Extreme Football Tourism: NETHERLANDS: vv SIOL

Sportpark De Groenendijkse Kampen Zuid "Het Maasveld", Cuijk (vv SIOL)

Netherlands, province: North Brabant = Noord-Brabant

21 XII 2025 / ST vv SIOL/JVC Cuijk - vv De Zwaluw Reserves (3) 4-2 / District South II, Sunday Reserves' League 6, Group 25

Timeline

1932 / Foundation of a football club in the hamlets of Groot-Linden and Katwijk aan de Maas, both situated in the immediate vicinity of Cuijk in North Brabant. The new club is given the name Roomsch-Katholieke Voetbalvereeniging (RKVV) SIOL – this being an acronym for Sport Is Ons Leven, i.e. Sport Is Our Life. As virtually all other clubs in this northeastern outpost in North Brabant, RKVV SIOL does not join the official Netherlands’ Football Association (KNVB), preferring to seek allegiance with the Roman Catholic Federation (RKF) instead – or more specifically, its sub-branch Roomsch-Katholieke Voetbalbond (RKVB) Den Bosch. For the 1932-33 season, RKVV SIOL is placed in the bottom division of District Maasbuurt. It is unclear where the pitch of this club was situated.
1936 / As no further sources mention the name of the club after 1936, it is more than probable that RKVV SIOL folded in this year.
1945 / On August 18th, 1945, months after the end of World War II in Europe, a new football club is founded in Groot-Linden and Katwijk aan de Maas, with the old name SIOL being reinstated. It is unclear if the official club name in the early years was RKVV SIOL or simply vv SIOL. The club adopted orange as its colour due to the fact that the shirts were sewn from the orange cloth of an English parachute which had fallen onto one of the surrounding pastures during Operation Market Garden. vv SIOL settles on a plot of farmland put at the club’s disposal by a local smallholder, Jac. Martens. Most probably, this location coincided with what was later commonly known as the Molenterrein at Lange Linden in Groot-Linden. As the RKF and all its sub-branches had been absorbed into the official Netherlands’ FA in 1940, vv SIOL joined the latter, being placed in the bottom Sunday division of its North Brabant sub-branch, Afdeling Noord-Brabant.
1975 / As the club has to leave the Molenterrein in anticipation of a new-to-be-built ground in Cuijk, vv SIOL temporarily settles on a pitch laid out at the back of Café Van Heesch in Katwijk aan de Maas.
1977 / After two years of playing at Café Van Hees, vv SIOL moves into its newly laid-out ground, hemmed in between Katwijkseweg and the dike protecting Cuijk from the River Meuse. The new ground, with two pitches laid out in a north-south direction, is commonly referred to as Terrein Het Maasveld, although the official name is Sportpark De Groenendijkse Kampen – in fact the same name as the park of neighbour club JVC ’31, which had moved to this location earlier onwards. The official inauguration of the new ground of vv SIOL has to be postponed due to the clubhouse not being ready yet. A temporary canteen is erected to make up for the lack of other facilities.
1978 / The official inauguration of Sportpark De Groenendijkse Kampen (Zuid) takes place following the construction of a new clubhouse.
1983 / vv SIOL wins promotion from Afdeling Noord-Brabant Sunday Division 1 to KNVB District South I’s Sunday League 4 for the first time in club history.
1984 / Finishing bottom of the table in District South I’s Sunday League 4A, vv SIOL drops back into the ranks of Afdeling Noord-Brabant after just one season, along with the club in second-last place, RKVV SSS ’18.
1992 / After an eight-year absence, vv SIOL manages a return to the ranks of Sunday League 4.
1995 / As the club celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, vv SIOL entertains professional league side PSV at Sportpark De Groenendijkse Kampen. With PSV boasting the likes of Jan Wouters, Luc Nilis, and Philip Cocu among its ranks, the match ends in a predictable 9-0 drubbing for the non-leaguers.
1996 / In the best season in club history, vv SIOL finishes as runners-up in District South I’s Sunday League 4A, 8 points behind champions RKSV Festilent.
1997 / Finishing in second-last place in District South I’s Sunday League 4G, vv SIOL descends into Sunday League 5 – which had replaced Afdeling Noord-Brabant Sunday Division 1 in 1996 – along with bottom club BSV Olympia ’18.
