FC Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
FC
Amsterdam was founded June 23rd, 1972, after two clubs, Blauw Wit
and DWS merged together. Blauw Wit Amsterdam, which translates into English as
Blue-White got their name because of their club colours. They, as a club were
founded in 1902 and had originally had a big rivalry with Ajax, in which both
clubs shared the Olympic stadium between the years of 1928-1972 and before that
the Blauw-Wit played at the Old Stadion from 1914-1928. They played a total of
52 competitive derbies against Ajax known as the Stadsderby, winning 16 ,
drawing 13 and losing 23 against their old foe. The club then merged with DWS
but still remain as an amateur club until this day.
DWS
had a more colourful history having being renamed a couple of times. AFC DWS
was founded October 11th 1907, by three men named Robert Beijerbacht, Theo
Beijerbacht and Jan van Galen. The club was originally named Fortuna but
renamed soon after to Hercules. It wasn’t until March 22nd, 1909,
that the name was changed to Amsterdam DWS, with the DWS standing for Door
Wilskracht Sterk, which translated to English means, Strong Through Willpower.
DWS went on to enter professional football in 1954, playing their home games at
the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam. In 1958 it merged with BVC/Amsterdam into a
club named DWS/A but on 1962 the name of the club changed again and reverted
back into DWS.
It was 1964 when DWS did something no other Dutch club has
managed to do in gaining promotion and then winning the Eredivisie in back to
back seasons. The 1964-65 season saw the club reach the quarter-finals of the
European Cup, losing 2-1 on aggregate to Hungarian side Vasas ETO Gyor, drawing
1-1 in the first leg in front of 46,915 at the Olympic Stadion and losing 1-0
in the second leg at the Martirok utja Stadium with Povazsai scoring an 87th
minute winner for the Hungarian side, breaking DWS fans hearts.
A fun fact about the club is they are the last club to win
the Dutch Eredivisie title to not wear a predominantly red and white coloured
home jersey, with PSV, Ajax, Feyenoord, AZ and FC Twente all doing so in their
own league triumphs.
In 1972 the club merged with Blauw-Wit Amsterdam and then
later, Volewijckers joined up in 1973-74, to form FC Amsterdam. DWS did
continue as an amateur football club and celebrated their 100 year anniversary
in 2007.
In the 1973-74 season the club finished a respectable 5th
out of 18 clubs in the Dutch top division, which qualified them for the 1974-75
UEFA cup. The first round saw them ease past Maltese club, Hibernians, 12-0 on
aggregate, 5-0 at home and 7-0 in the away leg, The attendance for the home leg
was only a mere 3,007, compared to their city rivals, Ajax, who were playing
the same competition and in that same round had an attendance of 29,000 for
their home leg against English side Stoke City, which ended in a 0-0 draw.
The second round saw FC Amsterdam take on the mighty Inter
Milan, in which not many gave the Dutch team a chance. However, they proved
everyone wrong, beating Inter 2-1 at the San Siro thanks to a brace scored by
Nico Jansen. The home leg ended in a 0-0 draw, but again the attendance of the
match was quite low, with only 8,667 people watching one of the clubs greatest
achievements. The third round was a much easier affair with the club defeating
German side Fortuna Dussledorf 5-1 on aggregate, winning 3-0 in the home leg,
Husers with a brace and an own goal, while beating Fortuna 2-1 at the
Rheinstadion, with goals coming from Husers and Nico Jansen. This sey up a
quarter-final tie with another German side, Koln, but it wasn’t going to be as
easy. This German side proved to be too strong for FC Amsterdam and thrashed
them 5-1 in the first leg at the Mungersdorfer Stadion in front of 25,000
spectators. The home leg at the Olympic stadium ended in a 3-2 loss, with Koln
going 3-0 up. Nico Jansen scored two in the second half to make the score look
respectable on the day but Amsterdam’s european adventure was over losing 8-3
on aggregate.
That season was to be the peak of FC Amsterdam’s achievements
and they were rellagted in the 1977-78 season from the Eredivisie to the Eerste
Divisie. The club finished 9th in their first season back in the
second division, winning 14, drawing 10 and losing 12 games. They were only
four points off a play-off spot and were hopeful that the next season they
would be challenging for promotion. But that wasn’t to be the case as the club
finished 16th the next season, only three points above the
relegation places having just won nine of their 36 games that season.
The next season would be the last for FC Amsterdam. Although
finishing in a higher position than the previous season, 13th, the
club saw their attendances dwindle due to lack of success the club withdrew
from the league and disbanded. In their short history as FC Amsterdam, the club
had players such as Jan Jongbloed, the Dutch goalkeeper in the 1974 World Cup,
Geert Meijer, who went on to play for city rivals Ajax for three seasons and
Nico Jansen who was regarded as their best ever player, scoring 41 times in 78
appearances for the club. He went on to play for Feynoord, scoring 43 times in
68 appearances for them.
