- Koninklijke HFC
Koninklijke HFC (Royal Haarlemsche Football Club) is a football club in
Haarlem ,The Netherlands . It is the oldest club in Dutch history, founded byPim Mulier in1879 . During the first years the only team played rugby but due to financial problems they switched to association football. The first official football match in the Netherlands was played in1886 between HFC andAmsterdam Sport .Overview
In
1899 they moved from their home ground "De Koekamp" to the "Spanjaardslaan" where until today they still play their matches. In that period the Spanjaardslaan (Spaniard's lane), the east-west road at the southern edge of the oldest public park of theNetherlands was part ofHeemstede , but switched back toHaarlem in 1927.The
Netherlands national football team played two of their international matches at the Spanjaardslaan. Both matches were versus Belgium, resulting in a 1-2 loss and a 7-0 win. In the past HFC contributed several players to theNetherlands national football team . Of those players goalkeeperGejus van der Meulen obtained the most caps, 54. At present his grandson still plays for HFC.Before the Dutch championship was officially established HFC won three unofficial national titles:
* 1889-1890
* 1892-1893
* 1894-1895Three times in the club's history they won the
KNVB Cup (1904, 1913 and 1915). In the cup competition of 1903-1904 HFC beat VVV from Amsterdam with 25-0, still a record in Dutch cup competition.The club was named
Koninklijk (Royal) in 1959, 80 years after the club was founded. Since 1923 the first team of HFC plays the opening match of a new year versus a selection of former Dutch international players onJanuary 1 . With more than 1600 members HFC is one of the largest football clubs in the Netherlands.
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