RAP (football club)
| Full name | s.v. RAP (RUN, Amstels and Progress) |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | RAP |
| Founded | 1887 |
| Dissolved | 1914 |
| League | Netherlands Football League Championship |
RAP was a Dutch football (soccer) club based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, that played in the Netherlands Football League Championship. The club played from 1887 to 1914, and were the first official football champion of the Netherlands ever in the 1899 season. (The unofficial winner of the first edition in 1888–1889 was won by VV Concordia from Rotterdam).
Founded in Amsterdam, on November 14, 1887 a football club was formed from members of three cricket clubs, R.U.N., Amstels and Progress: RAP. The team managed to win the Netherlands Football League Championship five times, and were undefeated in the 1898–99 season. The dominance of R.A.P. in that season was demonstrated by the fact that HVV Den Haag, who finished second that year, were eight points behind R.A.P. in the end. Furthermore, they won the De Telegraaf Cup in 1898–99 for the first time, making R.A.P. the first team in the Netherlands to win the League title and the Cup in the same season.
In 1900–1901 they finished fourth place, followed by a fifth-place finish in 1901–1902. in 1902–03 RAP hit rock bottom and finished last in the league, forcing them to play in a relegation playoff series, which they won, very narrowly escaping relegation. A few years later the club would eventually be relegated to the second division anyway.
Although no longer relegated by the 1911–14 season, the team would always find themselves at the bottom of the table. Volharding (Dutch for Perseverance), which is the other old Amsterdam football club, found themselves in a similar predicament, always merely one or two points above RAP in the table, but still considered classified in the same section.
On July 23, 1914 it was announced in Sport Magazine, that the two clubs had decided to merge. The creation of the mentioned Volharding-RAP-Combination: V.R.C. would bring the end to R.A.P.'s run. After a few more years of football, the club eventually abandoned the sport, and switched back to Cricket, renaming the club once more to the now known VRA.
VRA plays at the highest level of Dutch cricket, the Hoofdklasse. The club is one of the few Dutch clubs to have a grass pitch. The club has become cricket champions 7 times, including 5 times within the past 10 years.
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