The beauty of a regional football club’s matchday programme lies in its commercial duality. On page 58 of the May 2014 booklet, right beneath a glossy advertisement for a luxury Swedish hatchback, sits a gritty, pragmatic ad for Teuben Transport BV. It is a perfect visual representation of the northern Dutch economy: the white-collar executives on top, supported by the blue-collar heavy lifters below.
The advertisement features a massive green Volvo truck and promotes “Quality for transport and logistics.” But the most culturally significant detail is the location of the company: Ter Apel and Musselkanaal. These towns are located in the Veenkoloniën (peat colonies) in the extreme southeast of the Groningen province. It is an area historically defined by hard physical labor, agriculture, and a no-nonsense mentality.
For a logistics company from the provincial borderlands to advertise in the Euroborg, it proves that the stadium is the ultimate commercial crossroads of the north. The trucks of Teuben Transport BV are the blood cells of the regional economy, moving goods across the flat landscapes. The fans from places like Musselkanaal who travel to the city for the match see their local employers represented on the glossy pages, reinforcing the idea that FC Groningen belongs to the entire province, not just the urban center.
A Look into the Future
The logistics and transport sector in the Netherlands faced unprecedented challenges in the decade following this advertisement, dealing with severe driver shortages, strict nitrogen emission regulations, and fluctuating fuel prices. Yet, companies like Teuben Transport BV remained the indispensable backbone of the supply chain. By 2026, the diesel truck pictured in this ad might be facing replacement by greener alternatives, but the hard-working ethos of the Veenkoloniën remains unchanged. This 2014 ad is a printed tribute to the men and women who keep the north moving.