Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: Belgium National Team (1931-) / RRC Bruxelles (1954-1963) / R Union Saint-Gilloise (2016-2018) / RSC Anderlecht (B) (2022-)

Koning Boudewijnstadion = Stade Roi Baudouin, Brussels (Bruxelles, Brussel) Laken = Laeken (National Stadium, formerly RRC Bruxelles / R Union Saint-Gilloise)

Belgium, Brussels Capital Area

15 V 2010 / Cercle Brugge KSV - KAA Gent 0-3 / Belgian Cup final

Timeline

1930 / A classical modernist design by architect Joseph Van Neck, the Stade du Centenaire or Stade du Jubilé (in Dutch: Jubelstadion) is first used for an event on August 23rd, 1930. The 70,000 capacity ground is situated close to the royal palace - in fact, the Heysel Plateau ceded by the Belgian state to allow the construction of the stadium, used to be privately owned by King Leopold II. With the first stone being laid by Brussels' mayor Adolphe Max in October 1929, the building works - carried out by a crew of 600 construction workers - were completed in an impressively short period of ten months. The first event to be held at the stadium is the 1930 European Track Cycling Championships. Several weeks later, on September 14th, the stadium is inaugurated officially by Belgium's Crown Prince Leopold (the later King Leopold III), in a ceremony also involving a non-official international match in which a Belgium XI defeats a Netherlands XI (4-1) - a victory which could not have been more symbolical, as the name chosen for the stadium was a reference to the 100th anniversary of Belgium becoming an independent nation and breaking away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1830.
1931 / Belgium's national team plays an official international match at Stade du Centenaire for the first time on October 11th, 1931, defeating Poland 2-1. The stadium has hosted most of Belgium's international matches ever since, although occasionally alternating with other grounds - most notably Antwerp's Bosuilstadion.
1935 / Belgium hosts the Brussels International Exposition in and around the Stade du Centenaire.
1945 / The demountable wooden velodrome around the stadium's athletics track, a design by architect Albert Herent which was part of the original set-up of the ground, is removed.
1946 / The stadium is renamed Stade du Heysel (Heizelstadion).
1950 / The first major athletics event to be held at the stadium, the 1950 European Athletics Championships are mainly remembered for Fanny Blankers-Koen - the 'Flying Housewife' from the Netherlands - winning three gold medals.
1954 / Evicted from its Stade des Trois Tilleuls in Watermael-Boitsfort due to no longer being able to pay the rents, Royal Racing Club (RRC) de Bruxelles (founded in 1894, matr. 6) settles at Stade du Heysel. After the club's last season ever in National Division 1 (1954-55), RRC Bruxelles, one of the powerhouses of the earliest stages of Belgian football in the 1890s and 1900s, leads a dwindling existence in National Divisions 2 and 3. Incidentally, the year 1954 also sees the Belgian Cup final held at Stade du Heysel for the first time; the stadium has hosted most of the cup finals since.
1958 / The Stade du Heysel hosts the European Cup final for the first time, with Real Madrid CF beating AC Milan 3-2. The final of UEFA's main international club tournament is held in Belgium's national stadium thrice more in subsequent years (1966, 1974, 1985) - as well as four editions of the Cup Winners Cup final (1964, 1976, 1980, 1996). The 1958 final coincides by a second World Fair - the famous 1958 World Expo - being held in and around the stadium.
1963 / RRC Bruxelles merges with R White Star AC, forming Royal Racing White. The new merger club settles at Stade Fallon in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert / Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe.
1972 / The stadium hosts the final of the European Football Championships between West Germany and the Soviet Union (3-0).
1977 / First edition of the Memorial Ivo Van Damme, an annual international athletics event held at Stade du Heysel in the summer months.
1985 / On October 29th, 1985, the European Cup final between Liverpool FC and Juventus FC held at Stade du Heysel is completely overshadowed by the most notorious of all stadium riots; in the so-called Heysel Stadium Disaster, Liverpool 'supporters' attack a neutral section of the stands mainly populated by Italian supporters before the start of the match. No fewer than 39 spectators - amongst whom 32 Italians - are killed, while some 400 people are wounded. In spite of the horrible events, the match is played, with Juventus winning 1-0 thanks to a Michel Platini penalty.
1995 / Upon completion of a first round of renovations following designs of architect Bob Van Reeth - involving, most notably, thorough works on the main stand, which loses its oval shape in the process due to a brick wall, incorporating the original entrance gate, being constructed at the rear -, the stadium is renamed Stade Roi Baudouin (Koning Boudewijnstadion) in memory of King Baudouin (1930-93).
1996 / In the last European final to date held at the stadium - and the first since the Heysel Disaster -, Paris Saint-Germain FC defeats SK Rapid Wien 1-0, adding the Cup Winners Cup to their trophy cabinet.
1998 / In a second, more thorough renovation - undertaken in view of the 2000 European Football Championships due to be held in Belgium and the Netherlands - the stand opposite the main stand is completely rebuilt, with an extra tier being added to the sections behind each of the goals. Now an all-seater stadium, the Stade Roi Baudouin has a maximum capacity of 50,093.
2000 / Five encounters in the 2000 European Football Championships take place at Stade Roi Baudouin, amongst which all three of Belgium's group matches.
2016 / R Union Saint-Gilloise moves its first team football to Stade Roi Baudouin due to renovations taking place at their own Stade Joseph Marien in Vorst/Forest. Union's spell at Heysel lasts two years.
2022 / RSC Anderlecht's B squad, entering the league pyramid in Division 1B, the second tier in Belgian football, in the summer of 2022, plays its home matches at Stade Roi Baudouin.