BELGIUM: RUS Gouvy

Rue de Beho "Champ Loups", Gouvy (RUS Gouvy)

Belgium, province: Luxembourg = Luxemburg

20 XII 2015 / RUS Gouvy - RCS Libramontois 1-4 / Belgian Luxembourg, Provincial League 1 (= BE level 5)

Timeline

• 1924 / Foundation of a first football club in Gouvy, which is given the name Union Sportive (US) Gouvy, joining Belgium’s Football Association with registration number 388. The founding fathers of the club are Marcel Gillet and Raymond Laloux. A pitch is laid out for the club to the south of the village centre, the so-called Terrain du Remaifait.
• 1926 / US Gouvy clinches the title in Luxembourg’s Regional League 3 (Série Vielsalm) in a championship against five other teams.
• 1929 / After a reorganisation of the league pyramid – as well as probably a year of inactivity on the part of the club – US Gouvy clinches the title in Luxembourg’s Debutants’ Division – group F, in a championship against five other teams, with the club winning promotion to Regional League 3.
• 1937 / With a Regional League 2 being formed in Belgian Luxembourg, US Gouvy is placed in this division.
• 1939 / With the Belgian armed forces mobilising in the summer of 1939 in the face of the threat of war in Europe, US Gouvy finds itself unable to field a competitive team, given that a considerable number of players was called up for military service. As a result, the club ceases its activities for the time being.
• 1941 / After two years of inactivity, US Gouvy is founded anew, with former chairman Marcel Gillet taking over the presidency again – staying on in this position for eighteen years until being succeeded by Raymond Laloux, his fellow founding member of the club back in 1924. Due to the two years of inactivity, US Gouvy cannot reclaim its old registration number – instead joining Belgium’s FA as a new club with registration number 3227. Not reclaiming the old ground, Terrain du Remaifait, the club now settles on a newly laid-out pitch in Les Jarbages, to the north of the village centre, on a plot of land owned by Maxime Laloux.
• 1942 / US Gouvy wins the title in group B of a competition for new clubs in Belgian Luxembourg. 
• 1944 / Due to the hardships of war, no fully-fledged league championships are organised in the war years. In 1944, Gouvy goes on to win a second title in a haphazard ‘emergency’ championship with five other regional clubs.
• 1945 / Upon the resumption of regular league football, US Gouvy is placed in Regional League 2, the level at which the original pre-war club played in the 1938-39 season.
• ± 1951 / Moving away from Terrain Maxime Laloux, US Gouvy settles on a pitch on the other side of the same road in Les Jarbages, laid out originally by the Belgian Railways for their personnel – sometimes referred to as the Terrain des Cheminots. 
• 1953 / Bottom of the table in Luxembourg’s Regional League 2, US Gouvy drops back into Regional League 3.
• 1955 / Clinching the title in Regional League 3D, consisting of just six clubs, US Gouvy wins promotion to Regional League 2 (soon to be renamed Provincial League 2).
• 1956 / In spite of only having been a member of the official Belgian FA with their current registration number for fifteen years – but thanks to the club itself never having been dissolved legally – US Gouvy succeeds in obtaining the royal epithet, which, at the time, was open in principle to associations after 25 years of existence. As such, the club officially changes its name to become Royale Union Sportive (RUS) Gouvy.
• 1968 / Finishing in fifteenth place in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 2B, RUS Gouvy drops back into Provincial League 3 – the bottom level of Luxembourg’s regional divisions.
• 1969 / Winning the title in Provincial League 3 (3D?), RUS Gouvy finds its way back to P2 within a year.
• 1970 / Finishing in thirteenth place in P2B, RUS Gouvy drops back into Provincial League 3 after just one season.
• 1988 / Moving away from the Terrain des Cheminots in Les Jarbages, RUS Gouvy settles at a newly laid-out set of two pitches at Rue de Beho, where the club has been home ever since.
• 1990 / Following twenty consecutive years in P3, RUS Gouvy now clinches the title in P3F, 2 points ahead of RES Houffalize, thus finally beginning a new spell in Provincial League 2.
