though after the winter break, the team fell down the table and they were looking to miss out on play-off football. However, a six-match winning streak secured a seventh-place finish for the club. On 18 May 2014, Groningen defeated AZ 3–0 on aggregate in the playoffs to qualify for the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League, ending the year on an impressive ten-game unbeaten run.

After qualifying for the Europa League, Groningen appeared in Europe for the first time since 2007 to start their 2014–15 campaign. The club, however, fell at the first hurdle as they were beaten in the Europa League second qualifying round by Scottish side Aberdeen. The first leg in Scotland ended 0–0, and goals from Adam Rooney and Niall McGinn secured a 2–1 victory for Aberdeen in the second leg. The 2014–15 season saw Groningen finish in eighth place, with Michael de Leeuw netting 17 goals as the club's top goalscorer.

Dutch Cup winners

For the first time in its history, Groningen, on 3 May 2015, won the KNVB Cup. Victories against BVV Barendrecht (1–4), Flevo Boys (1–8), Volendam (3–0), Vitesse (4–0) and Excelsior (3–0) gave them their first trip to the final in decades and their second overall. In the final, held at De Kuip in Rotterdam, Groningen prevailed over PEC Zwolle, beating them 0–2 in regular time. The man of the match was Albert Rusnák, who scored both goals.

Crest and colours

Supporters scarfs with the club crest

When GVAV was reformed as FC Groningen in 1971, a competition was subscribed to come up with a new crest. The winning design was created by Reint Rozema. It showed an 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 opposed this change and the crest was restored to its original form in 1996.

Groningen's official colours are green and white, derived from the arms of the city of Groningen. Although the crest was green and white from the beginning, the team's first ever home kit was purple, although a green and white kit was also used in the club's inaugural season. The purple home kit was dropped after a couple of seasons and the club's home colours solely have been green and white ever since. The design of the shirt continued to change until 1991, when a kit with two vertical stripes was adopted as Groningen's standard home kit.[6] Since 2006 the colour purple has been revived as the team's third colour and often is used in the away kits.[7]

Home kits

1971–73
1973–75
1975–77
1977–81
1982–1984
since 1991

Away kits

2003–2005
2015–16

Stadium

Euroborg stadium in 2010

The club plays its home games at the Euroborg stadium, with a capacity of 22,329 seats. In December 2005, the club played its last match in the 12,500 seat Oosterpark Stadion after having played there for 72 years. The average attendance in 2004–05 was 12,500; this has risen to just under 22,000 at the Euroborg. There are plans to expand the stadium to a capacity of 30,000 or 40,000. The Euroborg is known to be one of the more atmospheric of all Dutch stadiums. Despite its relatively short existence, it has already earned the nickname the Green Cathedral.

Euroborg is easy to reach by public transport. Train station Groningen Europapark, located 200 meters from the stadium, is served every hour by a number of trains (coming from Groningen Central, Veendam and Germany) and buses. There are also a number of car parks (marked as P1, P2, etc.) in the surrounding area. The stadium is located 2.5 kilometers/1.5 miles from the city centre of Groningen

Rivalries

Having no other teams of a similar size in its nearest proximity, Groningen lacks traditional rivals. SC Veendam was the nearest professional team to Groningen until the club dissolved in 2013, but as Groningen and Veendam were in different divisions during most of their histories, and Veendam had a significantly smaller following, a strong two-sided rivalry never developed.

In the 1980s, incidents between the hooligans of Groningen and Twente led to a fierce rivalry between the clubs' respective hooligan firms. Encounters between the two have often led to violence in and around the ground during the 1980s, 1990s and early years of the 21st century. After Groningen moved to the Euroborg in 2005, supporter violence around matches with Twente disappeared almost completely due to the superior safety conditions of the new ground. Although aversion against Twente remains to exist among Groningen's most fanatical following, the fierceness of this rivalry in general is considered to be something of the past. In a similar vein, yet significantly lesser fierce and long-lasting than the rivalry with Twente, the hooligan firm of Groningen has maintained rivalries with FC Den Bosch, PEC Zwolle, Cambuur Leeuwarden and NAC Breda. However, antagonistic feelings towards (the fans of) these clubs mostly were limited to the hooligans of the club and barely existed among the rest of Groningen's following.

