Utrecht

1970–1979: Merger and early years

In the late 1960s, the municipality of Utrecht initiated talks of a merger between the professional departments of VV DOS, Velox and USV Elinkwijk with the aim of continuing to guarantee professional football at top level in the city. DOS was the largest of the three clubs, and had won a national championship in 1958. With stout defensive tactics, the club had narrowly escaped relegation for three successive years, and mismanagement had left the club on the brink of bankruptcy. A cynical comment from that time was: "The club can do nothing, not even relegate."

Merger plans were experienced less positively at Velox and Elinkwijk. Velox had been promoted to the Eerste Divisie in the early 1960s and had been close to achieving promotion to the Eredivisie a few times. In 1968, however, the team relegated to the third-tier Tweede Divisie again. Elinkwijk had been more successful than Velox. A yo-yo club, Elinkwijk alternated seasons in the bottom of the Eredivisie with seasons in the top of the Eerste Divisie. In addition, there was a sentiment in Elinkwijk that it was not originally an Utrecht-based club, but that it belonged more to the town of Zuilen which was an independent municipality until 1954. The club had no preference for the impending merger, but eventually gave in to pressure from the municipality. During the merger talks, Elinkwijk tried to secure a spot in the highest league of amateur football, but was instead placed in the Tweede Klasse. The following season, the club won the championship and as a result promoted to the Eerste Klasse.

On 1 July 1970, the merger became a fact and FC Utrecht was founded. Since VV DOS had managed to avoid relegation from the Eredivisie in the season before, the new club could immediately play at the highest level in its inaugural season. Utrechts's home ground became Stadion Galgenwaard, which had previously been the VV DOS home ground, the largest stadium of the three parent clubs. Bert Jacobs, the then 29-year-old head coach of Velox, became the first manager of Utrecht; he was joined by 24-year-old Fritz Korbach from USV Elinkwijk as assistant. Their assignment was to forge one club with one culture from its three cores and three different identities.

In the first season, the Utrecht first-team squad consisted almost entirely of former players from DOS, Velox and USV Elinkwijk. Only one outside player was recruited, as defender Co Adriaanse was signed for ƒ 125,000 from De Volewijckers from Amsterdam. The core of the squad also consisted of former DOS players Cor Hildebrand, Ed van Stijn, Piet van Oudenallen, Tom Nieuwenhuys and John Steen Olsen, former Elinkwijk players Joop Leliveld, Jan Blaauw, Dick Teunissen and Jan Groenendijk and former Velox player Marco Cabo. Their first official match was against defending European Cup winners Feyenoord. Groenendijk scored Utrecht's first goal, but despite the 0–1 lead, the team eventually lost 4–1. The club finished in 9th place in its inaugural season, a solid midtable finish.

1980–1990: Near bankruptcy and revival

In the first ten years of its existence, Utrecht grew steadily. Important players from that period were Hans van Breukelen, Leo van Veen and Willem van Hanegem. In the early 1980s, it was decided to construct a new stadium, which was called Nieuw Galgenwaard.

The tide turned in 1981 when the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) opened an investigation into the club. They could reveal a series of financial malpractices, including transfer and salary costs of various players being financed illegally. Between 1976 and 1980, the club had not paid national insurance contributions and taxes on signing bonuses. In addition, there had been committed fraud with receipts. The club could not meet the stated additional tax and was placed under a debt moratorium. Bankruptcy, at that point, seemed inevitable. Various campaigns were organised by players and supporters, and through a petition, the club managed to collect 66,000 signatures for the retention of the club. Under the leadership of goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen, first-team players went canvassing with FC Utrecht merchandise and recorded a single entitled "We geven het niet op" ("We don't give up"). The municipality of Utrecht eventually decided to respond to the massive local support and covered expenses.

The early 1980s, under the leadership of head coach and former player Han Berger, were successful. The team finished in fifth place in 1980, third in 1981 and fifth place in 1982 of the Eredivisie and in 1982 the club also reached the KNVB Cup final, which was lost to AZ '67. The team also played European football for the first time in club history. The success was in large part due to the large number of youth players that broke through to the first team during these years. Out of eighteen first-team players reaching the cup final in 1982, fourteen were academy players, including van Breukelen, Gert Kruys, Willy Carbo and Ton de Kruijk. Many of these players, such as Leo van Veen, Frans Adelaar, Willem van Hanegem, Ton du Chatinier and Jan Wouters, would later return to the club as managers.

Although the club went through a golden era results-wise, the club was far from healthy financially. To keep the club afloat, key players were let go every season. Van Breukelen left for Nottingham Forest in 1982, Carbo for Club Brugge in 1983 and Rob de Wit for Ajax in 1983. As a result, Utrecht dropped from a near-top side to more mid-table finishes in the Eredivisie table in the mid-1980s.

On 1 April 1985, Utrechts Nieuwsblad published an article about an imminent takeover of the club. A consortium of, among others, the English newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell, Philips, KLM and Johan Cruyff, were said to have plans to invest heavily in Utrecht and acquire a majority shareholding. The supporters of the club were strongly against the takeover, however, especially due to the interference of Ajax legend, Cruyff. Ultimately, the takeover failed.