Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: ROC Meix-devant-Virton

Stade Georges Briffart, Meix-devant-Virton (ROC Meix-devant-Virton)

Belgium, province: Luxembourg

1 V 2013 / ROC Meix-devant-Virton - RUS Ethe-Belmont 1-0 / Belgian Luxembourg, Provincial League 1 (= BE level 5)

Timeline

1941 / Foundation of a football club in Meix-devant-Virton, which takes on the name Olympic Club (OC) Meix-devant-Virton, with Adelson Lepage becoming its first chairman. Upon joining the Belgian Football Association, the club acquires registration number 3201. Most probably, the club’s first pitch, known at the time as Terrain de la Cholette, was located on the exact spot of modern-day Stade Georges Briffart. Starting its life in Group A of a Regional Championship, organised due to the German occupation of Belgium making regular league football well-nigh impossible, OC Meix-devant-Virton is placed in Belgian Luxembourg’s Regional League 2 after the resumption of regular league football following the liberation of Belgium from the German yoke.
1950 / Finishing in second-last place in Luxembourg’s Regional League 2A, OC Meix-devant-Virton is retrograded to Regional League 3.
1952 / Clinching the title in Luxembourg’s Regional League 3A, 10 points ahead of closest followers ES Jamoigne, OC Meix-devant-Virton wins promotion to Regional League 2 (renamed Provincial League 2 that same year).
1959 / Descending into Belgian Luxembourg’s Provincial League 3 after a spell of seven years in Provincial League 2, OC Meix-devant-Virton would not manage to get away from the bottom step of the league ladder in the following two decades.
± 1975 / OC Meix-devant-Virton’s ground, Terrain de la Cholette, is officially renamed Stade Georges Briffart in honour of an esteemed volunteer of the club who passed away at a relatively young age.
1978 / The current clubhouse is erected at Stade Georges Briffart. Oddly, the plaque giving the name of the ground on the clubhouse misspells Briffart’s surname, which is given as Briffard.
1980 / OC Meix-devant-Virton finishes as runners-up in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 3B, 5 points behind champions US Assenois.
1981 / OC Meix-devant-Virton finishes as runners-up in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 3B for the second year running, 3 points behind champions RC Longlier.
1982 / Runaway champions in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 3A, 12 points ahead of closest followers ES Châtillon, OC Meix-devant-Virton manages a return to Provincial League 2 after an absence of 23 years at that level.
1986 / Finishing in joint first place in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 2A with ES Izel, OC Meix-devant-Virton meets that club in a tie-break match, played at ES Bellefontaine’s Terrain de la Rue de Virton. However, suffering a thumping 5-0 defeat, Meix misses out on an unprecedented promotion to Provincial League 1.
1987 / Champions in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 2A, 1 point ahead of ES Jamoigne and RUS Marbehan, OC Meix-devant-Virton wins promotion to Provincial League 1 for the first time in club history.
1988 / Finishing bottom of the table in its first season in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1, OC Meix-devant-Virton drops back into Provincial League 2 – destined to stay put at that level for the following twenty years.
± 1989 / Stade Georges Briffart is extended with a second pitch, situated to the southern side of the main pitch.
1991 / As the club celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, OC Meix-devant-Virton obtains the royal epithet, thus officially becoming Royal Olympic Club (ROC) Meix-devant Virton.
2008 / Conquering the title in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 2A, 11 points ahead of runners-up RRC Longlier, ROC Meix-devant-Virton manages a return to Provincial League 1 after an absence of twenty years. The successful coach is Philippe Guérard.
2009 / Finishing in fourth place in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1, ROC Meix-devant-Virton qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club wins the Luxembourg qualifying round, bowing out against KFC Esperanza Neerpelt from faraway Limburg in R1 of the Interprovincial play-offs.
