History
On 1 April 1888 several students from Rotterdam founded a cricket club called Sparta. In July 1888, a football branch of the club was established. In 1890 Sparta played its first real football match, and in 1892 Sparta disbanded the cricket branch. Sparta was promoted to the highest league of Dutch football on 23 April 1893. In 1897, Sparta withdrew from the competition after continuous dubious arbitration of Sparta matches. However, the club continued to exist, and in 1899, the board of Sparta visited a match of Sunderland A.F.C. Impressed with the red-white jersey of the English club, the board decided that Sunderland's colours (red-white striped jersey, black shorts) would henceforth be the colours of Sparta.
In 1905, Sparta initiated and organised the first home match of the Dutch national team, against Belgium. The match, won 4–0 by the Netherlands, was a rematch of a game two weeks prior, when the Netherlands beat Belgium 4–1 in Antwerp, Belgium.
The first match at Sparta's new stadium, Het Kasteel (The Castle), in the Spangen area of west Rotterdam, was played on 14 October 1916. The stadium was renovated in 1999 and is still Sparta's stadium.
Until the 2002-03 season Sparta Rotterdam had always played at the highest level, but they were relegated from the top-level Eredivisie in 2002. Sparta returned to the Eredivisie for the 2005–06 season. They were relegated again in 2010. On 20 August 2010 they equalled Ajax's and Heracles Almelo's Dutch league record win when they defeated Almere City FC 12-1 with Johan Voskamp scoring an Eerste Divisie record 8 goals on his debut.
Sparta has won six national titles (1909, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1915 and 1959) and three national cups (1958, 1962 and 1966).
Read more about this topic: Sparta Rotterdam
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—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)
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