It may well be fair to label ADO Den Haag as the Millwall of Dutch football. 

This association comes through fans from the Hague being involved in various episodes of hooliganism during the 1970’s and 1980’s, a period that also included supporters setting fire to sections of the former Zuiderpark stadium.  

This was a club which had a reputation for serious fan troubles especially when playing the big rivals from Ajax and Feyenoord Rotterdam.

Even today the fan base of the club feels that little bit more rough edged, a feature unusual for a classy city that is home to international justice courts, modern museums and pleasant side streets.

The home support are intense and aggressive in support of the home team and its noticeable.

In 2007 the club moved to a new out of town stadium that has subsequently been labelled the Kyocera Stadium thanks to a corporate naming agreement with a Japanese multinational.  Previously the club had played at the Zuiderparkstadion, a small tidy ground known for its Middle North (Midden Noord) terracing section where the clubs most notorious fans stood.

Due to the reputation of Dutch fans the municipality of the Hague has been at the forefront of the Dutch fan card entry system. The Zuiderpark had a computerized turnstile system installed during the 1980’s and the current stadium is said to be one of the most secure stadiums in Europe.

The new Kyocera Stadium is modern in feel and look but the choice of location outside the main city center is unpopular.  The Kyocera is located 3 or 4 metro stops out of the center and is cramped in next to a soulless industrial estate.

Completed in 2007 and built at a cost of only 28 million euros, the stadium only has capacity for 15,000 people but this is adequate for the current number of season ticket holders.

The stadium has security cameras installed that record images of every audience member as they enter the stadium.

Indeed, the modern Eredivisie still has some of the most strict away fan regulations in Europe. Local Mayors can call objections to travelling fans visiting a city and have the right to ban visiting fans if they see the potential for trouble. Where away fans are allowed to travel they are almost always ushered in on special trains, transported through concrete tunnels and often find themselves high up inside the stadium surrounded by reinforced Perspex glass, police and netting.

The ‘ADO’ bit at the start of the Den Haag club name translates into ‘Alles Door Oefening’.  In English this equates to ‘Everything and all through Practice’. The green and yellow colors of the club are a reference to the municipal city flag which is in the same colors.

The club badge is complemented by a stork and as far back as the 16th century this has been a symbol of The Hague.

If football in Holland was decided in terms of city size then Den Haag would quite possibly be in with a serious chance of winning the league.  

With a population of 515,880 and more than one million inhabitants when you include the sprawling suburbs it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands.  However, ADO are not well supported and the club is most commonly associated with episodes of football hooliganism rather than domestic trophy success. 

The posh side streets, international court rooms and art galleries in the city feel some way off from the working class culture evident on the murals at the Kyocera.

With the move to the newer Kyocera ADO Den Haag have made steps towards moving away from the shackles of its past.

But financial problems are supposedly not that far away. 

Despite the new build Kyocera this still remains a very traditional club and the traditions of old (both good and bad) linger visually both inside and outside the stadium.