SC Heerenveen
Sportclub Heerenveen is a Dutch professional football club from Heerenveen. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top level of football in the Netherlands. The club is known for its Frisian identity.
History
Sportclub Heerenveen was founded on 20 July 1920 in the town of Heerenveen, Friesland, as Athleta. It changed name twice, first to Spartaan and then to v.v. Heerenveen in 1922. While the Netherlands was occupied by Germany, Heerenveen won three successive North of the Netherlands championships, and following the end of World War II it went on to win the same title six times in a row; the club's dominance partly ascribed to the presence of Abe Lenstra. During this period, Lenstra led Heerenveen to a famous victory over Ajax in one of the most noted games in Dutch domestic football history. Trailing 5–1 with 25 minutes remaining, the Frisian team inexplicably fought back for a 6–5 victory.During the 1950s, Heerenveen regional dominance faded and after Dutch football turned professional Lenstra left to join Sportclub Enschede, before the club he departed was relegated to the Tweede Divisie. By the end of the decade, Heerenveen was in the Eerste Divisie, but found itself relegated again. In 1969–70, the Frisian club won the Tweede Divisie to return to the Eerste Divisie and for two seasons in the 1970s, the club was close to achieving promotion to the top-flight Eredivisie. By 1974, the club was in financial trouble and to ensure its survival it was split into amateur and professional sections on 1 June 1977, the professional part being renamed sc Heerenveen.
In the 1980s, Heerenveen twice made the promotion playoffs, but were unsuccessful both times. It finally reached the Eredivisie in 1990, becoming the first Frisian club to reach the top level, at the expense of near-neighbours Cambuur. The achievement was overseen by Frisian coach Foppe de Haan. Heerenveen's first season in the Netherlands' top division was not at all successful and it was relegated, before returning in 1993, though they reached the final of the KNVB Cup while still an Eerste Divisie club. Having established itself as a top-flight club, Heerenveen moved to a new stadium, named after their most celebrated player, the Abe Lenstra Stadion, and reached the final of the KNVB Cup for a second time. The 1998 semi-final in the cup competition was lost to Ajax. Because Ajax and the other finalist, PSV, had both qualified for the cup final, a decision match was needed to fill in the vacant spot for the next season's UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Heerenveen had to play against the other losing semi-finalist, Twente. Heerenveen won that match in which Ruud van Nistelrooy scored his last goal for Heerenveen. The match ended 3–1.
Heerenveen became regular competitors in the UEFA Cup, and in 1999–2000 finished second in the Eredivisie, its highest ever finish, and qualified for the 2000–01 [UEFA Champions League].
The club was led from 1983 until September 2006 by president Riemer van der Velde, the longest tenure of any president with a professional club in the Netherlands. As the results of recent transfers that include Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Afonso Alves, Michael Bradley, Miralem Sulejmani, Petter Hansson and Danijel Pranjić, Heerenveen is one of the most financially secure Eredivisie clubs. A 2010 report by the Dutch football association showed that Heerenveen is the only Eredivisie club that has a financially secure budget. Under the tenure of Trond Sollied, Heerenveen won its first KNVB Cup, also its first ever major trophy. Trond Sollied, however, was sacked on 31 August 2009 due to a weak opening of the season and a conflict with the board.
On 17 May 2009, the club defeated Twente 5–4 in a penalty shoot-out to win the Dutch Cup for the first time after a 2–2 draw in the final, with Gerald Sibon scoring the winning penalty. On 13 February 2012, it was announced that Marco van Basten would replace Ron Jans, who had led Heerenveen for two years, as team manager for the 2012–13 season.. Van Basten would lead Heerenveen to an 8th place finish in his first season and a 5th place finish in the 13 - 14 season, missing out on European qualification by just 2 points. In this season Alfreð Finnbogason would also crown himself top scorer of the league, whilst also becoming Heerenveen's all time top scorer in the Eredivisie. In January 2014 Van Basten would announce he wouldn't sign a new contract with the club. Dwight Lodeweges would be his replacement, joining from rivals Cambuur. Lodeweges would stay at the club until October 2015, where a bad start in the 15 - 16 season would see Heerenveen in 15th after nine games with just one win would see him resign.
Foppe de Haan would return as interim manager for the next few games, but in the end ended up finishing the entire season. At the start of 2016 the club would announce that Luuc Eisinga would become director. In March of 2016 the club would announce that Jurgen Streppel would join from Willem II for the 2016 - 17 Eredivisie season. He would lead the club to consecutive European play-offs, leaving the club after 2 years in 2018. His replacement Jan Olde Riekerink would get sacked in April of 2019 with the club in 10th place of the Eredivisie. His assistant Johnny Jansen would see out the season as the interim manager. Jansen would sign a contract keeping him as permanent manager at the end of the season. On the 1st of March 2019 Luuc Eisinga would also get removed from his position as director, getting replaced by Cees Roozemond, who would stay in the job until 2023.
