Its Friday night in Eindhoven and for most football fans when you put the words 'Eindhoven' and 'football' together the first thing you think of is PSV Eindhoven and the Phillips Stadion. The rich super club based in the centre of Eindhoven are regular Champions League and UEFA cup participants, with world class players and coaches coming and going through the club's books. Bobby Robson, Hiddink, Romario, Ronaldo, Kezman, Van Nistelrooy and Vandenburg the list of players and coaches goes on and on. Very few clubs have broken such a strong domestic duopoly as Ajax and Feyenoord but that is what PSV have done.    F.C. Eindhoven are though a little different as this is the Dutch second division or as its called in Holland the Eerste Divisie where games are played at the humble Jan Louwers Stadium, crowds are thin on the ground and class players are non existant.

F.C's history is not though totally one of failure and indeed they seem to have made a name for themselves long before PSV ever did. In 1954, FC Eindhoven were the last Dutch league champions before the introduction of the professional league.   Since then they have swapped between the Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie until 1977 where they have remained in the second tier ever since, making very little impact in cup competitions either. Attendances at FC Eindhoven are thin on the ground and compared to PSV can be described as sparse at best. However, the Jan Louwers Stadion is a small place holding less than 7,000 and even with 3,000 fans inside a noise can be made, a match generated but it does all feel very provincial and village like.

With the following day in Europe hosting a full card of World Cup Qualification fixtures the Friday night before sees a number of attractive Eerste Divisie games on offer in Holland to those inquisitive enough to venture out away from the bright lights of Amsterdam. T  here is Haarlem v FC Omniworld or FC Eindhoven v Fortuna Sittard. With the ground in Haarlem very small we decide to attend the Eindhoven game.   Eindhoven sits 66 miles south west of Amsterdam and the train journey took around 1 hour 15 minutes from Centraal.    Eindhoven itself seems an average sort of place, free from the glitzy tourist sights that identify Amsterdam and much more akin appearance wise to a German city like Frankfurt or Dortmund. It does though appear affluent although not as cosmopolitan and fashionable as Amsterdam.   Indeed the main site dominating the city skyline seems to be the Phillips Stadion which sits as close to the centre as St.James Park does to Newcastle's main streets.

The ground sits some 30 minutes ouside the city centre and is hidden away in a residential district near an indoor public sports centre. From only nearby could the floodlights be seen and only then after asking directions from some locals. Match tickets were easily purchased for 11 euros at a small portacabin outside the ground. It was then up to you which area of the ground you wished to sit in and watch the game from. One area behind the goal had no seating as opposed to the opposite goal end where away fans were located. With the main stand poorly populated most supporters and what seemed be the 'hard core' home fans were in the stand along pitchside.

.C. Eindhoven's opponents were near neighbours Fortuna Sittard from the neigbouring Limburg region of Holland.   Generally to the outsider they are not a highly well known club but if you talk about Dutch football the name is recognisable if not famous.  Fortuna themselves seem a relatively young club, only founded in 1968 after a merger between the Sittardia and Fortuna’54 clubs. Many fans in England will remember Fortuna Sittard from games against Howard Kendall's Everton side of the mid 1980's in the ECWC.

The problem for Fortuna today is finance or at least so the club have said, and this is why a merger just like in 1968 has been planned and now it would seem executed. The aim is to create a Sporting Limburg football club that will be created through the merger of Roda JC Kerkrade and Fortuna Sittard.   The club will play not in Sittard though, instead it will play games in Kerkrade at Roda JC's modern Parkstad Limburg Ground. It would appear that a project 'steering' project group 'Top Football in Limburg' behind the merger have announded that the merger will go ahead as planned but the Dutch FA KNVB have only accepted the proposal and not rubber stamped it as yet.

Like Fortuna Sittard, Roda JC are no strangers to mergers either. The Kerkrade side only came into being by the merger of Roda Sport and Rapid JC in 1962. Whilst Fortuna have been struggling to keep their heads above water ever since 2002’s relegation to the Eerste divisie, Roda are battling against relegation from the Eredivisie this campaign sitting bear the bottom of the table.

The creation of a Limburg super club seems to have been on the rader in Holland for some time. Whenever finances have taken over the merger talks have re-opened although it would appear this time that the merger may become a reality. In prospect of the KNVB rubber stamping the formation of the new club Fortuna fans should be worried as the KNVB had reportedly made it clear that the Sittard outfit wouldn’t receive a playing license for next season due to financial problems. Roda JC have been looking for an individual buyer for the club but when these faultered they board panicked and explored the merger once again.

When Limburg's regional leader brought up the FC Limburg idea a year ago he needed police protection for a month due to fan threats, stadium demonstrations and open leters of objection. A series of demonstrations took place against the merger and several others club administrators higher-ups were also threatened. A group of Fortuna fans started The Proud of Fortuna (TOF) foundation in order to raise funds in a last attempt to save the club’s own identity, but their plans eventually failed and the merger appears to be inevitable at least from a business point of view anyway.   The Proud of Fortuna foundation is still insisting that the Fortuna Sittard board give it time to show that the club could continue on its own. The Fortuna board meanwhile has threatened to resign en masse if TOF got its way, saying members of TOF could then take over running the club.

