Fai-your-north

An 'e', an 'i' and then a 'j', eij, Feijenoord, they don't know anything about that abroad. Nowhere do they know the long ij, it exists only in Dutch and then only as a compound character. On May 6, 1970, in the final of the European Cup for national champions, Feijenoord amazed the watching soccer world with good and strong soccer.

Beating heavily favored Celtic Glasgow 2-1, the Netherlands experienced its first major success in international soccer. Four months later, Feijenoord also conquered the World Cup by beating Argentina's Estudiantes de La Plata. The champion of Europe and the world had a problem with the awkward long ij and chose to replace it with the well-known Greek ij, the ypsilon: Feyenoord, which looks more worldly. In Rotterdam's working-class district of Feijenoord they shrug: "Still sounds like 'Fai-je-noort'.