[3] Feyenoord has a longstanding rivalry with their arch rival Ajax, a clash between two teams from the two biggest cities in the Netherlands, called De Klassieker ("The Classic").

[4] The football club Wilhelmina was founded in the pub De Vereeniging on 19 July 1908[5] and played in blue-sleeved red shirts and white shorts.

[18] Feijenoord lost the first leg 1–0 in Italy but overcame the loss in their own stadium with a 2–0 win, securing a place in the quarter-finals, where they faced ASK Vorwärts Berlin.

[39] When Wim Jansen was appointed as the interim manager to replace Günder Bengtsson and Pim Verbeek after a 6–0 defeat against PSV, the outlook began to improve for the club.

[53] Prior to the start of the 1999–2000 season, Ajax were beaten in their own stadium when Feyenoord won their second Dutch Super Cup title after a free-kick goal by Patrick Paauwe secured a 3–2 win.

[60] A huge party erupted in and outside De Kuip not only because of the title, but also because the final was held several days after Rotterdam's political figure Pim Fortuyn was murdered.

Supporters' unrest grew into anger when Feyenoord bought Angelos Charisteas, a back-up striker of arch-rivals Ajax, with a poor track record, as a replacement for Dirk Kuyt.

A brilliant performance of young Dutch left back Royston Drenthe at the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship had investors flocking to the new investment schemes Feyenoord had established.

Partly because of this position, Beenhakker was able to attract more investors to the club, leading to some unexpected signings, including Sekou Cissé, Dani Fernández and Stefan Babović.

[70] His replacement was former Feyenoord player Martin van Geel, who at the time was working as technical director for fellow Eredivisie club Roda JC.

With his eventual hiring as manager, Koeman became the first to ever serve as both player and head coach at all teams of the so-called "traditional big three" of Dutch football: Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord.

[74] At the beginning of the 2011–12 season, Feyenoord lost valuable players Leroy Fer, Georginio Wijnaldum and André Bahia to Twente, PSV and Samsunspor respectively.

In return, the club restocked with players such as Jordy Clasie, Miquel Nelom, Guyon Fernandez and Kaj Ramsteijn, who came mostly from their own youth academy.

[85] On 2 July 2012, Karim El Ahmadi completed his transfer from Feyenoord to English Premier League club Aston Villa for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of €2.6 million.

Koeman said that Feyenoord was the better side over the two legs but had missed a scoring striker, referring to John Guidetti, who had rejoined Manchester City following the end of his loan.

To replace them, as well as other departed players, Feyenoord signed Warner Hahn from Dordrecht, Luke Wilkshire from Dynamo Moscow, Khalid Boulahrouz from Brøndby, Bilal Başaçıkoğlu from Heerenveen, Colin Kazim-Richards from Bursaspor, Jens Toornstra from Utrecht, Kenneth Vermeer from Ajax and Karim El Ahmadi from Aston Villa, returning to the club after two years in England.

That summer the club contracted several new key players, Eric Botteghin from FC Groningen, Jan-Arie van der Heijden from Vitesse, and Eljero Elia from SV Werder Bremen.

However, in the eredivisie Feyenoord won only 3 of the first 10 matches and found themselves back on 10th place before heading into the Amsterdam for an away game against title holders and league leaders Ajax.

[120] With Advocaat as the new head coach, Feyenoord improved, staying undefeated and climbed the table from the 12th to 3rd place and was only six points behind league leaders Ajax and AZ.

Despite showing good form and impressing foreign media with their play,[135] Feyenoord failed to pick up a single point in the away matches and at home against Atletico.

[137] Feyenoord clinched second place and qualification for the group stage of the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League four games before the end of the season by winning 1–3 at Go Ahead Eagles.

In the Champions-League, Feyenoord mixed disappointing home loses against Bayer Leverkussen and Red Bull Salzburg with sensational results in aways matches.

[141] More frequent appearances in international tournaments led the club to change its name in 1974, because foreign fans unfamiliar with the Dutch language did not know how to pronounce ij.

Due to financial difficulties for all parties involved and the fact that the Netherlands were not chosen to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the plans for a new stadium have been put on hold.

[151] When a goal is scored by Feyenoord in their home matches the song "I Will Survive", covered by the Hermes House Band (but made famous by Gloria Gaynor in the 1970s) is played.

[174] Feyenoord provide schools and amateur clubs with small teaching books and expect these to be filled in by the visiting youth when they enter the stadium on a match day.

Notable supporters of Feyenoord include Craig Bellamy,[180] Wouter Bos,[181] Gerard Cox,[182] Robert Eenhoorn,[183] DJ Paul Elstak,[184] Arjan Erkel,[185] Dennis van der Geest,[186] Ernesto Hoost,[187] Jan Marijnissen,[188] Mark Rutte and Raemon Sluiter.

[189] Raemon Sluiter, Lee Towers, Dennis van der Geest, Robert Eenhoorn and Renate Verbaan have all officially been Feyenoord ambassadors.

The highest profile players to have played at Excelsior as part of this arrangement are Thomas Buffel and Salomon Kalou, who were both subsequently involved in transfer deals worth several million euros.

Other clubs who have previously entered partnerships with Feyenoord include Parramatta Power, Nagoya Grampus Eight, B.93, Helsingborgs IF, Supersport United, Westerlo, KV Mechelen, Breiðablik UBK, Lyn, UKS SMS Łódź, Omiya Ardija and Jiangsu Shuntian.