• 1996 / Champions in P2C, 6 points ahead of closest followers RJR Aye, RUS Gouvy accedes to Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1 for the first time in club history.
• 2005 / After a spell of nine seasons in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1, RUS Gouvy now finishes in last place in that division, thus dropping back into P2.
• 2006 / Runners-up in Provincial League 2C, RUS Gouvy does not succeed in reclaiming its place in Provincial League 1 in the play-offs.
• 2007 / Finishing in fourteenth place in P2C, RUS Gouvy drops back into Provincial League 3 after an absence of seventeen years at that level.
• ± 2009 / RUS Gouvy takes possession of the Terrain de la Route Nationale 827 in Beho, which had been the home ground of EC Beho until that club’s demise in 2003, as an extra training pitch.
• 2012 / Clinching the title in P3E with a staggering 76 points from 26 matches (25 wins and 1 draw, goal difference: + 126), 7 points ahead of closest rivals ES Winaloise, RUS Gouvy wins promotion to Provincial League 2.
• 2013 / Runners-up in P2C, 3 points behind champions RFC Bomal, in its first season back at that level, RUS Gouvy qualifies for the play-offs, in which the club successively eliminates RJ Freylangeoise (1-0) and RUS Ethe-Belmont (2-2 & penalty shoot-out: 4-5). As such, the club manages a return to Provincial League 1 after an absence of eight years.
• 2016 / Having managed safe mid-table positions in P1 in the previous two seasons, RUS Gouvy now finishes second-last, thus dropping back into Provincial League 2 along with bottom club RES Vaux-Noville. Also in or around 2016, RUS Gouvy abandons its training pitch at Route Nationale 827 in Beho.
• 2017 / Inauguration of the synthetic surface on pitch 2 (terrain 2) of RUS Gouvy’s ground at Rue de Beho – occasionally referred to as Champ Loups in more recent years.
• 2018 / Runners-up in P2C, 7 points behind champions RUS Sartoise, RUS Gouvy qualifies for the promotion play-offs. Defeating RSC Tontelange in R1 (1-0) and RFC Messancy in R2 (1-4) proves sufficient for the club’s return to the provincial elite – due to the folding of RE Bertrigeoise, a Belgian Luxembourg national league club, which has to be replaced in the national divisions by an extra provincial league club from the same province, an extra place in Provincial League 1 is available; as such, RUS Gouvy and the other play-off finalist, FC Jeunesse Lorraine Arlonaise, both win promotion without having to play the final.
• 2020 / In the 2019-20 season, cut short in March 2020 due to the COVID lockdown, RUS Gouvy finds itself in joint first position in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1 with R Marloie Sport with 16 of 26 matches played. Due to an extra promotion place being available for the national leagues for Belgian Luxembourg, both clubs are placed in ACFF Amateur Division 3, the fifth and lowest tier of the national league pyramid, for the new season. This constitutes RUS Gouvy’s debut on the national level.
• 2022 / Finishing bottom of the table in ACFF Amateur Division 3B, RUS Gouvy drops back into Provincial League 1 along with RES Wanze-Bas-Oha and fellow Luxembourg club RAFC Oppagne-Wéris.
• 2023 / Finishing in fourth place in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1, RUS Gouvy qualifies for the play-offs, going on to qualify for the interprovincial stage following successive wins over RAFC Oppagne-Wéris (0-5) and RUS Ethe-Belmont (3-0). In ACFF’s Interprovincial play-offs, the club manages defeats of FC Genappe (2-0) and RUS Biesme (1-0) – sufficient to reclaim its place in ACFF Amateur Division 3 due to extra promotion places being available, making the result of the play-off final against FC Flénu (ending in a 2-5 defeat) irrelevant.
• 2024 / RUS Gouvy holds its own in ACFF Amateur Division 3B, finishing in thirteenth place, 3 points above RES Wanze-Bas-Oha and the relegation zone.

Note 1 – Thanks to Roland Laloux and Didier Petit for providing important parts of the information presented above

Note 2 – Photo 13 below courtesy of Anneke te Boekhorst

All photos: (c) W.B. Tukker & J.C. te Boekhorst / www.extremefootballtourism.blogspot.com. Publication of any of these images only after permission of authors