AZ

AZ logo
Full name	Alkmaar Zaanstreek
Nickname(s)	The Cheese Farmers
Short name	AZ
Founded	10 May 1967; 45 years ago  (1967-05-10)
Ground	AFAS Stadion Alkmaar (Capacity: 17,000[1])
Chairman	René Neelissen
Manager	Gertjan Verbeek
League	Eredivisie
2010–11	Eredivisie, 4th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours
Current season

AZ (Dutch pronunciation: [aː.ˈzɛt]), an initialism for Alkmaar Zaanstreek [ˈɑɫk.maːr ˈzaːn.streɪ̯k], is an association football club from the city of Alkmaar, Netherlands.

The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest football league in the Netherlands. AZ was founded in 1967 as AZ '67. The name was changed into AZ in July 1986; internationally, the tautology AZ Alkmaar is often used.

History[link]

AZ was founded on 10 May 1967 as AZ '67, the result of a merger of Alkmaar '54 and FC Zaanstreek. FC Zaanstreek was formed in 1964, continuing the professional adventure of the Kooger Football Club (KFC). KFC had been founded in 1910, had nearly become National Champion in 1934 through a narrow loss to Ajax in the finals, and had been professional since 1955.

In 1964, the brothers Jos and Klaas Molenaar, former players for KFC and owners of a growing appliance store chain, sought to create a powerful football team in the Zaanstreek by merging the two local professional teams (KFC and ZFC). After this merger failed, they successfully merged KFC (now "FC Zaanstreek") with Alkmaar '54, though the team would be located in Alkmaar. Partially through the hiring of expensive foreign player, the new club soon acquired large debts. Fortunately in 1972 the brothers Molenaar bailed it out and invested heavily in the club, to the point that AZ '67 were successful in the late seventies and early eighties. In 1981, they became Dutch champions and UEFA Cup finalists. Things went downhill after the Molenaar brothers left the club. In 1988, AZ were relegated from the Eredivisie.

The involvement of businessman Dirk Scheringa in the mid-'90s marked the revival of the club. AZ returned to the Eredivisie in 1998. In 2004–05, they reappeared in the UEFA Cup tournament, advancing to the semi-finals. They also finished third in the Eredivisie that season, again qualifying for the UEFA Cup, after spending most of the season in the top two spots. A remarkable achievement, since AZ is financially not a big club and it does not have a similar fanbase like their Eredivisie rivals: AZ's home ground in the 2005–06 season, the Alkmaarderhout, had a spectator capacity of 8,390.

AZ were undefeated in all 32 of their home matches in European competitions, a sequence which ran from 1977 until 20 December 2007, when they finally lost to Everton of England by a score of 3–2.

In the summer of 2006, the club moved to a new 17,000 capacity stadium AZ Stadion. Club's chairman Dirk Scheringa stated in 2007 that he wished to expand the stadium capacity to 40,000 by 2010.^[2] Ultimately, the club began plans to expand the stadium to at least 30,000 seats by 2011–12.

AZ had a very good 2006–07 season, which ended, however, in disaster. Going into the last game of the 2006–07 season, AZ led PSV and Ajax by goal-differential for the Eredivisie championship, but ended up third after losing this last match against bottom-dweller Excelsior, playing with 10 men for 80 minutes. Further setbacks followed when AZ lost the KNVB Cup finals to Ajax, 8–7 in penalty kicks after a drawn game, and also lost to Ajax over two playoff games for the Champions League. After the season, key players like Tim de Cler, Danny Koevermans, and Shota Arveladze left the team.

AZ versus Larissa in a 2007–08 UEFA Cup match.

In the 2007–08 season, AZ performed so badly (first round loss in the KNVB Cup, elimination from the UEFA Cup before winter break and a final 11th position in the Eredivisie), that team manager Louis van Gaal felt obliged to hand in his resignation in March 2008. However, after protests from the players and direction, van Gaal withdrew his resignation to finish his contractual obligations.

