Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: RFC Wallonia Thisnes (± 1971-2024)

Tuesday, 13 August 2019

BELGIUM: RFC Wallonia Thisnes (± 1971-2024)

Stade Pol Mottet-Paul Haumont, Thisnes (formerly RFC Wallonia Thisnes)

Belgium, province: Liège = Luik

13 VIII 2019 / RFCW Thisnes - RFC Malmundaria 1904 B 1-2 / Liège, Provincial Cup for P3-P4 teams - R3

Timeline

1941 / Foundation of a football club in Thisnes, a village situated to the west of the town of Hannut in Liège. The new club finds its origins in a team of former Belgian army soldiers from the village who had seen battle in the Eighteen Days’ Campaign of the Belgian forces in the face of the German onslaught in May 1940, with the names of Jérôme Pineur, Albert Dauphin, and Albert Grisard having been preserved for posterity. The team played its football against other makeshift teams from surrounding villages for a while, with a pitch having been laid out at Rue de l’Enfer on one of the pastures of a local smallholder, Clément Moes. Later in 1941, the decision was taken to apply for membership of Belgium’s Football Association, with the club obtaining membership with registration number 3307 under the name FC Wallonia Thisnes. The reference ‘Wallonia’ was chosen in honour of a previous, short-lived football club in Thisnes between the two world wars, which had borne the same name. Léon Douette is chosen as FC Wallonia Thisnes’ first chairman. For the 1941-42 season, the club is placed in a competition of debutant clubs, with the first match ending in a clear-cut defeat away at Tourinne (6-1).
1942 / For its second season as a competitive club, FC Wallonia Thisnes is placed in Liège’s Regional League 3B, the bottom division of Liège’s regional league pyramid. With former R Fléron FC skipper Clément Lefebvre taking on the role of player-trainer, the club manages an emphatic 8-1 away win at Trognée in its first match of the season.
1945 / Runners-up in Liège’s Regional League 3, FC Wallonia Thisnes goes on to win a set of promotion play-offs, resulting in the club winning promotion to Regional League 2.
1950 / Having played in Liège’s Regional League 2 for five seasons, FC Wallonia Thisnes now drops back into Regional League 3. There is no information available about the performance curve of the club in the following 57 years, except that it is clear that it never rose above the level of Liège’s Provincial League 2.
± 1960 / Moving away from its pitch at Rue de l’Enfer, FC Wallonia Thisnes settles on a newly laid-out pitch at Grand’Route (Rue de Wavre), across from the modern-day Kia garage in Thisnes.
± 1971 / Moving away from its pitch at Grand’Route, FC Wallonia Thisnes settles at the newly laid out Stade Pol Mottet-Paul Haumont at Rue de la Croix Blanche. The ground, consisting of just one pitch, is named after the most talented player in club history (Mottet) and its most beloved former coach (Haumont).
1992 / Obtaining the royal epithet, FC Wallonia Thisnes officially adapts its name to become Royal Football Club (RFC) Wallonia Thisnes.
2010 / Not having taken part in Liège’s provincial leagues with a first team since at least 2008, RFC Wallonia Thisnes returns to Provincial League 4A in the summer of 2010.
2014 / Runaway champions in Liège’s Provincial League 4A, 13 points ahead of closest followers R Etoile Rosoutoise, RFC Wallonia Thisnes accedes to Provincial League 3.
2017 / Finishing in fourth place in Liège’s Provincial League 3A, RFC Wallonia Thisnes qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is knocked out in R1 by RCS Verlaine B (6-4).
2019 / Finishing in second-last place in Liège’s Provincial League 3A, RFC Wallonia Thisnes drops back into Provincial League 4 along with bottom team ESFC du Geer B.
2020 / In the 2019-20 season, cut short due to the first COVID lockdown in March 2020, RFC Wallonia Thisnes finds itself in joint first place in Liège’s Provincial League 4A with RFC Villers – and with a better goal difference. Still, RFC Villers wins the ticket to Provincial League 3, probably due to the fact that it had won the only mutual confrontation against Thisnes (0-2).
2022 / In the first full season following the COVID lockdowns, RFC Wallonia Thisnes clinches the title in Liège’s Provincial League 4A, 6 points ahead of runners-up (and derby rivals) Patro Lensois. As such, the club wins promotion to Provincial League 3.
2023 / Runaway champions in Liège’s Provincial League 3A, 21 points ahead of closest followers RUS Strée, RFC Wallonia Thisnes accedes to Provincial League 2. Also in 2023, at the instigation of Hannut’s municipal authorities, RFC Wallonia Thisnes is given the benefit of use of the Stade Romain Froment in nearby Merdorp as its training ground following the demise of JS Merdorp in the late summer of 2023.
2024 / At the instigation of Hannut’s municipal authorities, RFC Wallonia Thisnes moves its first team football to Stade Romain Froment, with the ground in Thisnes, the Stade Pol Mottet-Paul Haumont, being abandoned once and for all. The club receives a budget from Hannut’s town council to upgrade the ground in Merdorp, which is even adorned with a small covered stand. The complex is officially renamed Stade TWB in a sponsorship deal.
2025 / RFC Wallonia Thisnes concludes a merger with RFC Hannutois, resulting in the foundation of RFC Wallonia Hannut, with Hannutois’ registration number 215 being retained (and Thisnes’ number 3307 being erased from the Belgian FA’s official lists). First team football moves to Hannut’s Stade Alfred Ducarme, with the ground in Merdorp being retained for lower team football and training sessions.

Note – Much of the information above has been derived from an article detailing the early history of (R)FC Wallonia Thisnes, written by former club secretary Cornélis Pineur. This article as well as further details about the club’s successive grounds was provided by another former club official, Michel Nulluy; my gratitude goes out to him.