Belgium and Germany are not the only countries that have some wonderful stadiums (in decay). There are some treasures to be found in The Netherlands as well. Recently we had the opportunity to pay a visit to Sportpark Harga, where SVV is playing. There are several stadiums in Schiedam, but this one is definitely the most beautiful one.
SVV was initially founded in 1904 as Excelsior. Two years later the name was changed into Voorwaarts and when the team joined the Dutch FA the name became Schiedamse Voetbal Vereniging (SVV). It took until 1948 before the team reached first division for the first time. Only one year later they won the Dutch championship after a final game against sc Heerenveen in front of almost 70.000 visitors (not in this stadium though). Unfortunately the successes stopped coming in. Once the Dutch FA introduced professional football SVV played in second division. They did get a taste of first division again twice. The first time was in 1969. The second time was in 1991. In between they played in second division.
In 1988 SVV had serious financial problems and the team almosy went bankrupt. A car dealer saved the team and hired Dick Advocaat as coach. The team won second division and promoted to first division. After one year the car dealer decided to merge with Dordrecht to become SVV/Dordrecht'90. The team played in first division, but after a few years the team name was changed into Dordrecht'90 and later on again into FC Dordrecht.
SVV went separate ways again in 1997 and merged with SMC to become SVVSMC. As of 2011 the team name was changed back into sv SVV. The team from Schiedam is currently playing in fourth division.
Besides the fact Dick Advocaat was a coach there once, there is another famous name that once played in Schiedam. Winston Bogarde started his career there.
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