Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: R Prayon FC (1985-2010) / RFC Trooz (2010-2017, 2019-) / RFC Trooz (B) (2017-2019)

Rue de la Brouck-Campagne, Prayon La Brouck (RFC de Trooz, formerly R Prayon FC / B pitch of RFC de Trooz)

Belgium, province: Liège = Luik

24 V 2012 / RFC Trooz - K Honsfelder SV 3-1 / Liège, Provincial League 2 - promotion play-off (= BE level 6)

Timeline

1912 / Foundation of Prayon Football Club. Around the outbreak of World War I, the club ceases activities without officially folding.
1914 / On December 31st, 1914, Prayon FC is refounded.
1916 / The second Prayon FC joins Belgium's Football Association in March 1916, but seems to have ceased activities shortly afterwards.
1921 / A second refoundation of Prayon FC. The club joins the Belgian FA that same year. The pitch is situated in the hamlet La Brouck, on an open field next to the local metallurgical plant.
1923 / Foundation of Cercle Sportif (CS) de Trooz - Trooz being a hamlet very close to Prayon. It is unclear where CS Trooz's home ground was situated.
1924 / CS (de) Trooz folds, ceasing all activities.
1926 / Upon the introduction of the matricule register by Belgium's FA, Prayon FC receives matricule 226.
1931 / Prayon FC first enters a youth team in the regular Belgian FA's leagues.
1932 / For the first time, Prayon FC wins a league title in Liège's regional divisions - the regional divisions being the level below the provincial leagues at the time.
1939 / Prayon FC wins promotion to Liège's Provincial League 1 for the first time.
1941 / The club comes close to winning the P1 title and promotion to the national leagues, but messes up in the last match of the season. In one of the following seasons, relegation to Provincial League 2 follows.
1945 / Prayon FC is back in Provincial League 1.
1953 / The royal epithet is obtained, with Prayon FC adapting its name to become Royal Prayon Football Club - or R Prayon FC.
1954 / After having come close in 1951, R Prayon FC finally wins the title in Provincial League 1. Led by player-coach Jean Massart - a former player of R Charleroi SC -, the club acceded to National Division 4 for the first time. The 1953-54 season proved a historic campaign for Prayon anyway, as the club also made the fifth round of the Belgian Cup. At that stage, the club is beaten at home by Division 2 side K Sint-Truidense VV (1-4).
1957 / After three seasons in National Division 4, R Prayon FC is relegated to Liège's Provincial League 1. Strikingly, in the ultimately unsuccessful 1956-57 season, the club managed to beat KVV Overpelt and K Helzold FC, who finished first and second respectively in the final ranking.
1969 / Following some less successful seasons, R Prayon FC finds its way back to Liège's Provincial League 1 by defeating RUS Wandruzienne (3-2) in a play-off final taking place at R Fléron FC's ground.
1972 / After one season in Provincial League 2C, in which the club wins the title, R Prayon FC finds its way back to P1 yet again.
1974 / For the second time in club history, R Prayon FC accedes to National Division 4. In the 1973-74 season, the club finished second behind RFC Hannutois, but had the better of EH Braives (2-0) in a play-off held at RRFC Montegnée's ground attended by a staggering crowd of 3,625. In D4, the club does not manage to hold its own, suffering relegation to Liège's Provincial League 1 in 1975.
1976 / Finishing second behind R Blégny FC in P1, R Prayon FC finds its way back to the national leagues after just one season. This time, the spell in D4 lasts two seasons, with a respectable 7th place in 1977, but a 16th and last place in 1978.
1981 / R Prayon FC is relegated to Provincial League 2. It takes the club two seasons to return to P1.
1985 / Forced to leave behind its pitch at the steel factory, which was expropriated to make way for a viaduct, R Prayon FC moves to a new ground with two pitches at Rue de la Brouck-Campagne, also in La Brouck.
1988 / For the fourth time in club history, R Prayon FC accede to National Division 4. Under the inspirational leadership of West German player-manager Helmut Graf - former pro at RAA Louviéroise and R Standard de Liège - the club finishes third in 1989 and 1990, the best results in club history. Graf hangs up his boots in 1990.
