Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: R Knokke FC

Monday, 12 January 2015

BELGIUM: R Knokke FC

Sportstadion Olivier / Graaf Leopold Lippenspark, Knokke = Knocke (Royal Knokke FC)

Belgium, province: West Flanders

11 I 2015 / R Knokke FC - KFC Sparta Petegem 1-3 / National Division 4A (= BE level 4)

Timeline

1905 / Spurred on by the town's UK community, a group of locals takes the decision to form a football club. First president of Knocke Football Club (FC) is co-founder Raymond Aertssen. The club's first ground is referred to locally as 'De Koepit'. It is as yet unknown when the club moved to Stadion Olivier; and equally when the club name was flemicised to Knokke FC.
1920 / Knocke FC joins the Belgian Football Association; it is unclear in which league the club competed prior to World War I.
1926 / Upon the introduction of the matricule system by Belgium's FA, Knocke FC obtains matricule 101.
1927 / Knocke FC accedes to the national league pyramid for a first time, being placed in Promotion - at the time the third and lowest national level.
1930 / Upon its 25th anniversary, Knocke FC becomes a Société Royale - and preferring the French epithet rather than the Dutch-language version, the club adapts its name to become Royal Knocke Football Club (R Knocke FC or RKFC).
1931 / Following four successful seasons in Promotion, in which the club finished with the first four every year, R Knocke FC wins promotion to Eerste Afdeeling, the second tier of the league pyramid - due to a reorganisation involving Eerste Afdeeling being split in two groups, resulting in a larger number of clubs being admitted to this level.
1933 / After having taken part in Eerste Afdeeling for two seasons, R Knocke FC drops back into Promotion.
1935 / After an eight-year spell of national league football, R Knocke FC is relegated to West Flanders' provincial leagues.
1937 / R Knocke FC manages a return to Promotion.
1947 / After ten years in Promotion - although football was interrupted on several occasions due to World War II, resulting in two seasons without any football at all - R Knocke eventually drops back to West Flanders' Provincial League 1.
1997 / Winning the title in Provincial League 2, R Knokke FC manages a return to P1.
2000 / After three years of Provincial League 1 football, the club is relegated to P2.
2006 / Winning promotion from P2, RKFC commences a new spell of Provincial League 1 football.
2013 / Having suffered relegation to P2 the previous year, R Knokke FC, led by legendary Dutch manager Henk Houwaart, finds its way back to the top provincial level by winning the promotion play-offs. It is to be the start of a remarkable rise through the leagues in the following years.
2014 / Winning the title in Provincial League 1, the club earns a second promotion in a row, resulting in a return to national league football after an absence of 67 years.
2016 / R Knokke FC wins the title in National Division 4A, but due to a reorganisation of Belgium's football pyramid in the summer of 2016, the club remains at step 4 of the league system - the newly formed VFV Amateur Division 2
2017 / Winning the title in VFV Amateur Division 2A, R Knokke FC accedes to Amateur Division 1 - a return to the third tier of Belgium's football pyramid after an absence of exactly 70 seasons.
2018 / In its first season in Amateur Division 1, R Knokke FC finished an impressive second behind Lommel SK; subsequently, Knokke beat Lommel in a promotion play-off, but due to the West Flanders' side not having applied for a professional league football license, Lommel acceded to National Division 1B or the second tier of Belgian football instead of Knokke. In 2018, a thorough renovation of Stadion Olivier is undertaken. For the 2018-19 season, R Knokke FC groundshares with neighbour club KFC Heist at its ground, Sportstadion De Taeye in Heist-aan-Zee.
2019 / In the 2018-19 season, R Knokke FC has a disappointing run, eventually ending in relegation to Amateur Division 2. Still in 2019, a renovated Stadion Olivier is inaugurated. The ground is renamed Graaf Leopold Lippenspark in honour of Knocke's longtime mayor; official capacity of the ground remains unchanged at 3,000, in spite of an extension of the main stand. Leopold Lippens passed away two years after the inauguration of 'his' stadium, in 2021, having served as the town's mayor for an uninterrupted 42 years.
2020 / R Knokke FC manages an immediate return to Amateur Division 1 by clinching the title in VFV Amateur Division 2A.

Note: Below, a compilation of photos of two different visits: pictures 1-16 = match visit, January 2015 (pre-renovation) / pictures 17-23 = non-matchday visit, October 2022 (post-renovation).