Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: VV Merelbeke (± 1968-1988) / KFC Merelbeke (1988-2018) / KFC Merelbeke (C) (2018-2020) / SK Merelbeke (2020-2024) / FC Anatolia Gent (2024-)

Terrein Kloosterstraat, Merelbeke (FC Anatolia Gent & SC Eendracht Aalst, formerly VV Merelbeke / KFC Merelbeke)

Belgium, province: East Flanders

19 V 2013 / KFC Merelbeke - RRC Wetteren-Kwatrecht 0-1 / East Flanders, Provincial League 1 - promotion play-off final (= BE level 5)

Timeline

1942 / Foundation of two football clubs in Merelbeke, SC Merelbeke Statie (registration number 3208) and Vlug & Vrij (VV) Merelbeke (registration number 3551).
1947 / SC Merelbeke Statie folds, ceasing all activities; registration number 3208 is erased from Belgium’s FA’s official lists.
1949 / Foundation of a new club in Merelbeke, which takes on the idiosyncratic name Taaie Trouwe Trappers (TTT) Merelbeke and acquiring membership of Belgium’s FA under registration number 5203.
1954 / Amounting to the club’s first tangible success, VV Merelbeke wins the title in East Flanders’ Provincial League 2A, thus acceding to Provincial League 1 for the first and only time in its history. Also in 1954, TTT Merelbeke folds, ceasing all activities; registration number 5203 is erased from the Belgian FA’s official lists.
1955 / Finishing second-last in East Flanders’ Provincial League 1, VV Merelbeke drops back into P2 after just one season.
1959 / Foundation of a recreational football club in Merelbeke, which takes on the name Neva’s Koffie – Neva officially being an acronym of Nieuwe Enthousiaste Voetbalassociatie, but in actual fact being the name of a coffee factory in Merelbeke.
1966 / Football club Neva’s Koffie changes its name to become Union Merelbeke, joining Belgium’s FA under registration number 6318. It is unclear if the club already played at Gemeentelijk Sportcomplex Ter Wallen (at Sportstraat) under its old name, or if the move took place in 1966. The club starts its life in East Flanders’ Provincial League 3D.
± 1968 / Abandoning its old pitch at the northern end of Kloosterstraat – of which it is not clear if the club played there from the outset – VV Merelbeke moves into a newly laid-out ground at the southern side of the same street.
1969 / Upon the creation of Provincial League 4 as the new bottom division of East Flanders’ provincial league pyramid, Union Merelbeke descends to that level. In the following two decades, the club alternates longer spells in P4 (1969-70, 1972-77, 1978-83 & 1985-88) with shorter spells in P3 (1970-72, 1977-78, 1983-85).
± 1970 / A group of students from Merelbeke led by Wilfried Van Keymeulen founds a recreational football club, FC Sloovere. FC Sloovere, which joins an East-Flemish football association called the OVVL (Oost-Vlaams Voetbalverbond voor Liefhebbers), initially plays its home matches on a pitch situated at Bergstraat in Merelbeke.
± 1971 / Moving away from Gemeentelijk Sportcomplex Ter Wallen, Union Merelbeke settles at a newly laid out ground at Gaversesteenweg. Also around 1971, FC Sloovere abandons Terrein Bergstraat, moving to a newly laid out pitch situated at Koestraat.
1972 / Abandoning the OVVL, FC Sloovere joins Belgium’s official Football Association, changing its name to become Sporting Merelbeke and settling at Gemeentelijk Sportcomplex Ter Wallen, the former home of Union Merelbeke. Sporting Merelbeke, which acquires registration number 7748, starts its life as a provincial league club in East Flanders’ Provincial League 4B – managing a respectable third place in its first season.
1973 / Having played in Provincial League 2 for eighteen consecutive seasons, VV Merelbeke now finishes in fifteenth place in P2B, thus dropping back into Provincial League 3 for the first time. The club manages one brief return to Provincial League 2 (1974-75, after winning the title in P3B in 1974), spending the remainder of its existence in P3.
1981 / Clinching the title in Provincial League 4D, Sporting Merelbeke wins promotion to East Flanders’ Provincial League 3 for the first time in club history. That same year, a group of disaffected Sporting Merelbeke members breaks away from the club, taking over FC Sint-Pieters-Gent, moving this club to Merelbeke as SK Sint-Pieters Merelbeke - later adapted to simply SK Merelbeke - and settling at Terrein Zwijnaardsesteenweg.
1982 / In the best season in club history, Sporting Merelbeke finishes in third place in East Flanders’ Provincial League 3A.
1984 / In its best season in club history, Union Merelbeke finishes in fifth place in East Flanders’ Provincial League 3B. Also in 1984, having spent three seasons in P3, Sporting Merelbeke now finishes second-last in P3B, thus dropping back into the bottom division of East Flanders’ provincial league pyramid.
1988 / After merger talks, which lasted (on and off) for more than a decade, VV Merelbeke, Union Merelbeke, and Sporting Merelbeke conclude a merger, resulting in the foundation of Fusieclub (FC) Merelbeke, which retains VV Merelbeke’s registration number 3551 – and starting its life in Provincial League 3, the level at which VV Merelbeke played in its last season as an independent club (finishing in fifth place in P3B), with Sporting and Union spending their last year in P4D (finishing in second and seventh place respectively). After the merger, first team football moves to Terrein Kloosterstraat, VV Merelbeke’s ground, with the other two grounds remaining in use for the club’s youth academy – the initial plan being to move into a renovated Gemeentelijk Sportcomplex Ter Wallen in a couple of years’ time.
