The club was founded on 1 October 1889. Haarlem won the Dutch national title in 1946 and reached five
Dutch cup finals, winning in 1902 and 1912 and losing in 1911, 1914 and 1950. Haarlem won the title in the
Eerste Divisie in 1972, 1976 and 1981. In 1982, HFC Haarlem, featuring a young
Ruud Gullit, qualified for
UEFA Cup football, in which they were eliminated by
Spartak Moscow in the second round (the match hosted by Spartak is known in Russia because of the
Luzhniki disaster that occurred in the stadium after the game). In 1990, Haarlem was relegated to the
Eerste Divisie again, in which they played until 25 January 2010.
Ajax partnership On 10 August 2009, Haarlem and
AFC Ajax announced a partnership. Ajax would loan one to four players to Haarlem every season, it also meant Ajax would get a say in Haarlem-transfers, and would deploy employees to Haarlem,
Cock Jol, brother of
Martin Jol supervised the Ajax-Haarlem project.
Bankruptcy On 25 January 2010 Haarlem was declared bankrupt and was, according to Dutch league rules, excluded from competition, with all its previous results in the
ongoing competition expunged. The club ceased to exist, with all its players (and staff) becoming
free agents. In February 2010, HFC Haarlem was reinstated as a new amateur club, who also took the naming and logo rights from the old version. This club then started talks for a potential merger with amateur
Tweede Klasse Haarlem-based side HFC Kennemerland, which was announced to have been completed on 27 April; the new club would be called
Haarlem-Kennemerland FC, and would play home games at
Haarlem Stadion, thus continuing the legacy of the old HFC Haarlem. ==Honours==