ADO Den Haag

Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɑləz doːr ˈufənɪŋ dɛn ˈɦaːx]), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag ([ˈaːdoː dɛn ˈɦaːx]), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague.

Despite being from one of the traditional three large Dutch cities, it has not been able to match Ajax, Feyenoord or PSV in terms of success in the Eredivisie or in European competition.

On 1 February 1905, the club Alles Door Oefening (ADO) was founded in café 'Het Hof van Berlijn' (now: De Paap) in The Hague.

In the first years of its existence, the club endured some difficult times as many members refused to pay their fees.

In 1941, ADO finally won their class and moved on to the national champion's competition, losing that to Heracles.

After winning their league, often by many goals difference, ADO moved on to the national champion's competition and fought for the title with Heerenveen, AGOVV, Eindhoven and Blauw-Wit.

In 1967, ADO played a summer in North America's United Soccer Association, under the name San Francisco Golden Gate Gales.

In 1971 the club merged with city rivals Holland Sport to form FC Den Haag.

However, they reached their fourth Dutch Cup final in 1987, losing 4–2 (again to Ajax) following two extra-time winners from Marco van Basten.

On 3 April 1982, hooligans of the club burned down part of their own home ground, Zuiderpark Stadion.

They won the first matches against Lithuanian side Tauras (3–2, 2–0) but lost the first away leg for the third qualifying round against Cypriot club Omonia 3–0 in Nicosia.

Legia Warsaw (Poland), Club Brugge (Belgium) and Juventus (Italy) also share strong supporter links with ADO Den Haag.

[5] UVS was founded in 2008 and was responsible for organising the Beijing Olympic closing ceremony and football curtain-raisers attracting prominent football clubs such as Juventus, Milan, Internazionale, Napoli, Lazio, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Hull City.

[8] The same year, American investment company Global Football Holdings, owned by David Blitzer, purchased majority shares in the club from United Vansen.

The following players were called up to represent their national teams in international football and received caps during their tenure with ADO Den Haag:

Mural in the new ADO stadium
Historical chart of league performance