BELGIUM: Jong Zulte (B) (2011-2021) / Jong Zulte (2021-)

Domein Waalmeers, Zulte (Jong Zulte - A ground since mid-2021, youth academy ground since 2011)

Belgium, province: East Flanders

9 X 2021 / Jong Zulte - Racing Mater 3-0 / East Flanders, Provincial League 4C (= BE level 9)

Timeline

• 2002 / Following the merger of National Division 3 club Zultse VV, the club playing its football at Gemeentelijk Sportstadion Kastanjelaan in Zulte, with KSV Waregem, resulting in the foundation of SV Zulte-Waregem - with first team football being moved to Waregem's Regenboogstadion, but the stadium in Zulte being retained for lower team football and training purposes - in 2001, a new provincial club sees the daylight in Zulte proper. This new club, which is given the name Jong Zulte, acquires membership of Belgium’s FA under registration number 9406. Sharing the Gemeentelijk Sportstadion with SV Zulte-Waregem, the club starts its life in East Flanders’ Provincial League 4, the bottom division of the provincial league pyramid.
• 2011 / Jong Zulte’s new youth academy ground, Domein Waalmeers, is inaugurated.
• 2021 / Following the 2020-21 season, Jong Zulte, marred by financial problems, chooses to withdraw from Provincial League 1, a level the club had reached in 2018, and start from scratch in East Flanders’ Provincial League 4. Also in 2021, exasperated at the growing financial demands on the part of SV Zulte Waregem for the lease of the stadium, the club abandons the Gemeentelijk Sportstadion Kastanjelaan once and for all, choosing to also play its first team football at Domein Waalmeers, where the old clubhouse is replaced by a much larger, two-tiered construction.
• 2022 / Runaway champions in East Flanders’ Provincial League 4C, 11 points ahead of closest followers VC Eendracht Huise-Ouwegem, Jong Zulte wins promotion to P3. 

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