2000 / Runners-up in District South I’s Sunday League 5G, 1 point behind champions RKSV Prinses Irene, vv SIOL manages a return to Sunday League 4 via the promotion play-offs.
2002 / Coached by former VVV-Venlo and NEC professional league player Luciën Roeffen, vv SIOL finishes bottom of the table in District South II’s Sunday League 4H, thus dropping back into Sunday League 5 along with the club in second-last place, vv Nooit Gedacht.
2003 / Coached by Leo Janssen, vv SIOL suffers back-to-back relegations, finishing bottom of the table in District South II’s Sunday League 5H and thus descending into Sunday League 6, the bottom of the (non-)league ladder, along with the club in second-last position, SDDL.
2007 / Champions in District South II’s Sunday League 6F, 7 points ahead of closest followers RKSV VIOS ’38, vv SIOL wins promotion to Sunday League 5. The successful coach is Perry Maselaman.
2008 / Coached by Perry Maselaman, vv SIOL proves unable to hold its own in District South II’s Sunday League 5G, finishing in second-last place and dropping back into Sunday League 6 along with bottom club SC Sint-Hubert.
2009 / Champions in District South II’s Sunday League 6F, 3 points ahead of runners-up SC Sint-Hubert, vv SIOL manages an immediate return to Sunday League 5. The successful coach is Danny Claassen.
2011 / Coached by Danny Claassen, vv SIOL finishes bottom of the table in District South II’s Sunday League 5G, thus descending into Sunday League 6 along with the club in second-last place, RKSV VIOS ’38.
2013 / Finishing in third place in District South II’s Sunday League 6E, vv SIOL wins automatic promotion to Sunday League 5 due to its having won one of the so-called period titles, i.e. managing the best performance in one of four quarters of the season. Usually, period title winners are drawn into the promotion play-offs, but due to extra promotion places being available in District South II, these are not held. The successful coach is Rob Kroesen.
2014 / Coached by Rob Kroesen, vv SIOL finishes bottom of the table in District South II’s Sunday League 5H, thus being retrograded into Sunday League 6 along with the club in second-last place, RKVV OKSV.
2015 / Champions in District South II’s Sunday League 6D, 5 points ahead of closest rivals RKVV OKSV, vv SIOL wins promotion – not to Sunday League 5, but to Sunday League 4, due to Sunday League 6 being abolished in District South II following the 2014-15 season. The successful coach is Peter ten Haaf.
2016 / Finishing in third-last place in District South II’s Sunday League 4G, vv SIOL manages to avoid relegation in a play-off against SV Stiphout Vooruit (3-2 aggr.).
2017 / As part of the surface of Sportpark De Groenendijkse Kampen Zuid has to be given up to make way for the local secondary school, the Merlet College, the main pitch of the park is given a quarter’s turn, with the direction being east-west rather than north-south from now on. To make up for the loss of the second pitch, municipal authorities lay out the surface of the new main pitch as a 3G.
2023 / Coached by Peter ten Haaf, vv SIOL finishes in third-last place in District South II’s Sunday League 4H, going on to suffer defeat in R1 of the promotion-relegation play-offs against vv MVC (0-3). As such, the club descends into Sunday League 5 along with vv Gassel and bottom club NLC ’03.
2025 / vv SIOL finishes in second-last place in District South II’s Sunday League 5F, with only vv Holthees-Smakt picking up fewer points. Following the 2024-25 season, vv SIOL withdraws from first team football due to a lack of players, instead preferring to field a recreative ‘first team’ reinforced by reserves players of neighbour club JVC Cuijk, thus creating ST (Samenwerkende Teams) SIOL-JVC. This is a prelude to a merger between the two clubs, concluded in the early months of 2025 and scheduled to take place in mid-2026.
2026 (projected) / vv SIOL concludes a merger with JVC Cuijk, resulting in the foundation of vv Cuijk. All activities move to JVC’s half of Sportpark De Groenendijkse Kampen, as the ground of vv SIOL has to make way for an extension of the adjacent secondary school building.