BELGIUM: RAA Brainoise (± 1965-1969) / R Stade Brainois (B) (1969-2021) / R Union Tubize-Braine (D) (2021-2022) / R Union Tubize-Braine (C) (2022-)

Stade Communal du Poseur, Braine-le-Comte = 's-Gravenbrakel (C ground of R Union Tubize-Braine, formerly RAA Brainoise / B ground of R Stade Brainois)

Belgium, province: Hainaut = Henegouwen

July 2022 / no match visited

Timeline

• 1924 / Foundation of a first football club in Braine-le-Comte, which is given the name Amicale Athlétique (AA) Brainoise. The club probably started its life on a pitch situated at Rue de la Bienfaisance.
• 1926 / With the introduction of the matricule register at the Belgian Football Association, AA Brainoise obtains matricule 343.
• 1932 / Winning the title in Hainaut's Provincial League 2A, AA Brainoise accedes to Provincial League 1 for the first time. The club holds its own at that level for two seasons before dropping back into P2 in 1934.
• 1938 / After Amicale Athlétique (AA) Brainoise in 1924, a second football club sees the daylight in Braine-le-Comte; this new club, Union Sportive (US) Brainoise (matricule 2607) settles at the Stade au Sans-Fond. Remarkably, the distance between the pitches of AA Brainoise and US Brainoise was no more than some 100 metres.
• 1947 / Winning the title in Provincial League 2B, AA Brainoise joins its more ambitious village rivals US Brainoise in Provincial League 1.
• 1951 / Obtaining the royal epithet, AA Brainoise adapts its name to become Royale Amicale Athlétique (RAA) Brainoise.
• 1958 / Suffering relegation from Provincial League 1, RAA Brainoise alternates spells in P2 (1958-61, 1966-69) and P1 (1961-66) in the following decade.
• ± 1965 / Moving away from its ground at Rue de Bienfaisance, RAA Brainoise settles at a newly laid-out ground at Rue du Poseur.
• 1969 / A merger is concluded between RAA Brainoise and US Brainoise, resulting in the foundation of Stade Brainois. Although the merger club retains Amicale's matricule 343, the royal epithet is lost - and not recovered for the following three decades. The new club plays in all-white shirts, thus avoiding any reference to the colours of the two old clubs (Amicale's blue and black; and Union's red and white). Stade Brainois starts its life in Hainaut's Provincial League 1, the level at which US Brainoise played in its last season as an independent club. From the merger onwards, first team football is played at Stade au Sans-Fond, while Amicale's Stade du Poseur remains in use for lower team football and training sessions.
• 1995 / The women's football branch of Stade Brainois forms a breakaway club, founding Standard Fémina de Braine (matricule 9286).
• 1999 / Stade Brainois finally retrieves its royal epithet, thus becoming Royal Stade Brainois.
• 2021 / R Stade Brainois concludes a merger with former professional league side AFC Tubize from nearby Tubize in Walloon Brabant. The new club, which retains Tubize's matricule 5632, is officially given the name Royale Union Tubize Braine-le-Comte, although it has since universally been referred to as Royale Union Tubize-Braine (RUTB). Henceforth, the new merger club's first team, which continues at ACFF D2 level, at which AFC Tubize played in its last season as an independent club, plays its football in Tubize's Stade Leburton. A B team, which is placed in Walloon Brabant's (instead of Hainaut's!) Provincial League 1 - one obligatory step down from the level at which R Stade Brainois ended its existence -, settles at Stade au Sans-Fond. The youth academy grounds in Tubize (Terrain du Chalet) and Braine-le-Comte (Stade du Poseur) are retained as well.
• 2022 / Royale Union Tubize Braine's board files a request at Braine-le-Comte's town council to renovate the Stade au Sans-Fond, but permission for the planned works is not granted. Thereupon, the club takes the far-reaching decision to abandon the historic ground. Home matches of RUTB's B team, which admirably held its own in Brabant's ACFF Provincial League 1 in the 2021-22 season, are moved to Tubize's Terrain du Chalet. While the other ground in Braine, Stade du Poseur, will remain in use for part of RUTB's youth academy, the Stade au Sans-Fond is due to be turned into a sports facility for padel and tennis.

Note: Important parts of the information given above were provided by Pascal Delmoitiez; many thanks to him, as well as to Michel Vancamp for bringing me in touch with Mr Delmoitiez.

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