A feeling of hostility towards Ajax is more widespread among all categories of Groningen supporters. Although relatively insignificant from the perspective of the Ajax fans, home matches against Ajax are considered main events by most Groningen supporters. Remarkably, away matches against the Amsterdam side are not deemed equally important. This rather one-sided rivalry can be explained by a more general aversion of the inhabitants from the more rural and peripheral northern regions of the Netherlands towards people from the Randstad and Amsterdam, who are stereotyped as being arrogant and haughty.

Since the late 1990s, a more local rivalry has developed between Groningen and Heerenveen, which is based just 60 kilometers from the city of Groningen. Around this time, Heerenveen became a regular in the Eredivisie and no longer met regularly with its nearest and primary rival Cambuur Leeuwarden, which mostly was active in the second tier. Groningen and Heerenveen are seen as representing the two neighboring northern provinces of Groningen and Friesland, between which a more general rivalry exists. Therefore, the match between Groningen and Heerenveen is referred to as the Derby of the North.

Domestic results

14
17#
3
1^
6
13
8
8
14
6
9
6
11
17#
3^
12
13
18#
2
4
8
6
2
1^
15
7
5
7
5
4
13
11
6
9
3
5
12
14
13
9
10
17#
2
3^
14
15
15
13
12
3
(5)
6
(8)
8
(7)
7
(6)
9
(8)
6
(5)
14
7
5
8
575859 60616263646566676869 70717273747576777879 80818283848586878889 90919293949596979899 00010203040506070809 1011121314
Eredivisie*
Eerste divisie

* Official position, including playoff (if played). If playoffs has been played the position before playoffs between brackets.
# relegation
^ promotion

Shown below is a table with the domestic results of GVAV and (from 1971–72) FC Groningen since the introduction of the Eredivisie in 1956.

Groningen in Europe

#R = # round, Group = group stage, 1/8 = round of 16,
PUC = points UEFA coefficients,
* is a home match

GVAV in Europe

Season Competition Round Country Club Score PUC
1967 Intertoto Cup Group France Lille 1–3*, 1–2 0.0
Switzerland Sion 1–0*, 1–3
Belgium Beerschot VAC 0–0*, 1–1
1969 Intertoto Cup Group Denmark Frem 2–2*, 2–0 0.0
Czechoslovakia Dukla Pardubice 1–2*, 1–2
Austria Linzer ASK 1–0*, 0–0

Groningen in Europe

Season Competition Round Country Club Score PUC
1983–84 UEFA Cup R1 Spain Atlético Madrid 1–2, 3–0* 4.0
R2 Italy Internazionale 2–0*, 1–5 in Bari
1986–87 UEFA Cup R1 Republic of Ireland Galway United 5–1*, 3–1 in Carraroe 8.0
R2 Switzerland Neuchâtel Xamax 0–0*, 1–1
1/8 Portugal Vitória Guimarães 1–0*, 0–3
1988–89 UEFA Cup R1 Spain Atlético Madrid 1–0*, 1–2 5.0
R2 Switzerland Servette 2–0*, 1–1
1/8 Germany Stuttgart 1–3*, 0–2
1989–90 Cup Winners' Cup R1 Denmark Ikast 1–0*, 2–1 6.0
1/8 Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Partizan 4–3*, 1–3
1991–92 UEFA Cup R1 Germany Rot-Weiß Erfurt 0–1*, 0–1 0.0
1992–93 UEFA Cup R1 Hungary Vác FC-Samsung 0–1, 1–1* 1.0
1995 Intertoto Cup Group Czechoslovakia Boby Brno 2–1 0.0
Bulgaria Etar Veliko Tarnovo 3–0*
Belgium Beveren 2–2
Romania Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț 0–0*
1996 Intertoto Cup Group Turkey Gaziantepspor 1–1* 0.0
Estonia Narva Trans 4–1
Hungary Vasas 1–1*
Belgium Lierse 1–2
1997 Intertoto Cup Group Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Čukarički Stankom 1–0* 0.0
Bulgaria Spartak Varna 2–0
Romania Gloria Bistriţa 4–1*
France Montpellier 0–3
2006–07 UEFA Cup R1 Serbia Partizan 2–4, 1–0* 13–9
2007–08 UEFA Cup R1 Italy Fiorentina 1–1*, 1–1 pen (3–4) 2.0
2014–15 UEFA Europa League Q2 Scotland Aberdeen 0–0, 1–2* 0.5
2015–16 UEFA Europa League Group Portugal SC Braga 0–1, 0-0 2.0
Czech Republic Slovan Liberec 1–1, 0-1
France Marseille 0–3, 1-2
Total number of points for the UEFA coefficients: 28.5