In my search for a former fan or an expert on Dutch football
I was put in the direction of plenty of names that could help me. But one name
kept being mentioned and that was a man named Martijn Schwillens, author of
many football books but one that really stood out to me was ‘Verdwenen Maar
Niet Vergeten’ which roughly translates as ‘Forgotten Clubs of Netherlands’. I
got in touch with Martijn and his knowledge and insight into FC Amsterdam was
just as I expected, brilliant.
What was your inspiration for writing
'Verdwenen profclubs'?
Martijn: Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated
by the rankings of the Dutch Eredivisie and Eerste Division, the only two
professional levels in The Netherlands. When I first got interested in going to
football myself (late '80's), I quickly noticed a few teams were missing in the
rankings including FC Amsterdam and a couple of new teams had replaced them,
such as FC Emmen and RKC Waalwijk. Furthermore I grew up with the stories of my
father going to Fortuna'54, the first ever professional football club in the
Netherlands (mind you, not the oldest, but we started a professional Football
League not sooner than 1954). This club later merged with Sittardia into
Fortuna Sittard, the team I still support.
FC Amsterdam are one of the clubs you
write about. What was your view on that club? Can you tell me anything about
their fans that you may have learned in your research?
Martijn: FC Amsterdam played their last ever
match in front of a mere 500 spectators at pitch 2 of the Olympic Stadium in
Amsterdam. However, the club was formed after a merger of DWS Amsterdam and
Blauw Wit (Blue White) an DWS was well supporter, with more than 10,000 fans
going there every fortnight. Therefore, most FC Amsterdam were fans of the
former. However, after getting relegated after a couple of years (merger did
not bring in bigger numbers at home matches and the club was funded by one man: De
Stoop) the demise of FC Amsterdam went quick. Most fans turned to Ajax of
distance themselves from football in Amsterdam altogether. Mind you, in the
early '80's Ajax only drew 14,000 people.
Like my native Ireland, The Netherlands
have had a few 'Forgotten Clubs' as well. Who was your favourite club that you
wrote about or the most interesting?
Martijn: I have visited every 'forgotten
professional club' that went bust after 1992. The club I liked best, was SC
Veendam. Their stadium, De Langeleegte, was well-known by football supporters
all over the country. Veendam is a very distant town in the northeast of the
province of Groningen. Even from the middle of the Netherlands it will take you
2,5 hours to get there. I also liked RBC Roosendaal and Haarlem though.
Can you tell me any interesting or
original fact you came across when researching/writing about FC Amsterdam?
Martijn: What springs to mind is that a lot of FC
Amsterdam (DWS) supporters, all being older than 50, hardly ever go or ever
went to Ajax. The club is still being missed by a small number of football
minded people in the capital. Ajax is also a nationally supported team. Most
season ticket holders do not come from Amsterdam but from all over The
Netherlands.
Amsterdam is such a big city, and its
people love football so much. Can I ask, why is there only one professional
club in the city? Or at least major one. For example London has loads, even
Dublin has six professional football clubs.
Martijn: Unlike Ireland, Britain or Germany, The
Netherlands have closed pyramid, so there are hardly ever amateur teams getting
into the professional ranks (Achilles'29 gave it a run for five years and then
went bust). The Second Division is a semi-professional league, but the
champions opt to stay there. Therefore teams are not getting relegated from the
First Division. AFC Amsterdam became the champions a couple of years ago but
they wanted to stay semi-professional too. Therefore Amsterdam will not have a
second professional team, as AFC Amsterdam are by far the best amateur side of
the city. Eindhoven (two) and Rotterdam (three) have more clubs in one city
though.
Can you ever see another Amsterdam club
rivalry again? A major Derby in the city in the future?
Martijn: In fairness, I cannot see it happen. As
long as the Dutch FA does not allow teams going up from the Second Division to
remain semi-professional, teams will opt to stay in the amateur ranks.
Unfortunately! And if it would happen, a big city rivalry will never be the
case. AFC Amsterdam is even popular among Ajax fans, whilst the FC Amsterdam
(or DWS) was seen as a big rival and even hatred seen from a FC Amsterdam's
fans' perspective. The real rivalry will always be Feyenoord-Ajax.
I found FC
Amsterdam to be one of the most intriguing yet more complicated clubs that I
researched. A club that was merged from three different clubs, dissolving into
nothing. It still amazes me that in a such a football mad city like Amsterdam
there is only one major club there and as someone who lives a local derby I
find it a little bit of a waste that Amsterdam does not have one anymore,
although it seems their fans are happy to have one with Feyenoord.
Nevertheless, surely there is room for another club in Amsterdam? Or maybe I’m
just being naïve and the football romantic inside me just wants an Amsterdam
derby to watch in the future. I guess we will have to wait and see, but for the
moment, Ajax are the only team in Amsterdam.