az alkmaar

AZ Alkmaar is a football club from Alkmaar, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1967 as AZ'67, the result of a merger of Alkmaar '54 and FC Zaanstreek. Due to the commitment of businessmen Cees and Klaas Molenaar, AZ '67 was successful in the late seventies and early eighties. In 1981 they became Dutch champions and UEFA Cup finalists. After the Molenaar brothers left the club, things went downhill. In 1988 AZ were relegated from the "Eredivisie" (Dutch premier league). The involvement of businessman Dick Scheringa in the late nineties marked the revival of the club. Since 1998 AZ is an Eredivisie side again and in 2004 they reappeared in the UEFA Cup tournament. Its home ground is the Alkmaarder Hout which has a spectator capacity of 8390. The club manager is Co Adriaanse and interestingly, none of the starting eleven of the team are locally born in Alkmaar. Adriaanse has already opted to leave the club at the end of the 2004/2005 season, with Louis van Gaal already chosen as his replacement.