BELGIUM: RUS Les Bulles

Route de Rossignol, Les Bulles (RUS Les Bulles)

Belgium, province: Luxembourg = Luxemburg

30 III 2024 / RUS Les Bulles - RUS Sainte-Marie 2-4 / Belgian Luxembourg, Provincial League 3B (= BE level 8)

Timeline

• 1916 / By 1916 at its latest, a first football club is founded in Les Bulles; the club, called Standard Les Bulles, is no Belgian Football Association member, but plays its football in championships against teams from villages nearby.
• 1922 / Standard Les Bulles joins Belgium’s Football Association.
• 1924 / Standard Les Bulles folds, ceasing all activities.
• 1934 / Foundation of a new club in Les Bulles, which takes on the name Union Sportive (US) Les Bulles. The founding committee of the club is led by the local mayor, Léon Farinelle, who also becomes the club’s first chairman. Upon applying for membership of Belgium’s FA, the club receives registration number 2167. The club’s first ground is the Terrain de la Vierre, situated to the west of the village. It is unclear for how long the club played there before moving to their second ground, situated behind the local garage.
• 1939 / Upon the mobilisation of Belgium, US Les Bulles, deprived of many of its players who were called up for military service, ceases all activities for the duration of two years.
• 1947 / Taking up activities two years after the liberation of the Ardennes from the German yoke, US Les Bulles, nicknamed ‘Les Bullots’, is placed in Belgian Luxembourg’s Regional Division 3A.
• 1955 / Having been runners-up in Provincial League 3 the two previous seasons (behind Jeunesse Freylangeoise and US Louftémont respectively), US Les Bulles now clinches the title in P3, an impressive 8 points ahead of closest followers RC Longlier. As such, the club accedes to Provincial League 2 for the first time.
• 1958 / After three seasons in Provincial League 2, US Les Bulles drops back into the bottom division of Belgian Luxembourg’s provincial league system.
• ± 1975 / Having moved from the pitch behind the local garage to Chemin de Blofagnu at some point in the previous decades, US Les Bulles now settles at a newly laid-out pitch at Route de Rossignol, to the east of the village centre.
• 1987 / Having received permission from the royal palace in Laeken in the previous summer, US Les Bulles officially takes on the royal epithet, thus officially becoming Royale Union Sportive (RUS) Les Bulles.
• 2016 / Coached by Mario Goffin, RUS Les Bulles clinches the title – the club’s first title since 1955 – in Belgian Luxembourg’s Provincial League 3B, finishing 4 points ahead of closest rivals FC Tintigny. The decisive points are clinched in a 1-0 home defeat of US Stabuloise (goal scored by Denis). As such, the club accedes to Provincial League 2 after an uninterrupted spell of 58 (!) years in the bottom division of Luxembourg’s provincial league system.
• 2017 / Falling just 2 points short of Jeunesse Lorraine Arlon B and safety, RUS Les Bulles drops back into P3 after just one season, along with RCS Halanzy and local rivals EC Jamoigne-Chiny.
• 2020 / Having managed respectable fourth and third place finishes in the two previous seasons, RUS Les Bulles finds itself in second place in Provincial League 3B, just 2 points behind RUS Léglise, when the season is cut short in March 2020 due to the COVID lockdown. At the behest of the provincial committee, the club gains automatic promotion to P2 for the following seasons.
• 2023 / Having narrowly staved off relegation in the first full season following the COVID lockdown, RUS Les Bulles now finishes rock bottom in P2B, with just 2 points from 26 matches. The club drops back into P3. On September 16th, 2023, in the P3B encounter away at RUS Sainte-Marie (3-5), RUS Les Bulles manages its first regular league win in one-and-a-half year – the last success having been in mid-April 2022 in a home match against UR Saint-Louis Saint-Léger (3-0).

Note - Below, a compilation of pictures of two different visits: pictures 1-2 = non-matchday visit, July 2010 / pictures 3-19 = match visit, March 2024

All photos: (c) W.B. Tukker / www.extremefootballtourism.blogspot.com. Publication of any of these images only after permission of author