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FC Groningen
Full name	Football Club Groningen
Nickname(s)	Pride of the North; Green-White Army
Founded	June 16, 1971
Ground	Euroborg; Groningen; (Capacity: 22,329)
Chairman	Ed Zijp
Manager	Ron Jans
League	Eredivisie
2008-09	Eredivisie, 6th
Website	Club home page
Home colours	Away colours

FC Groningen is a football club from Groningen in the Netherlands.

[edit] History

The club was founded in June 16, 1971 by the Groningen Football and Athletics Association (GVAV, founded January 26, 1921). They enjoyed top flight football for most of their existence, although the club was relegated to the second division after the third season.

The club was then propelled back into success by the Koeman brothers, Ronald Koeman and his elder brother Erwin Koeman together with defending midfielder Jan van Dijk resulting in qualification to European football for the first time in the 1982/83 season. Their best season in the Eredivisie was during the 1990/91 season when they finished third.

FC Groningen's home colors are green and white. The club plays its home games in the 22,000 seat Euroborg stadium. In December 2005, the club played its last match ever in the 12,500 seat Oosterpark Stadion after having played there for 72 years. The average attendance in 2004/05 was 12,500 people. This has risen to just below 22,000 people in the new stadium. There are plans to expand the stadium to a capacity of 30.000 or 40.000. The Euroborg Stadium is known to be one of the more atmospheric of all Dutch stadiums. Despite its relative short existence, it has already earned the nickname the Green Hell. In the season of 2008-2009 they almost set the Euroborg on fire with burning toilet paper. At the end of the 2009-2010 season Ron Jans, who has been the manager of FC Groningen for 8 years, is going to stop managing FC Groningen.

[edit] 2005-06 season

The 2005/06 season turned out to be one of the best in a long time for FC Groningen, with the club finishing 5th place in the league. This allowed Groningen to enter the play-off tournament for the UEFA Champions League third round qualification. However, they were beaten by Ajax in the finals who scored a goal two minutes before the final whistle.

By finishing fifth in the league, FC Groningen qualified for European football for the first time in 14 years, where they were defeated 4-3 on aggregate in the first round by Partizan Belgrade.

[edit] 2006-07 season

In the 2006/07 season FC Groningen again managed to get an entrance for the UEFA Cup. They ended the season on an 8th place but thanks to the play-off tournament system, in which they beat Feyenoord and FC Utrecht, they qualified for the UEFA Cup where they faced ACF Fiorentina in the first round. Both matches in Groningen and Florence ended in a draw, 1-1. FC Groningen were defeated after penalties and knocked out in the first round.

[edit] Current squad

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Brian van Loo
2	DF	Sepp De Roover
3	DF	Gibril Sankoh
4	DF	Michael Jansen
5	DF	Fredrik Stenman
6	MF	Mike Zonneveld (on loan from PSV)
7	DF	Andreas Granqvist
8	MF	Gonzalo García García
9	FW	Morten Nordstrand (on loan from FCK)
10	MF	Goran Lovre
11	FW	Tim Matavž
12	DF	Ondřej Švejdík
13	MF	Koen van de Laak (captain)

No.	Position	Player
14	FW	Nicklas Pedersen
15	MF	Oluwafemi Ajilore
16	FW	Serhat Koç
17	MF	Tim Sparv
18	MF	Daley Blind (on loan from Ajax)
20	MF	Petter Andersson
21	MF	Danny Holla
23	MF	Thomas Enevoldsen
24	DF	Tom Hiariej
26	GK	Luciano
43	FW	Leandro Bacuna
46	MF	Jeffrey Rijsdijk

[edit] Out on loan

No.		Position	Player
		DF	Shkodran Metaj (on loan to RKC Waalwijk)
		DF	Jeroen Veldmate (on loan to Helmond Sport)

[edit] Reserve squad

No.		Position	Player
		GK	Leon ter Wielen
		GK	Theo Timmermans
		DF	Bart Apotheker
		DF	Danny Holband
		DF	Jorrit Kunst
		DF	Jelle Wagenaar
		DF	Mart Dijkstra
		DF	Darryl Lachman
		DF	Danny Post
		MF	Jeffrey Rijsdijk