Honours

Competition Champion Runner-up
Amount Seasons Amount Season
National
Eerste Divisie 2x 1959–60, 1979–80 4x 1970–71, 1974–75, 1978–79, 1998–99
KNVB Cup 1x 2014–15 1x 1988–89
Johan Cruijff Shield - - 1x 2015

Players

First-team squad

As of 31 August 2016

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 Netherlands GK Sergio Padt (Captain)
2 Australia DF Jason Davidson (on loan from Huddersfield Town)
3 Denmark DF Kasper Larsen
5 Bosnia and Herzegovina DF Samir Memišević
6 Netherlands DF Etiënne Reijnen (Vice-captain)
8 Norway MF Ruben Yttergård Jenssen
9 Netherlands FW Danny Hoesen
10 Slovakia MF Albert Rusnák
11 Netherlands MF Bryan Linssen
12 Netherlands MF Juninho Bacuna
13 Norway FW Alexander Sørloth
14 Netherlands FW Mimoun Mahi
No. Position Player
16 Netherlands GK Stefan van der Lei
17 Netherlands MF Jesper Drost
19 Netherlands FW Tom van Weert
20 Netherlands MF Yoell van Nieff
21 Netherlands DF Martijn van der Laan
22 Sweden MF Simon Tibbling
23 Netherlands MF Hedwiges Maduro
24 Netherlands MF Tom Hiariej
25 United States DF Desevio Payne
33 Netherlands DF Hans Hateboer
45 Netherlands FW Oussama Idrissi

Reserve-team squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
35 Netherlands DF Glenn Bijl
46 Netherlands FW Gijs Jasper
50 Netherlands DF Keziah Veendorp
52 Netherlands MF Robbert de Vos
Netherlands DF Roland Baas
Netherlands DF Joël Amakodo
No. Position Player
Netherlands DF Jim de Leeuw
Australia MF Ajdin Hrustic
Netherlands FW Kasper Oldenburger
Netherlands FW Pier Veldman
Papua New Guinea FW David Browne

Players with dual citizenship

Managers

Notable (former) players

The players below had senior international cap(s) for their respective countries. Players whose name is listed represented their countries while playing for FC Groningen and its predecessor GVAV.

See also

References

  1. (Dutch) Various authors, 40 jaar FC Groningen en de historie van GVAV (De Buitenspelers, 2011) 100–113
  2. (Dutch) Various authors, 40 jaar FC Groningen en de historie van GVAV (De Buitenspelers, 2011) 12–26.
  3. (Dutch) Henk Hendriks & Henk Hovingh, 1986: 15 jaar FC Groningen (Uitgeverij Adrem, 1986) 7–8.
  4. (Dutch) "Coach Maaskant na dit seizoen weg bij FC Groningen", NU.nl, 2013.
  5. (Dutch) "Van de Looi volgt Maaskant op bij FC Groningen", FCUpdate.nl, 2013.
  6. Harris. "Harris FC Groningen supporters site". Trotsvanhetnoorden.nl. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
  7. Harris. "Harris FC Groningen supporters site". Trotsvanhetnoorden.nl. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to FC Groningen.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.