What those behind the merger seem to be ignoring or at least taking into lesser consideration is the strength of feeling that exists against the merger. Although some Fortuna Sittard fans seem to have given up and are resgined to the new club emerging from the flames, others seem to be battling on and have declared that they will never provide support to the new club in any way especially so as home games will take place in Kerkrade. Indeed both sets of fans want the individual identity of there club sides to remain which is unsurprising and almost everyone believes the merger will not solve the problem.

Additionally, another problem for Fortuna fans is that the new club will use Roda’s license and the majority of the squad will be former Roda players. This means that as well as Fortuna fans having no club to support, a large amount of the Fortuna squad will be looking for contracts for the upcoming campaign elsewhere. Roda JC have offered to locate the youth development aspect of the new Limburg club in Sittard as a means of growing youngsters into the workings of the newe club but this will go no way towards appeasing the grass roots fan base of Fortuna.

Further confusing is that if seems likely and Roda JC are relegated the new FC Limburg club will have to start out in Eerste Divisie meaning that finance will hardly be immendiatly forthcoming at least until the second season of the new club's existance. Those behind the merger have stated that this is not a problem and that the new club Sporting Limburg simply hopes to become a top club by 2013. What it does hope is to be a regular player in the lower half of the Dutch Premier League by that date.

In football, all fans tend to be sentimental but we are also wise and clever and know as much about finance as any club adminstartors do although they will always seek to prove otherwise.    It seems amazing that the idea of near rival clubs merging with neighbours who are bitter rivals can be suggested let alone go ahead and it is no wonder most fans have gone into apoplexy. Indeed its a worrying precendent particularly in the current climate where so many desperate clubs are clinging to survival hopes both in terms of league status or financial guarantees from banks.

Possibly the FC Limburg scenario is being mentioned in Holland simply because mergers are more common in the Netherlands. But that does not make the possiblility of the merger any easier for Roda or Fortuna fans to except. In the Netherlands since 1958 there have been no fewer than 13 mergers among professional clubs and even more surprising some excepted established clubs were founded quite recently as a result of mergers.   FC Utrecht in 1970 whilst Twente Enschede came about only in 1965.

The Limburg area of Holland is still referred to as the Mijnstreek ('mine district') even today. Both clubs fans have this regional common thread. However, the coal-mines are more indicative of Southern Limburg where Roda JC are and people from the coal mines more often that not follow the bigger Roda JC.   Even more confusing is talk of VVV Venlo and MVV Maastricht joining the FC Limburg crusade to create an even bigger super club.  It is said that the Limburg region as a whole has grown due to change, urban renewal and local development.  The peripheral locality of Limburg on the Dutch geographical map means that a sense of self-renewal has always been a theme.  Whether this approach can work and prove successful in terms of football is doubtful but also worrying for fans of the clubs.   If it does go ahead fans of VVV Venlo and Maastricht will start to worry that they too could be swallowed up by a regional super club.

Inside the Jan Louwers stadium there was a surpringly low turn out of Fortuna Sittard fans present despite its geographical location near to Brabant and Eindhoven. There were though 500 green and yellow clad fans who travelled and flags displaying 'FCFS: Pride of Limburg' were noticable. Before the game an anti-Limburg merger demonstration took place. A massive flag with 'Merger: Stak it up your Arse!' was unfurled in the away end and this was applauded by a large amount of the FC Eindhoven fans.    If the fans were dispirited that Fortuna players looked as if they were playing for there futures elsewhere. Despite Eindhoven going into an early two goal lead through Kevin Diaz, Fortuna faught back to level at 2-2 at half time with two spectacular long range goals. In the second half a similar game thread continued as Sittard hammered home another two goals to win 4-2.

The Eerste Divisie game between Fortuna Sittard and FC Eindhoven provided excellent entertainment for a Friday evening match. There did appear to be a sense of resignation amongst Sittard fans that the fate of possible merger and the possible non-existance of Fortuna was around the corner. Against that F.C. Eindhoven looked like a small lesser neighbour club to the bigger PSV whose fans do not expect much and whose team delivers very little. Its fans were mostly an assortment of youths, older fans, curious yet loyal locals and some PSV fans eager to see a match but enjoy themselves with a beer and some chat.

If Sittard are to survive then it would appear to be out of the hands of those that follow the club. Like Austria Salzburg, Gretna and numerous other clubs, another club of the same name could rise from the ashes of any merger happens and continue on playing all be it in lower leagues. What is worrying is that such a merger could become the norm particularly in the current economic climate where club directors, executives and business associates attached to struggling clubs can use financial problems as a direct excuse and justification for merger.  And fans of other clubs looking on at this story be warned.  Today it is Fortuna Sittard and Roda JC but tomorrow it could be your club that disappears in a merger.

Postscript: Since the original article was published and the formal merger was announced, the so called 'FC Limburg project' has been abandoned and shelved due to a lack of funds.  On 8th April not one week after the announcement the fusion of the two clubs was cancelled.   Roda JC fans smashed up one end of the ground as a protest at the merger during an end of season game.

Things for Fortuna are not looking good though.  On 19th May the KNVB announced it was withdrawing the playing license of Furtuna for the 2009-2010 season.

-Editor was in Holland