[1] The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion Galgenwaard.

In addition, there was a sentiment in Elinkwijk that it was not originally an Utrecht-based club, but that it belonged more to the town of Zuilen which was an independent municipality until 1954.

During the merger talks, Elinkwijk tried to secure a spot in the highest league of amateur football, but was instead placed in the Tweede Klasse.

[2] The first manager of Utrecht became Bert Jacobs, the then 29-year-old head coach of Velox, who was joined by 24-year-old Fritz Korbach from USV Elinkwijk as assistant.

In the first season, the Utrecht first-team squad consisted almost entirely of former players from DOS, Velox and USV Elinkwijk.

Under the leadership of goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen, first-team players went canvassing with FC Utrecht merchandise and recorded a single entitled "We geven het niet op" ("We don't give up").

Van Breukelen left for Nottingham Forest in 1982, Carbo for Club Brugge in 1983 and Rob de Wit for Ajax in 1983.

A consortium of, among others, the English newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell, Philips, KLM and Johan Cruyff, were said to have plans to invest heavily in Utrecht and acquire a majority shareholding.

[10] After a number of weaker years, Utrecht reached fourth place in the Eredivisie in 1990–91, led by manager Ab Fafié and with players such as Johan de Kock, Jan Willem van Ede and Rob Alflen and top goalscorer of the season, Włodzimierz Smolarek.

Utrecht finished with the same number of points as RKC Waalwijk, Roda JC and Vitesse, but secured fifth place on goal difference.

Important players in this period included Dirk Kuyt, Tom Van Mol, Jean-Paul de Jong, Pascal Bosschaart and Stijn Vreven.

In 2004, the Johan Cruyff Shield was also won at the expense of Ajax (2–4), as Hans Somers claimed a key role with two crucial goals.

[18] As a result of, among other things, a new financial crisis and a lack of lucrative transfers, Utrecht was again on the brink of collapse in the spring of 2003.

[citation needed] On 29 November 2005, French defender and fan favourite, David Di Tommaso died suddenly at the age of 26.

[24] Before his death, Di Tommaso had been the most recent winner of the FC Utrecht Player of the Year, and the award was named after him since then.

[25] Subsequently, a conflict broke out between chairman Jan Willem van Dop, who had come over as director of Feyenoord in 2005, and the supervisory board.

[26] On 3 September 2007, van Dop was relieved from his duties as chairman, but was put back in office three days later after summary proceedings.

[27] On 2 April 2008, the Utrecht board announced in a press conference that the club had found a suitable takeover candidate in entrepreneur Frans van Seumeren, former director of the Mammoet logistics company.

Despite the fact that previous takeover candidate Phanos had failed to comply with the agreement between Utrecht and van Seumeren, they remained affiliated with the club as main shirt sponsor until March 2011.

The change of function endorsed the conversion of Utrecht from a football association to a vennootschap (private limited company).

[36] The following season, however, turned out to be a setback; Utrecht was eliminated in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League by Differdange 03 from Luxembourg.

When Wouters decided not to renew his contract in 2014, after having been head coach for three years, a new direction was taken in terms of technical policy.

Adriaanse obtained an advisory, but not binding, voice in player policy, and was given powers in composing the club's coaching staff.

The 2015–16 season proved to be highly successful, with Utrecht ending in fifth place of the Eredivisie table and reaching the KNVB Cup final, which was lost 2–1 to Feyenoord.

With changes made to the Dutch football league system, Jong Utrecht was therefore promoted to the second-tier Eerste Divisie.

In the final of the play-offs for European football, they beat AZ Alkmaar was after an exciting diptych (0–3, 3–0, 4–3 after penalty shoot-out).

Utrecht's first competitive European match, in the team's current iteration (not as DOS), was on 17 September 1980, in the 1980–81 UEFA Cup, playing FC Argeş Piteşti to a 0–0 draw.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.

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