The 2008–09 season had an unpromising start with two defeats against NAC Breda and ADO Den Haag. However, starting with a 1–0 victory over defending league champions PSV, the team didn't lose in the next 28 matches, including a stretch of 11 matches in which the opposing teams did not score a single goal. Three weeks before the end of the season, despite their second home defeat of the season (against Vitesse), AZ became Eredivisie champions when nearest rivals Twente and Ajax both lost their matches.^[3][4] AZ's second championship was the first Eredivisie title in 28 years, and the first time since then that the Eredivisie was won by a team other than the "big three" (Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord). AZ therefore qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history, but only took four points from six matches and finished bottom of their group.

Ronald Koeman, succeeded Louis van Gaal after the 2008–09 season. Van Gaal had already left for Bayern Munich after becoming league champions with AZ. Koeman became the manager for AZ on 17 May 2009.^[5] On 5 December 2009 AZ announced that Koeman no longer was in charge of AZ, after losing 7 of the first 16 games in the Dutch competition.^[6] Former Zenit St. Petersburg manager Dick Advocaat took over for the rest of the season. Under his lead, some good results were achieved and European football was secured. For the 2010–2011 season, Gertjan Verbeek, coming from Heracles Almelo, will be the new manager.

Satellite clubs[link]

On 22 May 2009, Dirk Scheringa announced a cooperation with Bayern Munich;^[7] the club has first-option rights for the AZ contracted players.^[8]

• Bayern Munich

Dutch First Division club Telstar is an official satellite club of AZ. Youth players are stalled at Telstar to gain experience.

Current squad[link]

As of 1 August 2011^[9]

For recent transfers, see List of Dutch football transfers summer 2011

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 2 DF Mattias Johansson 3 DF Dirk Marcellis 4 DF Nick Viergever 6 DF Etiënne Reijnen 7 FW Jóhann Guðmundsson 8 MF Adam Maher 9 FW Ruud Boymans 10 MF Erik Falkenburg 11 MF Maarten Martens 14 DF Ragnar Klavan 17 FW Jozy Altidore 20 MF Rasmus Elm

No. Position Player 21 GK Erik Heijblok 23 FW Roy Beerens 24 DF Erik Schouten 25 DF Niklas Moisander (captain) 26 MF Celso Ortiz 31 GK Niki Mäenpää 32 DF Giliano Wijnaldum 34 GK Esteban Alvarado 35 FW Charlison Benschop 36 MF Ali Messaoud 37 GK Hobie Verhulst

Out on loan[link]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player DF Milano Koenders (at NAC Breda until 30 June 2012)

Stadium and sponsor[link]

AFAS Stadion, AZ's home venue in Alkmaar

AZ play their home games at the AFAS Stadion, located in the southern part of the city of Alkmaar. The stadium, which is owned directly by the club, was inaugurated in 2006 and replaced the old Alkmaarderhout venue as the DSB Stadion. The stadium currently has a capacity of 17,023. During its design stages the name Victorie Stadion was frequently used, referring to the Dutch War of Independence, the phrase "n Alkmaar begint de victorie" (Victory begins in Alkmaar) in particular. Until now, this name hasn't been officially in use, the board instead opting for sponsorship deals because of financial motives. However, to this day the name maintains a good share of support among the fans.

In order to further grow the club's budget, the AZ board of directors has decided to extend the capacity of the new stadium to a minimum of 30,000 seated spectators somewhere in the near future. The extension will be realised to construct a second tier to three of the four stands. The main stand with all technical areas, VIP and sponsor and media facilities will remain in place.

In October 2009 sponsor DSB Bank was declared bankrupt.^[10][11][12] The stadium name temporarily changed from DSB Stadion to AZ Stadion, as it was considered undesirable that the stadium was linked with a non-existent bank. In February 2010 a new main sponsor was found: construction works service provider BUKO from Beverwijk.^[13]

A year later, in the season 2010–11, AFAS Erp Software took over as official shirt sponsor, also taking over duties as stadium sponsor. The current external name of the ground is AFAS Stadion.

Trivia[link]

As of 2012, AZ is the only club to have beaten Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV away from home in a single Eredivisie season. sc Heerenveen managed to do the same in 2008–09, though their away victory at Feyenoord was a KNVB Cup match (Heerenveen had drawn 2–2 at De Kuip in the Eredivisie match).

