FC Emmen

FC Emmen is a Dutch professional football club based in Emmen, Drenthe. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie in the 2022–23 season. Founded in 1925, the club entered the professional Eerste Divisie in 1985. In 2018, Emmen were promoted to the Eredivisie for the first time. Home games are played at De Oude Meerdijk.

History
The amateur club Emmen was formed on 21 August 1925. When the Dutch professional league was formed in 1954, Emmen opted to maintain its amateur club status instead.

In 1985, Emmen finally joined the professional ranks. In 1988 the club was split into an amateur and a professional section. The latter was mostly called BVO Emmen ( Betaald Voetbal Organisatie, professional football organisation). In 2005, the professional club Emmen changed its name into FC Emmen, for two reasons. Firstly, it was hoped that the new name would better reflect the club's history, and secondly because many misunderstandings had arisen, among people who had grown to believe that BVO was an abbreviation similar to for instance PSV, RBC or ADO.

FC Emmen has reached the Eerste Divisie play-offs eleven times and on 20 May 2018, they managed to clinch promotion to the Dutch Eredivisie for the first time in their history after beating Sparta Rotterdam 3–1 in the promotion/relegation play-off finals.

They played their first Eredivisie match on 12 August 2018 at ADO Den Haag, and won 2–1. Glenn Bijl scored the first goal for Emmen in the top flight. Emmen finished 14th in their first Eredivisie season and secured their spot in the Eredivisie for the 2019–20 season.

Despite a very poor start to the 2020–21 season (six points in the first 22 matches), Emmen incredibly bounced back with an 8-match unbeaten run (five wins, three draws) from February to April, and ended the season with two wins to finish with 30 points. However, they could not achieve automatic safety, as they had a worse goal differential than 15th-placed RKC Waalwijk. This meant that Emmen would have to win the playoffs to avoid relegation, but they lost on penalties following a 1–1 draw vs. NAC Breda. As a result of this loss, FC Emmen were relegated to the Eerste Divisie following three seasons in the top tier. However, they were promoted the first attempt the next year. In the 2022–23 season, they finished 16th, having to win the playoffs to avoid relegation again. This time, they became the first 16th-place team to reach the final under the new format, but they were relegated again after losing to Almere City in the playoff final.

Stadium
FC Emmen's previous JenS Vesting, more popularly known as De Meerdijk, now as de Oude Meerdijk was the scene of several matches of the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship.



Honours

 * Eerste Divisie
 * Winner: 2021–22
 * Sunday amateur football title
 * Winner: 1974–75
 * Sunday Hoofdklasse C
 * Winner: 1974–75

Former technical directors

 * Rob Groener
 * Gerard Somer