Football Club Groningen is a Dutch professional association football club based in the city of Groningen, province of Groningen. Founded on 16 June 1971 as the successor of GVAV, the team will compete in the Eredivisie, the first tier of Dutch football, following promotion from the 2023–24 Eerste Divisie. Groningen played their inaugural season in the Eredivisie, before the side were relegated to the Eerste Divisie in 1973–74 as they got into financial difficulties. Groningen were promoted back to the Eredivisie as champions in 1979–80 and remained in the top flight for almost 20 seasons before they dropped to the second tier in 1997–98. The team won promotion to the Eredivisie in 1999–2000, where they remained for 23 seasons before suffering relegation in 2022–23.

Groningen is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The capital of the north, Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of the country; as of December 2021, it had 235,287 inhabitants, making it the sixth largest city/municipality in the Netherlands and the second largest outside the Randstad.