AZ Alkmaar - History

History

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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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.