Extreme Football Tourism: NETHERLANDS: HSV SOA (B) (2002-2006) / SV Wateringse Veld (B) (2006-2014) / SV Wateringse Veld GONA (B) (2014-2018) / HSV Celeritas (B) (2016-2018) / SV Wateringse Veld Kranenburg (B) (2018-2021) / FC Skillz (2019-) / SSA FC Skillz-Wateringse Veld (2021-)

Sportpark Zonneveld veld 2, The Hague = Den Haag = 's-Gravenhage Wateringse Veld (SSA FC Skillz Wateringse Veld & FC Skillz, formerly B pitch of HSV SOA / SV Wateringse Veld / SV Wateringse Veld GONA / HSV Celeritas / SV Wateringse Veld Kranenburg)

Netherlands, province: South Holland = Zuid-Holland

15 III 2025 / SSA FC Skillz Wateringse Veld - SC Monster 1-2 / Combined Sunday & Saturday League 1B (= NL level 6)

Timeline

1919 / Foundation of a football club in The Hague, which is given the name DSS, an acronym of ‘Door Samenwerking Sterk’. The club settles on a pasture situated at Waldorpstraat.
1922 / Applying for membership of the so-called Haagsche Voetbalbond (HVB), The Hague’s sub-branch of the Netherlands’ Football Association (NVB, later renamed KNVB), DSS is obliged to change its name due to the acronym already being in use by other clubs. Thereupon, the club is allowed to join with the new name HVV (Haagsche Voetbalvereeniging) SOA, Haagsche Voetbalvereeniging ‘Samenspel Overwint Alles’. Around this time, the club groundshares with vv VOGEL at Terrein Achterweg, at the crossroads with Parkweg, close to the Voorburg water tower.
1926 / Remaining in Voorburg, HVV SOA moves to a newly laid-out pitch at Rodelaan.
1929 / HVV SOA abandons its pitch at Rodelaan, settling on a pasture at Veurste Achterweg in Leidschendam.
1934 / Having to abandon its pitch at Veurste Achterweg, HVV SOA spends the 1934-35 season as groundsharer with various other clubs.
1935 / HVV SOA finds a new home, being given the opportunity to play its matches on the middle section of the so-called Rijswijkse Wielerbaan, a velodrome at Delftweg in Rijswijk.
1939 / Being evicted from the Rijswijkse Wielerbaan, HVV SOA concludes a groundsharing agreement with CVS at Terrein Duinlaan.
1940 / Moving away from Terrein Duinlaan, HVV SOA concludes a new groundsharing agreement with VDS, settling at that club’s pitch, situated at Fruitweg.
1948 / Moving away from Terrein Fruitweg after eight years, HVV SOA settles on the newly laid-out Sportpark Ockenburgh.
1950 / HVV SOA adapts its name to become HSV (Haagse Sportvereniging) SOA.
1974 / Moving away from Sportpark Ockenburgh, HSV SOA moves to a newly laid-out ground at Wijndaelerweg, also situated in the Ockenburgh neighbourhood. Confusingly enough, this ground is later renamed Sportpark Ockenburgh.
2002 / HSV SOA leaves its ground, Sportpark Ockenburgh at Wijndaelerweg, after 28 years, settling at the newly laid-out Sportpark Zonneveld, situated at Guido de Moorstraat in the new housing estate Wateringse Veld on the southern outskirts of The Hague. The move was brought about due to the club’s ever-decreasing membership, with the hope being pinned on an influx of new youth members following the move to the new neighbourhood. The new park, consisting of a main pitch laid out in grass and a synthetic pitch, is inaugurated in August 2002.
2006 / HSV SOA officially changes its name to become Sportvereniging (SV) Wateringse Veld, thus taking on the name of the neighbourhood in which the club settled four years previously. Another reason for the name change was the negative connotation of the acronym SOA, given that it had also become the way to refer to venereal diseases (in Dutch: Seksueel Overdraagbare Aandoeningen, SOA’s) since the late 1990s. As a result, the name (HSV) SOA had become a mark of derision, with youth members even walking away from the club for this reason.
2013 / Foundation of a football academy in The Hague, which is given the name Voetbalschool SKILLZ, by the couple Benito & Sharon Marica. In order to allow the new academy, which is not affiliated to the Netherlands' Football Association, to organise training sessions and matches, the owners of the school conclude a groundsharing agreement with non-league club vv Verburch, enabling them to use Sportpark Verburch at Arckelweg in Poeldijk as their home base.