2011 / Finishing in third place in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1, ROC Meix-devant-Virton qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club edges past RAFC Oppagne-Wéris in R1 (2-1), only to suffer elimination at the hands of FC Jeunesse Lorraine Arlonaise in a spectacular R2 encounter (7-6).
2012 / Runners-up in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1, 19 points behind authoritarian champions FC Jeunesse Lorraine Arlonaise, ROC Meix-devant-Virton qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club knocks out RES Champlonaise in R1 (1-1 & penalty shoot-out), only to suffer elimination at the hands of RUS Sartoise in R2 (1-2).
2013 / Finishing in third place in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1, ROC Meix-devant-Virton qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club bows out in R1 against RES Champlonaise (0-1). That same season, the club also qualifies for the final of Belgian Luxembourg’s Provincial Cup, played at Bastogne’s Stade des Récollets. However, in a match attended by some 700 spectators, the club suffers defeat (1-0) at the hands of, yet again, RES Champlonaise.
2014 / Finishing in fourth place in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1, ROC Meix-devant-Virton qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club knocks out ROC Rochois (0-2) and RLC Bastogne (1-0) in the Luxembourg qualifying round, thus progressing to the Interprovincial play-offs, in which the club sees off KSV De Ruiter in R1 (3-1), only to suffer a heavy defeat in the final, away at R Châtelet SC (5-1). As such, the club misses out on a historic promotion to the national divisions.
2015 / Finishing in fifth place in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1, ROC Meix-devant-Virton qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is knocked out in R1 by RFC Bomal (1-0). Also in 2015, the second pitch at Stade Georges Briffart is equipped with a synthetic surface thanks to an intervention by Meix’s municipal authorities, who officially take over the ownership of the 3G, while allowing the club to make use of it.
2018 / Champions in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1, 3 points ahead of closest rivals RAFC Oppagne-Wéris, ROC Meix-devant-Virton achieves a historic promotion to ACFF Amateur Division 3, the fifth and lowest tier of Belgium’s national league pyramid. Also in 2018, Meix conquers its first-ever win in Luxembourg’s Provincial Cup, defeating RUS Ethe-Belmont in the final, staged at Virton’s Stade Yvan Georges, thanks to two penalties by captain Nicolas Georges (2-1).
2019 / In the best season in club history so far, ROC Meix-devant-Virton finishes in eighth place in ACFF Amateur Division 3B – going on to repeat that achievement in the 2024-25 season.
2020 / In the 2019-20 season, cut short due to the first COVID lockdown in March 2020, ROC Meix-devant-Virton finds itself in second-last place in ACFF Amateur Division 3B, as a result of which the club is retrograded to Provincial League 1 along with Namurois clubs RFC Spy and RUW Ciney.
2022 / Runners-up in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1, with an equal number of points as champions RCS Libramontois, but with an inferior goal difference (+28 vs. +32), ROC Meix-devant-Virton has to settle for a place in the promotion play-offs. In fact, the club had been in the lead until the last match of the season, in which it managed no more than a draw against RUS Ethe-Belmont (1-1), with Libramont achieving a win at RFC Arlon (1-3). In the Luxembourg qualifying round of the play-offs, ROC Meix knocks out RES Vaux-Noville (2-0) and RRC Longlier (1-0) successively, thus progressing to the Interprovincial play-offs. In those play-offs, the club sees off UCE Liège (3-0) and RUS Biesme (2-1) in the first two rounds, thus qualifying for the final against RLC Hornu – the club’s fifth consecutive home game in these play-offs. With the encounter having to be broken off after 38 minutes due to heavy rainfall (0-0), the match is completely replayed, resulting in a 1-1 draw (A.E.T.) and Meix winning the penalty shoot-out. As such, the club manages a return to ACFF Amateur Division 3 after an absence of two seasons. The successful coach is Gérard Brolet.
2024 / ROC Meix-devant-Virton is one of four regional clubs to sign a partnership deal with R Excelsior Virton, entailing that part of the latter’s youth academy is to play under the flag of ROC Meix.