BELGIUM: RCS Verlaine (1941-2016, 2016-)

Stade des Six Bonniers, Verlaine (RCS Verlaine)

Belgium, province: Liège = Luik

26 III 2015 / RCS Verlaine - FC Trooz 2-1 / Liège, Provincial Cup semi

Timeline

• 1940 / Foundation of Cercle Sportif (CS) Verlaine. Upon joining Belgium's FA in December 1940, the club obtains matricule 2871.
• 1941 / CS Verlaine first takes part in Liège's local divisions, in Provincial League 3. It is unclear when exactly the club settled at its Stade des Six Bonniers, but it must have been quite early on in its history - probably already in the 1940s.
• 1946 / A mere five seasons after its first competitive match, CS Verlaine wins promotion to the national level, playing one season in Promotion C - the third step of Belgium's football pyramid - before tumbling back into Liège's provincial divisions in 1947. In the following decades, the club alternates spells in Provincial Leagues 1, 2, and 3.
• 1982 / Winning the title in Provincial League 2 (probably P2A), CS Verlaine accedes to Liège's Provincial League 1 - staying up in the 1982-83 season.
• 1990 / Upon its 50th anniversary, CS Verlaine acquires the royal epithet, adapting its name to become Royal Cercle Sportif (RCS) Verlaine.
• 2011 / RCS Verlaine drops out of Liège's Provincial League 1 in spite of finishing 13th in a competition of 17 teams.
• 2012 / Finishing second in Provincial League 2A behind authoritarian champions Solières Sports, RCS Verlaine fails to win promotion via the play-offs.
• 2014 / Clinching the title in P2A with a lead of 23 points over nearest follower R Oreye Union, RCS Verlaine manages a return to Provincial League 1 after a three-year absence.
• 2015 / In one of the most memorable seasons in club history, RCS Verlaine wins the final of Liège's Provincial Cup, while also winning promotion to National Division 4 after winning the P1 promotion play-offs. In the 2015-16 nationwide Belgian Cup, Verlaine sees off RE Rossignol and R Stade Waremmien FC in the first two rounds before bowing out in a home game against K Londerzeel SK (1-3). 
• 2016 / In the club's first season at the national level in 69 years, RCS Verlaine finishes 14th in National Division 4D, thereby narrowly avoiding relegation. In the spring of 2016, a thorough renovation of the club's Stade des Six Bonniers is undertaken, involving the construction of a new covered stand as well as the putting in place of a synthetic surface - as well as a small stand - on the ground's B pitch. While the works are underway, RCS Verlaine's first team temporarily plays its home games at RSC Entité Engis' Stade des Fagnes. Because the works have not been completed by the start of the new season, the club's first team plays its home matches at Waremme's Stade Edmond Leburton until early October 2016. For the 2016-17 season, which is the first after a reorganisation of Belgium's national league pyramid, RCS Verlaine is placed in ACFF Amateur Division 3, the new 5th and lowest national division.
• 2019 / Finishing fourth in ACFF Amateur Division 3B, RCS Verlaine wins the promotion play-offs, thus acceding to Amateur Division 2, the fourth step of the Belgian league pyramid.

Note: Below, a compilation of photos showing the pre-2016 and post-2016 situations: pictures 1-16 = match visit, March 2015 / pictures 17-19 = non-matchday visit, February 2019.

All photos: (c) W.B. Tukker (co-edited by J.C. te Boekhorst) / www.extremefootballtourism.blogspot.com. Publication of any of these images only after permission of author