In January of 2022 Jansen would get sacked, being replaced by Ole Tobiasen on an interim basis. Tobiasen would lead the team to European play-offs in the 21 - 22 season. In the summer Kees van Wonderen would take the job, joining from Go Ahead Eagles. He would bring the club to the European play-offs in his first season, but failed to do so in his second, meaning the club wouldn't renew his contract. He would be replaced by Robin van Persie in the summer of 2024. Van Persie would leave the club after just eight months to rejoin Feyenoord. Robin Veldman who had previously been manager of several youth teams at the club, would come in to replace him. Heerenveen would end the 24 - 25 Eredivisie in 9th place, once again sending them into the European play-offs.
Stadium
The club plays its home matches at the Abe Lenstra Stadium, which opened in 1994 and holds 26,100 people. Before that, the team played at a ground with the same name elsewhere in the town, but it could not meet the increasing popularity of the club. Throughout the years, the club developed several plans to further expand the stadium. One of the plans was to extend at least one side stand towards the pitch, as seen in English football stadiums. Due to deteriorating league results and financial limitedness, however, those plans were shelved. It is uncertain whether or not the club will ever carry them out. Before the move to the Abe Lenstra Stadion, Heerenveen played at the Sportpark Noord. The club's training facilities are regarded as world class, which is said to be a major factor in their recruitment of younger players. The name of the clubs facilities is sportpark. The facilities are shared with VV Heerenveen and sc Heerenveen (women).Colours, crest and anthem
The crest on the club emblem is the symbol of the flag of Friesland. The Flag of [Friesland (province)|flag of Friesland] is based on the arms of the 15th century. The stripes and seeblatt shapes represent the districts of Friesland.A unique tradition in the Dutch Eredivisie is that the Frisian national anthem is played and sung before every domestic match. UEFA does not allow this tradition in European matches. Nevertheless, the anthem is sung by the supporters anyway.
Rivalry
SC Cambuur
Heerenveen retain a very fierce rivalry with SC Cambuur. One of the reasons of the rivalry is the short distance between the two clubs. Because of that the clubs often refer to each other as DKV which stands for Dertig Kilometer Verderop so that they do not have to mention each other's names. However, the biggest and also the most confusing reason is the background of the clubs. Many people who aren't involved in the rivalry find it difficult to understand. Most of the Heerenveen fans are from small villages from the entire province and are very proud of their Frisian identity. Since the 80's the club have been expressing this Frisian pride to the rest of the Netherlands. The Frisian flag, the Frisian anthem, all Frisian symbols were linked to the club, which made Heerenveen the face of Frisia. Because of this Cambuur slowly disappeared in the shadow of Heerenveen, as a reaction to this Cambuur fans started distancing themselves from the Frisian identity. Nowadays Cambuur do not consider themselves Frisian even though they are from the capital of the province. They now call themselves Leeuwarders aka people from the city. Heerenveen fans are mockingly called boeren because Heerenveen isn't a city and the fans mainly live in small villages. Because of the successes of Heerenveen and the meager performances of Cambuur including almost going bankrupt, the rivalry was almost forgotten. When Cambuur got promoted back to the Eredivisie in 2013 by winning the 2012/13 season of the Jupiler League the rivalry got revived. Before the meeting on 29 September 2013 the game hadn't been played for 13 years, giving Cambuur a great opportunity to prove themselves. Heerenveen won that game 2–1. The away game later in the season was won 3–1 by Cambuur.FC Groningen
The absence of Cambuur caused FC Groningen to be the nearest Eredivisie team and soon it became rivals with Heerenveen. Strikingly, both northern sides used to maintain more or less of a friendship in the past. Therefore, this Northern Derby rivalry is only based on geographical location. Because most Heerenveen fans have always considered Cambuur as main rivals, this derby is often referred to as a surrogate derby. Days before the game, Heerenveen and Groningen fans tease each other by means of playful actions, usually with no violence. Heerenveen fans once stole the centre spot from Stadion Oosterpark, and raised the Frisian flag at the Martinitoren, the highest tower in Groningen, combined with a banner saying "SCH op eenzame hoogte" . The front yard of a Groningen chairman once got filled with rubble from a construction site. This was because the construction of the Euroborg had to be halted due to a major design mistake. Groningen fans countered by painting a statue of all-time Heerenveen hero Abe Lenstra green and white, the colours of Groningen. They also transformed a viaduct near Heerenveen to green and white.In the 2001–02 season, Groningen fans awarded Heerenveen player Anthony Lurling with the title of "biggest cheat of the season" and handed him therefore a sewing machine. In that same week the town signs of Heerenveen were changed to "Hoerenveen It Sucks" by the Groningen supporters. The following season, Groningen fans teased the Heerenveen following again, this time by establishing a border post on the border of Groningen and Friesland.
Honours
- Netherlands Football League Championship / Eredivisie
- *Runners-up : 1946–47, 1947–48, 1999–2000
- KNVB Cup
- *Champions : 2008–09
- *Runners-up : 1992–93, 1996–97
- Eerste Divisie
- *Play-off Winners : 1989–90, 1992–93
- *Runners-up : 1980–81
- Tweede Divisie
- *Champions : 1969–70
- *Play-off Winners : 1959–60