Honours[link]

National[link]

AZ Eredivisie Results 1976 to 2009

• Eredivisie
  • Winners (2): 1981, 2009
  • Runners-up (2): 1980, 2006
• Eerste Divisie
  • Winners (3): 1960¹, 1996, 1998
  • Runners-up (3): 1957¹, 1968, 1972
• Tweede Divisie
  • Runners-up (1): 1964¹
• KNVB Cup
  • Winners (3): 1978, 1981, 1982
  • Runners-up (1): 2007
• Johan Cruijff Shield
  • Winners (1): 2009

International[link]

• UEFA Cup
  • Runners-up (1): 1981
  • Semi-finalists (1): 2005
  • Quarter-finalists (2): 2007 , 2012

¹ As Alkmaar '54

AZ in Europe[link]

Below is a table with AZ's international results in the past seasons.

AZ in Europe
Year(s)	Tournament	Result	Opponents (home result, away result)
1977–78	UEFA Cup	Second Round	Red Boys Differdange (11–1, 5–0); Barcelona (1–1, 1–1p)
1978–79	Cup Winners' Cup	First Round	Ipswich Town (0–0, 0–2)
1980–81	UEFA Cup	Final	Red Boys Differdange (6–0, 4–0); Levski Sofia (5–0, 1–1); Radnički Niš (5–0, 2–2); Lokeren (2–0, 0–1); Sochaux (3–2, 1–1); Ipswich Town (4–2, 0–3)
1981–82	European Cup	Round of 16	Start (1–0, 3–1); Liverpool (2–2, 2–3)
1982–83	Cup Winners' Cup	Round of 16	Limerick (1–0, 1–1); Internazionale (1–0, 0–2)
2004–05	UEFA Cup	Semi-final	PAOK (2–1, 3–2); Group F with Auxerre (home: 2–0), Amica Wronki (away: 3–1), Rangers (home: 1–0), Grazer (away: 0–2), result: group winner; Alemannia Aachen (2–1, 0–0); Shakhtar Donetsk (2–1, 3–1); Villarreal (1–1, 2–1); Sporting CP (3–2aet/a, 1–2)
2005–06	UEFA Cup	Round of 32	Krylya Sovetov Samara (a3–1, 3–5); Group D with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (away: 2–1), Middlesbrough (home: 0–0), Litex Lovech (away: 2–0), Grasshopper (home: 1–0), result: group runners-up; Real Betis (2–1aet, 0–2)
2006–07	UEFA Cup	Quarter-final	Kayserispor (3–2, 1–1); Group C with Braga (home: 3–0), Grasshopper (away: 5–2), Slovan Liberec (home: 2–2), Sevilla (away: 2–1), result: group winner; Fenerbahçe (a2–2, 3–3); Newcastle United (a2–0, 2–4); Werder Bremen (0–0, 1–4)
2007–08	UEFA Cup	Group Stage	Paços de Ferreira (0–0, 1–0); Group A with Zenit St. Petersburg (away: 1–1), Larissa (home: 1–0), Nuremberg (away: 1–2), Everton (home: 2–3), result: 4th place in group
2009–10	Champions League	Group Stage	Group H with Olympiacos (0–0, 0–1), Standard Liège (1–1, 1–1), Arsenal (1–1, 1–4), result: 4th place in group
2010–11	Europa League	Group Stage	IFK Goteborg (2–0, 0–1); FC Aktobe (2–0, 1–2); Group E with BATE (3–0, 1–4), FC Sheriff (2–1, 1–1), Dynamo Kyiv (1–2, 0–2), result: 3rd place in group
2011–12	Europa League	Quarter-final	Jablonec (2–0, 1–1); Aalesunds FK (6–0, 1–2); Group G with Metalist Kharkiv (1–1, 1–1), Austria Wien (2–2, 2–2), Malmö FF (4–1, 0–0), result: group runners-up; Anderlecht (1–0, 1–0); Udinese (2–0, 1–2); Valencia (2–1, 0–4)

Domestic results[link]

Below is a table with AZ's domestic results since the introduction of professional football in 1956.

Notable players[link]

See also Category:AZ Alkmaar players.

• Willem van Hanegem, (1976–1979)

Managers[link]

See also[link]

• Dutch football league teams

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: AZ (football club)

• AZ.nl – Official website (Dutch), (English)
• AZ TV (Dutch)