Extreme Football Tourism: NETHERLANDS: vv Pelikaan-S

MCO Gaveborg, Oostwold (Westerkwartier) (vv Pelikaan-S)

Netherlands, province: Groningen

17 II 2024 / vv Pelikaan-S - SDVB 5-1 / National Division 4D (= NL level 5)

Timeline

1957 / Foundation of a football club in Oostwold, a small hamlet just to the west of the city of Groningen. A local landlord and industrial magnate, Jo Smit, the owner of Oostwold’s straw-board factory ‘Erica II’, put a plot of land at the disposal of the fledgling club – upon which the thankful founding members decided to name it after the best horse in Mr Smit’s stable of racehorses, Pelikaan-S (the S being an acronym of the owner’s surname). The first pitch of vv Pelikaan-S is situated at Munnikevaart. The club joins the Groningse Voetbalbond (GVB), the league association of clubs from the province of Groningen playing their football below the level of KNVB District North’s Saturday League 4.
± 1970 / Having spent the first years of its existence at Terrein Munnikevaart, vv Pelikaan-S move on to a ground in the heart of the village, Terrein Hoofdstraat – usually referred to simply as Sportpark Oostwold.
1973 / Clinching the title in GVB Saturday Division 2B, vv Pelikaan-S – probably for the first time – accedes to GVB Saturday Division 1.
1974 / In the best season in club history until the turn of the century, vv Pelikaan-S manages a respectable third place in GVB Saturday Division 1B.
1977 / Having spent four seasons in GVB Saturday Division 1, vv Pelikaan-S drops back into GVB Division 2. In the following eighteen years, the club alternates spells in GVB Divisions 1, 2, and 3 – sometimes withdrawing their first team and preferring to compete only in GVB’s reserves’ leagues.
1995 / Winning the title in GVB Saturday Division 3A, vv Pelikaan-S manages a return to GVB D2, having suffered relegation from that level the previous season.
1996 / With the GVB and all other local football associations being absorbed into the regular KNVB divisions, vv Pelikaan-S is placed in KNVB District North’s Saturday League 5C – descending into Saturday League 6 in 1997.
2010 / As Saturday League 6 is abolished in District North, vv Pelikaan-S is placed in Saturday League 5.
2011 / In a complete renovation of Sportpark Oostwold and its surroundings, vv Pelikaan-S gives up its main pitch, which has to make way for housing and a parking lot for the new-to-be-built ‘Multifunctioneel Centrum Oostwold (MCO) Gaveborg’, a two-storey construction which houses two primary schools, a day-care, a village hall doubling as a sports canteen, a fitness room, an indoor sports hall, and a new set of changing rooms for vv Pelikaan-S. The club’s training pitch, situated behind the new hall, is equipped with a 3G surface, henceforth being vv Pelikaan-S only pitch.
2014 / As Wim Bulten, son of a smallholder in Oostwold who managed to become the main real estate tycoon in the city of Groningen, takes over the presidency of the club – investing money into the squad – vv Pelikaan-S immediately registers a remarkable success, winning the title in District North’s Saturday League 5E, 9 points ahead of closest rivals vv Niekerk, thus acceding to Saturday League 4 for the first time in club history.
2015 / Winning a second title in a row, this time in Saturday League 4C – no fewer than 14 points ahead of vv Mamio – vv Pelikaan-S, coached by John de Hoop, accedes to Saturday League 3 for the first time in club history.
2016 / Winning a third title in a row, this time in District North’s Saturday League 3C – 5 points ahead of vv Groningen – vv Pelikaan-S, still coached by John de Hoop, accedes to Saturday League 2 for the first time in club history.
2017 / Missing out on its fourth consecutive title – finishing runners-up in Saturday League 2J, 6 points behind vv Groningen – vv Pelikaan-S qualifies for the promotion play-offs, defeating vv Hardegarijp in R1 (3-0 A.E.T.) only to be eliminated in the final by vv Noordscheschut (3-2). As such, the club misses out on promotion to Saturday League 1.
2018 / vv Pelikaan-S misses out on the title in Saturday League 2J in the most dramatic of fashions, losing its last regular league match of the season 3-2 away at GV Groen-Geel, while the last remaining rival, SV Bedum, manages a 3-2 home defeat over vv Omlandia, thereby finishing 1 point ahead of vv Pelikaan-S. For the subsequent round of promotion play-offs, Wim Bulten signs Sergio van Dijk and Kurt Elshot, two former professional league players, on short-term contracts, while firing the trainer and having him replaced by former professional league player and coach Joop Gall. Edging past vv BCV in R1 (1-0) and annihilating CVV Blauw-Wit ’34 in R2 (0-4), the club suffers a dramatic last-minute defeat in the final, away at vv d’Olde Veste ’54 (1-0) – thus just missing out on promotion to Saturday League 1 for the second time running.
2019 / The first club in the Netherlands to secure its title in the 2018-19 season – obtaining the decisive points in an emphatic 7-0 home win over csv FC Meppel – vv Pelikaan-S eventually finishes 11 points ahead of closest rivals SV DESZ in Saturday League 2J, thus finally gaining promotion to Saturday League 1.
2022 / Having been denied the opportunity to win promotion in the previous two seasons due to the COVID lockdowns, vv Pelikaan-S now finishes in third place in its first full season in Saturday League 1E, 13 points behind champions vv d’Olde Veste ’54. In the promotion play-offs for a place in Zaterdag Hoofdklasse, the club is eliminated in R1 by SV Honselersdijk (2-3). Later that year, in September 2022, club chairman and main sponsor Wim Bulten, allegedly suffering from depressions, is found dead in one of his apartments in Groningen; he was 61 years old.
2023 / Coached by Jan Kloetstra, vv Pelikaan-S clinches the title in Saturady League 1F by converting a penalty in the last minute of regular play in the last regular league match of the season (a 2-1 home win over CVV Oranje Nassau 1918), thereby managing to finish 1 point ahead of rival club CVV ONS Sneek. As such, vv Pelikaan-S wins a historic promotion to the national divisions, being placed in National Division 4D – the fifth and lowest tier of the Netherlands’ national league pyramid – for the 2023-24 season.
2024 / In February 2024, with the club being bottom of the table in National Division 4D, the club makes known its decision to withdraw its first team from the national league pyramid and make a new start in the 2024-25 season in the bottom division of District North, Saturday League 5.