SC Heerenveen - Rivalry

Rivalry

The rivals of sc Heerenveen are Cambuur Leeuwarden, from Leeuwarden and FC Groningen, from Groningen. Cambuur Leeuwarden is just like sc Heerenveen from the province of Friesland. The distance between Heerenveen and Leeuwarden is only 30 kilometres; this is the first reason for the rivalry. Like everywhere, when two teams are geographically close to each other, each wants to do better than the other. The second reason for the rivalry is that most people who support sc Heerenveen are Frisians and live throughout all of Friesland. But almost all fans of Cambuur live in, or very close to the city of Leeuwarden. A large number of these people don't see themselves as Frisians, but as "Leeuwarders". They also speak a different dialect, Stadsfries or Cityfrisian. On the stands of Cambuur some fans will sing anti-Frisian songs, describing the Frisians as farmers. This is because Leeuwarden is the biggest city in Friesland and its capital. The other cities in Friesland are relatively small. Strictly spoken Heerenveen is not a city. The province of Friesland has eleven cities and Heerenveen is not among them. Heerenveen was never given city rights. Cambuur Leeuwarden no longer plays on the highest level in the Netherlands. In the 1999/2000 season they relegated from the Eredivisie. sc Heerenveen finished as runners up. So the teams haven't played each other for 10 years now. At the moment, FC Groningen is the biggest rival of sc Heerenveen. The distance between Heerenveen and Groningen is 60 kilometres. Just like Leeuwarden this is a small distance. sc Heerenveen and FC Groningen are the 2 biggest clubs of the Northern part of the Netherlands; therefore a match between the teams is called "The derby of the North". The winner of the match will crown itself as "Kampioen van het Noorden" (Champions of the North) until the next meeting between the 2 clubs. Often some days before the match, the fans of sc Heerenveen and FC Groningen compete with each other as well—not with violence but with stunts. Fans of Heerenveen once stole the kick-off spot from the FC Groningen stadium, and raised the Frisian flag at the Martinitoren, the highest tower in Groningen. The front yard of a Groningen-chairman once got filled with rubble from a construction site. This was because the construction of the recent stadium of FC Groningen Euroborg had to be halted because of a major mistake in the design. FC Groningen fans countered with painting a statue of sc Heerenveen hero Abe Lenstra in green and white, the colours of FC Groningen. They also painted a viaduct near Heerenveen green and white.