Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: Solières Sport (2002-2013, 2021-2023) / Solières Sport (B) (2013-2021) / R Union Hutoise (2023-)

Thursday 21 July 2022

BELGIUM: Solières Sport (2002-2013, 2021-2023) / Solières Sport (B) (2013-2021) / R Union Hutoise (2023-)

Complexe du Château Vert - terrain 2, Solières (R Union Hutoise, formerly A & B ground of Solières Sport)

Belgium, province: Liège = Luik

21 VII 2022 / Solières Sport - RAS Monceau 2-2 / Pre-season friendly

Timeline

2002 / Foundation of a football club in Solières, which takes on the name Solières Sport and settles on a pitch at Chemin de Perwez, on the grounds of the Château Vert Institute for disabled children. Upon applying for membership of Belgium’s Football Association, Solières Sport, formed by a group of disaffected members of RFC Huy, receives registration number 9426. The club starts its life in Liège’s Provincial League 4.
2007 / Winning the title in Liège’s Provincial League 4 (probably P4A), Solières Sport accedes to Provincial League 3.
2009 / Having failed to win promotion to Provincial League 2 in the play-offs in the previous season, Solières Sport now clinches the title in P3A, 7 points ahead of closest followers R Alliance Clavinoise SC. As such, the club accedes to P2 for the first time.
2010 / In its first season in P2A, Solières Sport finishes in third place, 10 points behind champions R Stade Waremmien FC. The club qualifies for the promotion play-offs, but is eliminated.
2011 / Finishing in fourth place in P2A, Solières Sport qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which it is eliminated in R1 by Patro Lensois (2-2 and penalty shoot-out).
2012 / Clinching the title in P2A, 16 points ahead of closest rivals RCS Verlaine, Solières Sport wins promotion to Liège’s Provincial League 1 for the first time.
2013 / Runners-up in its first season in P1, just one point behind R Spa FC, Solières Sport qualifies for the promotion play-offs. First, the club wins the Liège P1 play-off, successively defeating Etoile Elsautoise (1-0) and R Stade Waremmien FC (4-1); subsequently, in the Interprovincial Play-offs for a spot in National Division 4, the club edges past RES Champlonaise (2-4) before losing the final against K Vlijtingen VV (0-0 and penalty shoot-out). However, due to K Beerschot AC losing its registration number and concluding a merger with Antwerp’s Provincial League 1 side KFC Olympia Wilrijk, an extra spot in the national divisions falls free. In a lucky loser round, Solières Sport defeats R Gosselies Sports (1-2), thus acceding to national league football merely eleven years after the foundation of the club. Because Solières' main pitch does not have the correct measurements for national league football, the club has to temporarily move to the synthetic pitch of Site Legrand, the youth academy ground of RFC Huy. Meanwhile, a pitch with correct measurements is being put in place on the B pitch of Complexe du Château Vert.
2014 / Abandoning the Site Legrand, Solières Sport moves its first team football back to Complexe du Château Vert – more specifically to the newly laid-out grass pitch to the south of the clubhouse.
2017 / A synthetic surface is put in place on the pitch of Complexe du Château Vert north of the clubhouse – which had been the club’s main pitch between 2002 and 2013.
2021 / After seven seasons of first team football on the grass pitch south of the clubhouse at Complexe du Château Vert, Solières Sport - by then playing in ACFF Amateur Division 2 - chooses to move the home matches of its flagship team to the synthetic pitch to the north – i.e. the location of the former main pitch (2002-13).
2023 / Finishing in sixteenth place in ACFF Amateur Division 2, Solières Sport descends into ACFF D3 along with RFC Seraing B and R Stade Waremmien FC. Following the 2022-23 season, Solières Sport concludes a merger with the club it broke away from in 2002, RFC Huy, forming Royale Union Hutoise, with RFC Huy’s registration number 76 being retained. With RFC Huy having abandoned its historic Stade Communal / Avenue de la Croix Rouge three years previously, first team football moves to the synthetic pitch of Solières’ Complexe du Château Vert, while the new club’s youth academy settles at Site Legrand in Tihange, Huy, which had served as RFC Huy’s main – i.e. only – ground from 2020 onwards. Following the relegation of Solières Sport, R Union Hutoise’s first team starts its life in ACFF Amateur Division 3, the fifth and lowest tier of Belgium’s national league pyramid.

Note - Below, a compilation of photos of two different visits: pictures 1 & 9-19 = match visit, July 2022 (3G pitch) / pictures 2-8 = non-matchday visit, October 2014 (old situation).