1993 / After an impressive first half of the season, following which Prayon tops the league, the club falls back in the spring months - eventually finishing fourth and again missing out on promotion to D3.
1999 / After some narrow escapes in the previous seasons, R Prayon FC is relegated to Provincial League 1 after eleven consecutive seasons of national league football.
2003 / Two years after having suffered relegation to Provincial League 2, R Prayon FC is condemned to another setback, as the club drops to P3 for the first time since World War II. Another first: R Wallonia FC Nessonvaux-Fraipont, the club's closest footballing neighbour, finds itself in a higher league (P2) than R Prayon FC for the first time.
2006 / Beset by financial problems in the aftermath of the club's spell in the national divisions, in which large sums of money were spent on players and player salaries, R Prayon FC - by now close to bankruptcy - suffers a humiliating relegation to Provincial League 4, the bottom division of Liège's league system.
2007 / Prayon's chairman William Libon writes a letter to Belgium's FA announcing the end of the club, but a purchaser is found mere days later; businessman Robert Bruni, who announces plans to guide the club back to P1 in five years. Dramatically, though, Bruni suffers a heart-attack that same summer and passes away - bringing the club close to the edge of the cliff once again. Given time by Belgium's FA to find a solution before the end of the year, R Prayon FC announces its intention to merge with AC Milanello Herstal a couple of days before the end of the year.
2008 / The final details having been hammered out, R Prayon FC and AC Milanello Herstal (matricule 9325) conclude a merger - in terms of the name chosen for the merger club, simply R Prayon FC without any reference to Milanello, it might have looked like an absorption, but in practice Milanello's presidency takes over the club. With Milanello being evicted from its Stade Pré-Wigy in Herstal, which had been sold by Herstal's town council to a project developer, all activities move to Prayon's ground at Rue de la Brouck. At one stroke, the 'reformed' R Prayon FC climbs from Provincial League 4 to Provincial League 2 - the level at which AC Milanello's first team played in the previous season.
2009 / In the first season after the merger, R Prayon FC clinches promotion to Provincial League 1 after defeating RFC Bütgenbach (3-0) in the last match of the play-offs.
2010 / After fruitless discussions in the previous decade, finally a merger is concluded between R Prayon FC and R Wallonia FC Nessonvaux-Fraipont (matricule 686), the result being the foundation of Royal Football Club (RFC) de Trooz (although almost universally referred to simply as FC Trooz) - retaining Prayon's matricule 226. With Nessonvaux's Terrain de la Heid de Vesdre being abandoned, all club activities move to Rue de la Brouck-Campagne.
2012 / Having suffered relegation from Provincial League 1 in 2011, RFC Trooz climbs back to that level by winning the promotion play-offs in P2 (the decisive match being the home game against K Honsfelder SV at which the photos below were taken); the spell in P1 lasts for two seasons, with relegation following in 2014.
2017 / With the main pitch at Rue de la Brouck not being maintained other than for training purposes, first team football temporarily moves to the ground's (synthetic) side pitch.
2018 / Clinching the title in Provincial League 2B, RFC Trooz accedes to P1 yet again - only to drop back to P2 after just one season.
2019 / First team football returns to Rue de la Brouck's main pitch.
2023 / Finishing runners-up in P2B, 5 points behind RSC Tilffois, RFC Trooz qualifies for the promotion play-offs, defeating RFC Tilleur (2-1) and SFC Saive (3-1) in the preliminary rounds to qualify for the finals, playing in a group of 3 against RFC Sart-lez-Spa and RU Momalloise for 2 places in P1. With Sart and Trooz each defeating Momalloise, and drawing their head-to-head confrontation, RFC Trooz as well as RFC Sart-lez-Spa win promotion to P1.
2024 / Finishing in thirteenth place in Liège's Provincial League 1, RFC Trooz drops back into P2 along with UCE Liège, R Alliance Melen-Micheroux, RCS Stavelotain, and bottom club JS Fizoise.