± 1990 / Terrein Gaversesteenweg, Union Merelbeke’s ground, is abandoned. Meanwhile, the decision has been taken to continue playing first team football at the cozy ground at Kloosterstraat, with Gemeentelijk Sportcomplex Ter Wallen remaining in use by FC Merelbeke’s youth academy.
1992 / Clinching the title in East Flanders’ Provincial League 3B, FC Merelbeke wins promotion to Provincial League 2.
1993 / Winning the title in East Flanders’ Provincial League 2A – the club’s second title in a row – FC Merelbeke accedes to Provincial League 1, 38 years after VV Merelbeke suffered relegation from P1 after its first and only season ever at that level. Meanwhile, one year after the club’s fiftieth anniversary, FC Merelbeke takes on the royal epithet, thus becoming Koninklijke Fusieclub (KFC) Merelbeke.
1994 / Finishing second-last in Provincial League 1, KFC Merelbeke drops back into P2 after just one season.
2002 / Winners of the title in Provincial League 2A, KFC Merelbeke accedes to Provincial League 1 for the second time. In the following year, the club easily holds its own at that level, finishing in eighth place.
2004 / Bottom of the table in East Flanders’ Provincial League 1 at the end of the 2003-04 season, KFC Merelbeke drops back into P2 after two years.
2010 / Finishing in joint-first place in Provincial League 2B with KSV Geraardsbergen, but with a slightly better goal difference (+43 v +40) and three more matches won (23 v 20), KFC Merelbeke are crowned champions of that division, thus acceding directly to Provincial League 1.
2013 / Finishing in third place in P1, 8 points behind champions KFC Sporting Sint-Gillis-Waas, KFC Merelbeke qualifies for the promotion play-offs. Edging past KVK Svelta Melsele in R1 (3-1 aggregate), the club is defeated in the final by RRC Wetteren-Kwatrecht (3-1 aggr.) – thus missing out on a historic promotion to National Division 4 (the photos above were taken at the second leg of this promotion play-off final)
2014 / Finishing second-last in Provincial League 1 just one season after nearly acceding to the national divisions, KFC Merelbeke drops back into P2 along with VV Sparta Ursel and bottom club SK Lochristi.
2015 / Winning the title in P2A with an advantage of 18 points over closest followers JV De Pinte – and without a single defeat all season – KFC Merelbeke manages a return to P1 after just one season.
2016 / Finishing in joint-first place in East Flanders’ Provincial League 1 with Rapide Club Lebbeke, but with a slightly better goal difference (+43 v + 40) and more matches won (20 v 19), KFC Merelbeke wins its second promotion in a row, thus acceding to the national divisions for the first time in club history. The club is placed in the newly created VFV Amateur Division 3A, the fifth and lowest national league division. In its first season at that level, the club manages to stay away from the bottom places, finishing in eleventh place.
2018 / Having been allowed two seasons of dispensation to play its home games at Terrein Kloosterstraat in spite of the measurements of the main pitch not being in accordance with national league rules, KFC Merelbeke – being left without an alternative within the municipal borders – moves its first team football away from Merelbeke, settling for a groundshare with JV De Pinte at Sportpark Moerkensheide. While Terrein Kloosterstraat is retained just for training sessions, the club’s youth academy stays at Gemeentelijk Sportcomplex Ter Wallen for the time being. In the meantime, plans are made to build the club a completely new ground at Poelstraat.
2019 / Winning the title in VFV Amateur Division 3A, 2 points ahead of RFC Wetteren, KFC Merelbeke accedes to VFV Amateur Division 2, the fourth division of Belgian football.
2020 / KFC Merelbeke abandons Terrein Kloosterstraat once and for all. Having played 39 seasons at Terrein Zwijnaardsesteenweg, which was often waterlogged due to its proximity to the river Scheldt, SK Merelbeke are allowed to move to Kloosterstraat.
2023 / Inauguration of the newly finished Sportpark Molenkouter at Poelstraat in Merelbeke; as such, after a near-five-year groundshare at Sportpark Moerkensheide in De Pinte, KFC Merelbeke returns to a ground within the municipal borders.
2024 / Finishing bottom of the table in P4B in its last season, SK Merelbeke allows itself to be absorbed into FC Anatolia Gent, which moves to Terrein Kloosterstraat from its exile in Boekhoute, the Leonie Ryckaertstadion. FC Anatolia Gent was due to share its new ground in Merelbeke with SC Eendracht Aalst, which had been evicted from its Pierre Cornelisstadion after a conflict with Aalst's town hall, but Merelbeke's municipal authorities forbade the club's move to Merelbeke. This heralded the death-knell for SC Eendracht Aalst, which folded, ceasing all activities.