BELGIUM: R Banneux FC (±1970-2018) / FCB Sprimont (B) (2018-2025) / R Sprimont Banneux (B) (2025-)

Stade Georges Radoux, Banneux (B ground of R Sprimont Banneux, formerly R Banneux FC / B ground of FCB Sprimont)

Belgium, province: Liège = Luik

27 VII 2014 / R Banneux FC - ESFC du Geer 4-1 / Liège, Provincial Cup R1

Timeline

• 1926 / Foundation of a football club in Banneux, a village in the heart of the Province of Liège; the new club takes on the name Banneux FC. It is unclear where Banneux FC played its football in the first 45 odd years of its existence. 
• 1927 / Banneux FC joins the Belgian Football Association, acquiring registration number 1060 and starting its existence as a competitive club in Liège’s Regional League 3.
• 1931 / Gaining promotion from Liège’s Regional League 3 along with Melen FC, US Lixhe, and Fize-Fontaine FC, Banneux FC accedes to Regional League 2, i.e. the second-highest provincial level at the time.
• 1953 / Obtaining the royal epithet, Banneux FC officially changes its name to become Royal Banneux Football Club, usually abbreviated as R Banneux FC.
• 1956 / Having held out in Regional League 2, renamed Provincial League 2 in 1952, for 25 consecutive years, R Banneux FC now descends into Provincial League 3 along with CS Rémersdael. No data as to the club’s performance in the following forty years is available, but it is clear Banneux never rose to Liège’s Provincial League 1 in the second half of the 20th century.
• ± 1970 / R Banneux FC moves into the newly laid-out Stade Communal at Rue des Douze Hommes, the location still in use today.
• 1996 / In a first trace after forty years of obscurity in the sources, we find R Banneux FC in Liège’s Provincial League 4, with the club usually finishing in the lower reaches of the final table in the following seven years.
• 2009 / With the club having won promotion from Liège’s Provincial League 4 to Provincial League 3 sometime between 2004 and 2008, R Banneux FC now manages a third place in Provincial League 3C, going on to win promotion to Provincial League 2 via the play-offs.
• 2012 / Georges Radoux, the trainer of R Banneux FC’s first team, passes away unexpectedly on November 21th, 2012.
• 2013 / The Stade Communal at Rue des Douze Hommes is renamed Stade Georges Radoux in honour of the coach of the club who passed away the preceding year. 
• 2016 / Finishing in third place in Liège’s Provincial League 2A, R Banneux FC qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club knocks out REH Braives in R1 (1-1 A.E.T. & penalty shoot-out), R Ougrée FC in R2 (3-3 A.E.T. & penalty shoot-out) and R Aubel FC in the semifinal (0-2), going on to edge past R Alliance Melen-Micheroux in the final (3-2). As a result, R Banneux FC manages an unprecedented promotion to Provincial League 1; the successful coach is Michel Leruth.
• 2017 / In its first season in Liège’s Provincial League 1, R Banneux FC manages a strong fourth place, resulting in qualification for the promotion play-offs, in which the club bows out in R1 against Stade Disonais (3-2). 
• 2018 / In its last season as an independent club, R Banneux FC copies its performance of the previous season, finishing in fourth place in Liège’s Provincial League 1 - but missing out on the promotion play-offs. Following the 2017-18 season, a merger is concluded between R Sprimont-Comblain Sport and R Banneux FC, which results in the foundation of Football Comblain Banneux (FCB) Sprimont, which retains Sprimont’s registration number 260; Banneux’s number 1060 is erased from the Belgian FA’s membership list. From now on, the new club disposes of three grounds; the Stade du Tultay in Sprimont for first team football, Stade Georges Radoux in Banneux for the club’s B team in the provincial divisions as well as some training sessions, and the Site de la Gombe in Poulseur for the youth academy. The place of R Banneux FC in Liège’s Provincial League 1 is taken by FCB Sprimont B.
• 2020 / The covered stand at Stade Georges Radoux is knocked down and replaced by a smaller, wooden construction.
• 2023 / Finishing bottom of the table in Liège’s Provincial League 1, FCB Sprimont B drops back into Provincial League 2 with R Ougrée FC and Etoile de Faimes.
• 2025 / Runner-up in Liège’s Provincial League 2C, 7 points behind champions KFC Olympia Recht, FCB Sprimont B qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the team bows out in R1 against K Honsfelder SV (0-1). In the summer of 2025, as FCB Sprimont retrieves its royal epithet, which had been temporarily lost in the 2018 merger for administrative reasons, the club takes on the adapted name R Sprimont Banneux. Due to the bad state of the pitch of Stade Georges Radoux, R Sprimont Banneux B plays its home matches in the first half of the 2025-26 season at the Site de la Gombe in Poulseur.
• 2026 / As the state of the pitch of Stade Georges Radoux is deemed satisfactory, R Sprimont Banneux B abandons the Site de la Gombe in favour of the ground in Banneux for its home matches in January 2026.

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