N.E.C. (football club)

Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈnɛi̯ˌmeːɣə(n) ˈeːndrɑxt ˌkɔmbiˈnaː(t)si]), commonly abbreviated to N.E.C. [ˌɛneːˈseː], is a Dutch football club from the city of Nijmegen that currently plays in the Dutch Eredivisie. The oldest remnants of the club, "Eendracht" (Dutch for unity), stem back to 15 November 1900. In 1910, Eendracht merged with Nijmegen to form the Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie. The team's home ground is the 12,500-seat Stadion de Goffert.

The club has not won any major tournaments to date, though they were runners-up in the KNVB Cup competition in 1973, 1983, 1994, and 2000; they played in the UEFA Cup tournaments in 1983, 2003, and 2008.

History

General history

N.E.C. (Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie or, in English, Nijmegen Unity Combination) is the 41st oldest club in the Netherlands. It was known that the first football club was founded by "ordinary" workers, real people, and boys. Football was in 1900 already quite popular, but a football club was an elitist activity. Associations as UD (Deventer), Quick (Nijmegen), Sparta Rotterdam, Vitesse, etc. were also all created by the sons of wealthy industrialists, middle and other notables.

Nijmegen

Nijmegen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈnɛi̯meːɣə(n)];Nijmeegs: Nimwegen [ˈnɪmβ̞ɛːxə]), historically anglicized as Nimeguen, is a municipality and a city in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is situated on the Waal river, close to the German border.

Nijmegen is among the three oldest cities in the Netherlands, and in 2005, celebrated 2,000 years of existence.

The municipality is part of the "Stadsregio Arnhem-Nijmegen" (Arnhem-Nijmegen urban region (neighbouring city, 15 km (9 mi) north)), a metropolitan area with 736.107 inhabitants (2011).

Population centres

The municipality is formed by the city of Nijmegen, incorporating the former villages of Hatert, Hees and Neerbosch, as well as the urban expansion project of Waalsprong, situated north of the river Waal and including the village of Lent and the hamlet of 't Zand, as well as the new suburbs of Nijmegen-Oosterhout and Nijmegen-Ressen.

History

The first mention of Nijmegen in history is in the 1st century BC, when the Romans built a military camp on the place where Nijmegen was to appear; the location had great strategic value because of the surrounding hills, which gave (and continue to give) a good view over the Waal and Rhine valley.