Utrecht Women

AZ have bookended the story twice. They handed Utrecht Women their first defeat, 0:2 on 30 August 2007, in the opening round of a league that had six founder clubs and no history to fall back on. Three years later the same opponent stood between Utrecht and the Super Cup, and this time Utrecht won it 3:1 after extra time.

That trophy was the KNVB Beker of 15 May 2010, a 3:0 win over Ter Leede. The club had gone close before, losing the 2008 final, and had finished third in the league in its first season.

Ten months after the Super Cup, on 8 March 2011, FC Utrecht announced it was pulling the women's side out of the league on financial grounds. A separate foundation, Stichting Vrouwenvoetbal Utrecht, was set up that April to keep the team alive, and it did for three more seasons — fourth place in 2011–12, then 12th when the Dutch and Belgian leagues merged into the BeNe League. The foundation filed for bankruptcy on 10 January 2014. The court confirmed it on the 21st, and the team was formally wound up on 30 January. Its last match, six days before the winding-up, was a 2:1 win at Club Brugge.

The route back opened in July 2021, when FC Utrecht began talking about restoring the women's team, and closed in January 2023 when the KNVB approved its entry to the Eredivisie Vrouwen as a twelfth club. The return came on 10 September 2023 against Feyenoord: 4:2, in front of 14,631 people. The early years had been played at Sportcomplex Zoudenbalch, which holds 1,000; the reborn side plays at Stadion Galgenwaard, capacity 23,750, in red and white with blue trim.

Three seasons into the second life, the task is the one the first version never managed: staying solvent while staying in the division.