2014 / SV Wateringse Veld concludes a merger with vv GONA, a club founded in 1941, resulting in the foundation of SV Wateringse veld GONA. With vv GONA abandoning its ground, Sportpark Escamp III at Beresteinlaan, all activities of the new club move to Sportpark Zonneveld in Wateringse Veld.
2016 / SV Wateringse Veld GONA is joined at Sportpark Zonneveld by HSV Celeritas, a club which had been without a ground of its own since being evicted from its Sportpark Leyweg two years previously.
2018 / In mid-2018, one year after the merger between SV Wateringse Veld GONA and vv Kranenburg, the club takes on the name SV Wateringse Veld Kranenburg. Meanwhile, HSV Celeritas moves away from Sportpark Zonneveld after two seasons, settling at Sportpark Prinses Irene in Rijswijk. Also in 2018, Voetbalschool SKILLZ, the football academy founded in 2013, moves away from Sportpark Verburch, settling at the aforementioned Sportpark Prinses Irene as well.
2019 / Six years after forming their football academy Voetbalschool SKILLZ, Benito & Sharon Marica decide to join the Netherlands' FA in order to allow part of their academy players to compete in regular youth competitions under the name FC Skillz. Whereas Voetbalschool SKILLZ remains at Sportpark Prinses Irene in Rijswijk, FC Skillz plays its matches at Sportpark Zonneveld in Wateringse Veld, groundsharing with SV Wateringse Veld Kranenburg.
2020 / With Sportpark Prinses Irene being abandoned, all of the activities of Voetbalschool SKILLZ as well as its offshoot FC Skillz are brought together at Sportpark Zonneveld.
2021 / SV Wateringse Veld Kranenburg and FC Skillz conclude a partnership deal under the name SSA (Samenwerking Seniorenafdeling) FC Skillz Wateringse Veld. In practice, given that SV Wateringse Veld Kranenburg hardly had any membership left at that point, this amounted to FC Skillz widening its activities to regular league football after eight years of ‘just’ being a youth academy. The club's first team as well as the U23 selection compete as SSA FC Skillz Wateringse Veld, while all other youth academy teams continue to use the name FC Skillz. After the withdrawal of SV Wateringse Veld Kranenburg from Saturday League 2 in mid-2020, the new flagship team of SSA FC Skillz Wateringse Veld is allowed to start its life in Saturday League 3. The club is joined for the new season by Anthony Biekman, former professional league striker at FC Den Bosch, RKC Waalwijk, and FC Dordrecht. Whereas HSV SOA, SV Wateringse Veld, SV Wateringse Veld GONA, and SV Wateringse Veld Kranenburg had always played their first team football on the grass pitch of Sportpark Zonneveld, SSA FC Skillz Wateringse Veld moves virtually all club activities, including first team football, to the synthetic side pitch of the park.
2022 / Champions in District West II’s Saturday League 3B, 2 points ahead of runners-up SC Monster, SSA FC Skillz Wateringse Veld wins promotion to Saturday League 2. The decisive points are clinched in a 8-2 away win at HSV DUNO (three goals by Samir El Moussaoui, two by Yassin Chentouf, one each by Farid Overman, Joël Mayala, and Reda Reddam). The successful coach is Oussama Bekkaoui.
2023 / Champions in Saturday League 2E, 3 points ahead of runners-up SV RKDEO, SSA FC Skillz Wateringse Veld manages its second promotion in a row, acceding to Combined Sunday & Saturday League 1. The decisive points are clinched in a 4-0 home win over RKVV Westlandia (za) (goals by Abdel Tufi, Chadian Melfor, Adam Bekkaoui, and Djurandy Swedo). The successful coach is Oussama Bekkaoui.
2024 / In its first season in Saturday League 1, the ambitious flagship team of SSA FC Skillz Wateringse Veld manages a somewhat underwhelming eighth place in Combined Sunday & Saturday League 1C. In the summer of 2024, the club makes headlines by signing Eljero Elia, former professional league winger at ADO Den Haag, FC Twente, Hamburger SV, Juventus FC, SV Werder Bremen 1899, Southampton FC, Feyenoord Rotterdam, Istanbul Başakşehir FK, and FC Utrecht. Elia also won thirty caps for the Netherlands, notably being part of the Netherlands’ squad which won a silver medal in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Elia’s arrival does not bring SSA FC Skillz Wateringse Veld the hoped-for success, however, as the winger has a hard time coming to terms with non-league football. He left the club in the fall of 2024 after walking away angrily following being subbed.