On 19 June 1964 the club that would become the pride of Leeuwarden, capital of Friesland, was founded. SC Cambuur turns 63 on 19 June 2027. And it celebrates where it belongs, in the Eredivisie.

A new club for Leeuwarden

Before 1964 the city's professional football was represented by vv Leeuwarden. SC Cambuur was founded to take its place and took over its professional licence.

The start was perfect: in its very first season, 1964-65, the team won group A of the Tweede Divisie. To this day the club is owned by its members.

The Cammingha castle

The name is no accident. The club is named after the Cambuur district in the east of Leeuwarden, where a castle of the Cammingha family stood until the early 19th century.

The colours come from the same family's coat of arms: yellow shirts and blue shorts. The heraldic lions also appear on the club crest.

So a castle that vanished two centuries ago still lives on in every shirt. To fans the players are simply the "Yellow-Blues".

From the Cambuurstadion to the Kooi Stadion

The Cambuurstadion opened on 12 September 1936 as a municipal sports park. The city built it to give work to the unemployed, and in 1949 new stands raised capacity to around 16,000.

The club's ultras, the M.I.-Side, took their name from two streets around the old ground, Marathonstraat and Insulindestraat. In May 2024 the last match was played there, against Helmond Sport.

Since August 2024 Cambuur has played at the brand-new, 15,000-seat Kooi Stadion. The old ground was demolished in autumn 2025 to make way for housing.

The name of the new home is no accident: "De Kooi", meaning "the cage", is what fans called their old ground too. The Dutch word kooi captures the whole atmosphere of a tight, noisy stand.

Ups, downs and derbies

Cambuur reached the Eredivisie for the first time in 1992, as second-tier champions. It won that title again in 2013 and 2021, and reached the Dutch Cup semi-finals in 2017 and 2024.

In 2010 it lost a promotion play-off to Roda JC, in a final watched by 1.4 million TV viewers. That season average attendance reached about 8,600, with six sell-outs. But the game of the year is always the Frisian derby against Heerenveen.

In all, the club has played nine Eredivisie seasons across four separate spells before its current return.

Players who passed through Leeuwarden include Jaap Stam, Michael Mols, Nico-Jan Hoogma, goalkeeper Fred Grim and American Gregg Berhalter.

Back among the elite

After relegation in 2023, Cambuur spent three seasons in the second tier. On 24 March 2026 it won 4-2 away at Emmen and mathematically sealed promotion.

On the bench once again was Henk de Jong, the coach whose name is closely tied to the club. So in 2026-27 the yellow and blue are back on Eredivisie pitches.

Celebrate with us

From a lost castle to a brand-new stadium, Cambuur carries the history of its city in every shirt. Happy 63rd birthday to the Yellow-Blues of Friesland!

See our collectible jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: The west side of the Kooi Stadion, Leeuwarden – Condor3d, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 4.0.