BELGIUM: FC Monceau-en-Ardenne (1956-2011) / ES Ardennaise B (2011-±2013)

Terrain de la rue de la Rochette, Monceau-en-Ardenne (formerly FC Monceau-en-Ardenne & B ground of ES Ardennaise)

Belgium, province: Namur = Namen

September 2021 / no match visited

Timeline

• 1956 / Foundation of a football club in Monceau-en-Ardenne, a village in the vicinity of Bièvre in the southeast of the Province of Namur, with the new club taking on the name FC Monceau-en-Ardenne, acquiring registration number 5941 upon being allowed into the Belgian Football Association (URBSFA / KBVB). It is unclear if the club played its home matches on the pitch at Rue de la Rochette from the outset. No data are available regarding the club’s performance in the first forty odd years of its existence.
• 1998 / Runaway champions in Namur’s Provincial League 4C, 15 points ahead of closest followers Union Wanlinoise, FC Monceau-en-Ardenne wins promotion to Provincial League 3.
• 2002 / Champions in Namur’s Provincial League 3F, 3 points ahead of closest rivals RAS Houyet, FC Monceau-en-Ardenne wins promotion to Provincial League 2. 
• 2003 / FC Monceau-en-Ardenne holds its own in Namur’s Provincial League 2C, finishing in tenth place. In the following seasons, of which no data have been preserved, the club must have experienced not one, but two relegations, as we find it back in Provincial League 4 by 2008.
• 2009 / Champions in Namur’s Provincial League 4F, 1 point ahead of closest rivals FC Mesnilois, FC Monceau-en-Ardenne manages a return to Provincial League 3.
• 2011 / In its last season as an independent club, FC Monceau-en-Ardenne finishes in twelfth place in Namur’s Provincial League 3C. Following the 2010-11 season, a merger is concluded between FC Monceau-en-Ardenne and SC Graide from the eponymous village situated some 9 km to the northeast. The merger club is given the name Entente Sportive (ES) Ardennaise, with Graide’s registration number 5698 being retained; Monceau’s number 5941 is struck from the Belgian FA’s membership list. First team football moves to Stade Jules Jacques in Graide, with Monceau’s pitch at Rue de la Rochette being retained for training sessions.
• ± 2013 / Some two or three years after the merger between SC Graide and FC Monceau-en-Ardenne, the pitch of the latter at Rue de la Rochette is abandoned.

All photos: (c) W.B. Tukker / www.extremefootballtourism.blogspot.com. Publication of any of these images only after permission of author