The Gorinchemse Voetbalvereniging Unitas is a Dutch

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club from

Gorinchem Gorinchem ( ), pronunciation respelling, also spelled Gorkum, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. It had a population of in . The munici ...

. It is among the oldest football clubs of the Netherlands and for most of the 20th century played in the highest leagues of amateur football. In 2018 the first team of GVV Unitas returned to the

Hoofdklasse The Vierde Divisie (; "Fourth Division"), formerly known as Hoofdklasse () is the second-highest league of amateur football in the Netherlands, and the fifth tier in general. Background The league was divided into two sections: Saturday and Sunda ...

. They won promotion to the

Derde Divisie The Derde Divisie (; ), formerly known as Topklasse (; ), is the fourth tier of football in the Netherlands, which had its inaugural season as a third tier in 2010–11 and as a fourth tier in 2016–17. The league is placed between the Tweede D ...

in 2020.

History

GVV Unitas was founded on 19 April 1898. It joined the main KNVB leagues in 2007, initially as a

Derde Klasse The ('Third Class') is the eighth tier of football in the Netherlands Football is the most popular sport in the Netherlands. Association football, Football was introduced to the Netherlands by Pim Mulier in the 19th century when in 1879, a ...

team. In 2011 Unitas promoted to the Tweede Klasse. In 1924 it won a Tweede Klasse championship, promoting to the

Eerste Klasse The Eerste Klasse () started as the 1st tier of football in the Netherlands and is now the 6th tier. The league is divided into ten divisions. These divisions correspond to the six districts of the Royal Dutch Football Association: each district i ...

, at that time the highest league of Dutch football. In 1926 Unitas relegated to the Tweede Klasse. It won Tweede Klasse championships in 1928, 1944, and 1946 but did not promote to the costly leading league. In 1956 Unitas promoted for a second time to the

, after winning its fifth Tweede Klasse championship, and after a league above the Eerste Klasse had been established. In 1963 and 1967 it became champion of the Eerste Klasse without promoting. In 1970 Unitas relegated to the Tweede Klasse, immediately returning to the Eerste with a sixth Tweede Klasse championship. In 1998 the club celebrated 100 years with several events.

Coen Moulijn Coenraadt "Coen" Moulijn (15 February 1937 – 4 January 2011) was a Dutch professional footballer. He spent nearly his entire club career with Feyenoord, winning several trophies. He also played for the Netherlands national team. Club career C ...

suffered a heart attack at the event he attended. Since 2018 Unitas is back the Hoofdklasse, after taking a championship in the Eerste Klasse. It finished the first Hoofdklasse season in decades in 5th position. Last game of the first Saturday squad of the 2018–2019 season ended in a 7–0 loss to SV Meerkerk.

Current squad

Players who became internationals

* Jan Peters * Robert Verbeek * Hans Vonk * Frank Wels

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unitas Association football clubs established in 1898 1898 establishments in the Netherlands Football clubs in the Netherlands Football clubs in South Holland Sports clubs and teams in Gorinchem