Vejlby-Risskov Idrætsklub, commonly known as VRI, is a

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

based in Risskov,

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

, Denmark. VRI is mostly known for its

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

department, which competes in the

Denmark Series The Denmark Series ( da, Danmarksserien) is the fifth tier in the Danish football league system. Teams are divided into four groups of ten. The top team in each group is promoted to the Danish 3rd Division. The bottom three teams in each group are ...

, the fifth tier of the

Danish football league system The Danish football league system, also known as the football league pyramid, refers to the hierarchically interconnected league system, league structure for Football in Denmark, association football in Denmark, in which all divisions are bound tog ...

. Founded in 1937, it is affiliated to the regional DBU Jutland football association. The team plays its home matches at NES Park where it has been based since 2011.

History

The club was founded on 9 November 1937. The initiators were Frode Nielsen and Gunnar Åse Nielsen, who established the club at a meeting held at Risskov Badehotel, where 70 new members joined the club. Frode Nielsen, who became chairman, Gunnar Nielsen, Erling Nielsen, S. Blinkenberg and Søren Andersen were elected to the first board. Initially, the club mostly focused on

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

, but the club included

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

in its program from 1938. The first training grounds were located at the current Bellevuehal, while indoor training took place in Stadionhallen. In 1952, the club was allocated a clubhouse adjacent to

Bellevue Beach Bellevue Beach (Danish: ''Bellevue Strand''), often simply referred to as Bellevue, is a beach at Klampenborg on the northern outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. With up to 500,000 visitors a year, it is one of the most popular beaches in the Copen ...

. Bellevuehallen, the club's new indoor arena, was inaugurated on 19 June 1966, with the addition of another new indoor arena in 1987. Each year in December, VRI hosts an indoor football tournament in Bellevuehallerne to find the "Aarhus Champions in Indoor Football" between selected teams from AGF,

Aarhus Fremad Aarhus Fremad (, "Aarhus Forward") is an association football club located in Aarhus N, the northern part of Aarhus, Denmark. The team plays in the Danish 2nd Division, the third tier of the Danish football league system. Aarhus Fremad competed i ...

, VSK Aarhus and VRI. On 20 November 2011, the club inaugurated its new home ground, NES Park, with a pitch consisting of

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...

. Present at the inauguration were local

players

Martin Jørgensen Lars Martin Jørgensen (; born 6 October 1975) is a Danish former professional footballer played as a midfielder or defender. He works as talent manager for AGF. Jørgensen amassed 102 caps and scored 12 goals for the Denmark national team. ...

and

Peter Graulund Peter Graulund (born 20 September 1976) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played for Danish clubs Vejle Boldklub, Brøndby IF and AGF, German side VfL Bochum, and Swedish club Helsingborgs IF. He played six g ...

, as well as former VRI player

Mikkel Kirkeskov Mikkel Kirkeskov Andersen (born 5 September 1991) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Ekstraklasa club Zagłębie Lubin. Career AGF Kirkeskov was born in Aarhus, Denmark, and started playing football for VRI befor ...

. The football department has mostly spent its existence in the lower tiers of the

, bouncing between the fifth tier Jutland Series and lower regional tiers. Its best historical achievement was long regarded to be the 1969 promotion to the fourth-tier

, with the club almost reaching the third tier 3rd Division in 1971. In 2019, VRI repeated the feat from 1969 and won promotion to the Denmark Series after a 3–0 win over Agerbæk/Starup in the third to last round.

References

External links

Official site
{{Denmark Series Football clubs in Denmark Association football clubs established in 1937 1937 establishments in Denmark Sport in Aarhus