FC Utrecht

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FC Utrecht

Full name

Football Club Utrecht

Nickname(s)

Utreg

Founded

July 1, 1970

Ground

Stadion Galgenwaard
Utrecht
(Capacity 24,426)

Chairman

Jan Willem van Dop

Manager

Willem van Hanegem

League

Eredivisie

2007/2008

Eredivisie, 10th





Home colours





Away colours

FC Utrecht is a Dutch football club founded on July 1, 1970. It was a merger of three clubs from the city of Utrecht: DOS, Elinkwijk and Velox. It featured in the UEFA Cup in the 1980s several times but suffered a downturn in fortunes after 1991 and had to wait for a further ten years to play European football again.

DOS won the national championship in 1958. FC Utrecht has won the KNVB Cup three times: in 1985, 2003 and 2004. In 2004 FC Utrecht won the Johan Cruijff Shield. FC Utrecht was the first club outside the traditional top three Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV to win this Trophy. FC Utrecht is also the only club outside the traditional top three that has never relegated out of the Dutch Eredivisie. Partly the cause of this may be the relatively late founding, but it has to be noted that every other team, apart from the traditional top three, currently in the Eredivisie has relegated at least once since the founding of FC Utrecht.

Its stadium is the Stadion Galgenwaard having been previously first named Galgenwaard and later Nieuw Galgenwaard with a current capacity of 24,426 spectators. The average attendance in 2004/05 was 19,600 people. In the season 2006/07 the average attendance has risen to 20,004 people. The club's colours are red and white.

Willem van Hanegem has been appointed manager of FC Utrecht in July 2007. Foeke Booy, the previous manager who led the team to two cup titles, has left the club for Saudi-Arabia.

On the second of April 2008 it has been announced that former owner of Mammoet, Van Seumeren, has taken over 51% of the shares of FC Utrecht. This makes Utrecht the second club in the Netherlands, after AZ, to be owned by investors. The city of Utrecht welcomed the purchase, because it would mean that financial problems FC Utrecht might be facing in the future will no longer be affecting the city's finances.^{[citation needed]}

The board of FC Utrecht has further announced that, because of the money they got for this take over, there will be more room for youth facilities and scouting. Also the board wants FC Utrecht to be competing within the top of the Eredivisie in five years.

On April 9th 2008, it was announced in an English local newspaper that Utrecht will be forming a partnership with English club Derby County, it was said that they will be 'forging links' similar to the way in which Manchester United have done with Belgian club Royal Antwerp.

1 Honours
2 Current squad
3 Out on loan
- 3.1 Retired numbers
4 Notable players
5 Former managers
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Honours

Eredivisie
- Winner: 1958

KNVB Cup
- Winners: 1985, 2003, 2004
- Runners-up: 1982, 2002

Johan Cruijff Shield
- Winners: 2004

[edit] Current squad

[1]

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Michel Vorm
2	DF	Tim Cornelisse
3	DF	Erik Pieters
5	DF	Etienne Shew-Atjon
7	FW	Kevin Vandenbergh
8	MF	Michael Silberbauer
10	MF	Tom Caluwé
11	FW	Cedric van der Gun
12	MF	Lucian Sânmartean
14	FW	Peter Kopteff
15	MF	Gianluca Nijholt
16	GK	Franck Grandel
17	DF	Alje Schut
18	MF	Gregoor van Dijk
19	FW	Giuseppe Rossini
20	FW	Loïc Loval
21	MF	Rick Kruys

No.	Position	Player
22	DF	Sander Keller
23	MF	Hans Somers
24	DF	Kees van Buuren
25	DF	Francis Dickoh
28	GK	André Krul
30	MF	Jasper Bolland
31	FW	Ingmar Maayen
32	DF	Jahri Valentijn
33	FW	Mohammed Faouzi
37	GK	Wesley de Ruiter
38	FW	Ramon Leeuwin
39	DF	Nick Kuipers
41	FW	Leroy George
42	MF	Irfan Bachdim
45	DF	Mike van der Kooy
46	DF	Tim Noordraven
47	FW	Randy Wolters