Sunday 25 September 2022

NETHERLANDS: EVV Eindhoven AV (1981-1988) / EVV Eindhoven (1988-2013) / SC Eindhoven (B) (±1993-1997) / SBV Eindhoven (B) (1997-2002) / FC Eindhoven (B) (2002-2007) / FC Eindhoven AV (2013-2015, 2016-) / FC Eindhoven AV (B) (2015-2016)

Sportpark Genneper Parken "De Weide Blick" - veld 1, Eindhoven (FC Eindhoven AV, formerly EVV Eindhoven AV / EVV Eindhoven / B ground of SC Eindhoven - SBV Eindhoven - FC Eindhoven - FC Eindhoven AV)

Netherlands, province: North Brabant

25 IX 2022 / FC Eindhoven AV - RKSV Nemelaer 1-0 / Sunday League 1B (= NL level 6)

Timeline
  • 1909 / Foundation of Eindhovense Voetbalvereeniging (EVV) as a merger of two older local clubs, Sparta and Eindhovia. 
  • 1921 / EVV merges with Gestel (not to be confused with vv Gestel) to become EVV Eindhoven.
  • 1922 / EVV Eindhoven wins the title in Tweede Klasse, acceding to Eerste Klasse Zuid - Eerste Klasse being the highest level of the Netherlands' football pyramid at the time, subdivided into regional branches.
  • 1934 / At Aalsterweg in Stratum, Eindhoven, a new stadium is built for EVV Eindhoven. On September 9th, 1934, the ground is inaugurated with EVV taking on Ajax (suffering a 8-2 defeat).
  • 1937 / EVV Eindhoven wins its first silverware, as the club obtains the so-called Holdertbeker - as the Netherlands' Cup is called at the time. In the final, played at DWS's Sportterrein aan de Spaarndammerdijk in Amsterdam, EVV defeats AVV De Spartaan (Amsterdam), with Frits Kruger scoring the only goal of the match.
  • 1939 / Finishing first in the southern branch of Eerste Klasse, EVV takes part in the national title play-offs for the first time, finishing fourth among five competing clubs.
  • 1942 / EVV finishes second in the national title play-offs behind ADO (The Hague).
  • 1953 / For a second time, EVV finishes second in the national title play-offs, with RCH (Heemstede) obtaining the title.
  • 1954 / EVV Eindhoven wins its first and only national title by winning the title play-offs against DOS (Utrecht), DWS (Amsterdam), and eternal city rivals PSV. That same year, professional league football is introduced in the Netherlands, with EVV Eindhoven making the leap to the professional competition. For EVV Eindhoven's history as a professional league side, click to the article about Aalsterweg / Jan Louwersstadion.
  • 1981 / EVV Eindhoven's lower teams are moved away from the side pitches of the stadium at Aalsterweg - more specifically the main side pitch situated on the spot occupied nowadays by Indoor Sportcentrum Eindhoven - to Sportpark Genneper Parken, where they settle down at that ground's southern half at Velddoornweg (sometimes referred to by the name of its clubhouse, 'De Weide Blick'). That summer, the premises there were abandoned by vv Tuindorp (which was absorbed by VVS, Voetbalvereniging Stratum). Before EVV moved in, the main pitch was given a 90 degrees turn to give it its present position. At the time, the northern part of Genneper Parken is occupied by vv Gestelse Boys (entrance at Wim van Tuijllaan). Sportpark Genneper Parken, situated at a walking distance from Sportpark Aalsterweg, must have been inaugurated around 1974 - with vv Tuindorp and vv Gestelse Boys being the park's first users. From 1981 onwards, EVV Eindhoven's amateur branch fields a first team in the Sunday pyramid of the Netherlands' non-league system.
  • 1988 / The professional league club EVV Eindhoven is renamed Sportclub (SC) Eindhoven (later renamed SBV Eindhoven and FC Eindhoven) - entailing, in effect, a formal separation between EVV's league and non-league branches.
  • ± 1993 / SC Eindhoven moves part of its youth academy to Sportpark Genneper Parken, in effect groundsharing with its non-league sister club. 
  • 2005 / vv Gestelse Boys, users of the northern half of Sportpark Genneper Parken, concludes a merger with RKVV Veloc, resulting in the foundation of vv Gestel. All activities move to Veloc's Sportpark Dommeldal Zuid (Locatelliweg). The covered stand of Gestelse Boys' main pitch is knocked down. All of Gestelse Boys' pitches have since been in use as side-pitches by FC Eindhoven AV.
  • 2007 / Meanwhile in grave financial difficulties, pro side FC Eindhoven gives up most of its youth academy, sounding the death-knell for its groundshare with EVV Eindhoven at Sportpark Genneper Parken.
  • 2013 / EVV Eindhoven is renamed FC Eindhoven Amateurvereniging (AV) to stress its common history with the professional league branch, which took on the name FC Eindhoven in 2002.
  • 2015 / Ambitious investor André Nijssen takes over FC Eindhoven AV's technical directorship, inaugurating a period of striking success of the club's first team. For a time, first team football moves to Jan Louwersstadion - the current name of Sportpark Aalsterweg, the stadium of FC Eindhoven. Also in the following seasons, FC Eindhoven's AV first team football regularly switches from Sportpark Genneper Parken to the stadium, especially when the state of the main pitch at Velddoornweg is deemed unfit for football.
  • 2016 / FC Eindhoven AV wins the title in Sunday League 4G of District South II, thus gaining promotion to Sunday League 3 for the first time in its history.
  • 2017 / Winning the promotion play-offs after having come third in its first season in Sunday League 3, FC Eindhoven AV accedes to Sunday League 2.
  • 2019 / Finishing first in Sunday League 2F, FC Eindhoven AV manages to climb further up the league ladder, being placed in Sunday League 1 - the sixth level of the Netherlands' football pyramid.
  • 2023 / FC Eindhoven AV finishes last in Sunday League 1B, thus descending back into L2 after 4 years. André Nijssen withdraws from his position of technical director. 
  • 2023 (projected) / Equally, there are plans for FC Eindhoven's youth academy to move back into Sportpark Genneper Parken; it remains to be seen if these plans come to fruition. By the summer of 2023, nothing of the sort seems to have happened yet.
Note 1: Thanks to Bert Wildenberg for providing important parts of the information above. 

Note 2: Below, a compilation of photos of two different visits: pictures 1 & 3 = non-matchday visit, June 2022 / pictures 2 & 4-16 = match visit, September 2022.















All photos: (c) W.B. Tukker / www.extremefootballtourism.blogspot.com. Publication of any of these images only after permission of author

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