Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: CS Couillet (19??-1945) / RACS Couillet (1945-2005, 2008-2009) / RACS Couillet (B) (2005-2008) / Football Couillet La Louvière (C) (2009-2011) / FC Charleroi (B) (2011-2013) / FC Charleroi (2013-2014) / Football Couillet-Marcinelle (2013-2016) / Racing Charleroi-Couillet-Fleurus (2014-2017) / RAS Monceau (2017-2018) / SC Montignies (B) (2017-±2020)

Stade du Fiestaux "Plaine de Jeux Eugène Van Walleghem", Charleroi Couillet (formerly CS Couillet / RACS Couillet matr. 94 / FC Charleroi / Football Couillet-Marcinelle / Racing Charleroi-Couillet-Fleurus / RAS Monceau, B ground of RACS Couillet matr. 94 / FC Charleroi / SC Montignies & C ground of Football Couillet-La Louvière)

Belgium, province: Hainaut = Henegouwen

25 VIII 2013 / FC Charleroi - RES Acrenoise 0-5 / National League 4A (= BE level 4)

Timeline

1919 / Foundation of Cercle Sportif (CS) Couillet. It is unclear when the club settled down at Stade du Fiestaux, officially named Plaine de Jeux Eugène Van Walleghem - Mr Van Walleghem being Couillet's mayor between 1922 and 1964 -, but it was probably in use already before the outbreak of World War II.
1920 / CS Couillet joins the ranks of Belgium's Football Association.
1926 / Upon the introduction of the matricule system, CS Couillet obtains matricule 94.
1934 / CS Couillet accedes to the national division, playing in Promotion - the third and lowest tier of Belgium's national football pyramid at the time - for three seasons before suffering relegation back to Hainaut's regional leagues in 1937.
1945 / In 1945, following the demise of a smaller club from Couillet, Amicale Sportive Couillet (matricule 3745, founded as FC Solvay Couillet in 1938 but renamed AS Couillet in 1941), CS Couillet changes its name to become Amical Cercle Sportif (ACS) Couillet.
1947 / Winning the title in Hainaut's Provincial League 2C, ACS Couillet accedes to Provincial League 1 for the first time. In the following 50 years, the club alternates spells in Provincial Leagues 1 and 2, with a total of 25 seasons in P1 (1947-48, 1959-63, 1966-69, 1972-73, 1979-92, 1994-96, and 1999-2000).
1962 / ACS Couillet obtains the royal epithet, thus becoming Royal Amical Cercle Sportif (RACS) Couillet.
1977 / Conclusion of a merger between RACS Couillet and the more modest US Couillet d'Amérique, the result being Royale Association Cercle Sportif (RACS!) Couillet; first team football is played at Stade du Fiestaux, while the club's youth academy settles down at US's Terrain de l'Amérique.
2000 / After back-to-back promotions, from P2 to P1, and from P1 to Promotion D, RACS Couillet finds itself in the national divisions for the first time in 53 years.
±2002 / Abandoning Terrain de l'Amérique, RACS Couillet moves its youth academy to the nearby Site 'Les Tourterelles'.
2005 / Winning the play-offs in National Division 4, RACS Couillet accedes to National Division 3. Due to the limited capacity of Stade du Fiestaux, the three following seasons - all spent in D3 - sees RACS's first team playing at Olympic Charleroi's Stade de la Neuville. Along with Site Les Tourterelles, the Stade du Fiestaux remains in use for lower team football and training purposes
2008 / Upon relegation to National Division 4, RACS Couillet duly returns its first team's home matches to Stade du Fiestaux.
2009 / With former top flight club RAA Louviéroise from La Louvière going bankrupt, a group of supporters of this club takes the radical decision of purchasing RACS's matricule 94, renaming the club Football Couillet La Louvière (or simply FC La Louvière) and moving first team football to La Louvière's Stade Communal du Tivoli. RACS's comprehensive youth academy remains in Couillet, mainly at Les Tourterelles, but with the Stade du Fiestaux also remaining in the hands of the new FC La Louvière.
2011 / As FC La Louvière's groundsharers at Tivoli, URS du Centre, takes on the name of UR La Louvière Centre, thereby claiming the heritage of the old RAA Louviéroise, the FC La Louvière project is given up. Subsequently, Football Couillet La Louvière is renamed FC Charleroi, moving back to the Charleroi region - but playing its first team football, still in National Division 4, at Stade de la Neuville.
2013 / FC Charleroi's first team moves to Stade du Fiestaux. This decision coincides with the coming into being of R Charleroi-Fleurus, a club created by FC Charleroi's strongman Roberto Leone after buying matricule 5192 of RJS Heppignies-Lambusart-Fleurus, a village club from the Greater Charleroi region which had run into financial difficulties after a spell of national league football. R Charleroi-Fleurus, playing in National Division 3, now settles at Neuville, with FC Charleroi becoming Charleroi-Fleurus's youth squad in all but name. Still in the summer of 2013, Football Couillet-Marcinelle (matricule 301), moves into Stade du Fiestaux as groundsharers of FC Charleroi - Football Couillet-Marcinelle being the name of RFC Sporting Marcinelle. Another brainchild of Roberto Leone, Football Couillet-Marcinelle is mainly conceived as a youth project.
2014 / Not surprisingly, given the circumstances created the previous summer, FC Charleroi stands no chance whatsoever in National Division 4, thus causing the relegation of matricule 94 to Provincial League 1. Further complicating matters, still in the summer of 2014, Mr Leone sells R Charleroi-Fleurus's matricule to R Francs Borains, while merging both of his Charleroi club projects into one: Racing Charleroi-Couillet-Fleurus (RCCF), retaining FC Charleroi's matricule 94 and with first team football taking place at Stade du Fiestaux.
2015 / In its first season under the new name, Racing Charleroi-Couillet-Fleurus, finishing fourth in Hainaut's Provincial League 1, manages an immediate return to National Division 4 by winning the promotion play-offs.
2016 / Finishing fifth in National Division 4B, Racing Charleroi-Couillet-Fleurus takes its place ACFF Amateur Division 2, the newly created fourth tier of the Belgian football pyramid. That same summer, Football Couillet-Marcinelle folds, after having played just one season of first team football (2014-15).
2017 / Finishing 15th in Amateur Division 2, RCCF is relegated to Amateur Division 3, but, that summer, Roberto Leone sells the club's matricule to a group of football supporters from La Louvière who felt themselves unable to rally behind UR La Louvière Centre; as such, RCCF is renamed RAAL La Louvière, with - no surprises here - first team football moving to Stade Communal du Tivoli once again; and matricule 94 disappearing from the Charleroi region for good. Following this, Charleroi's town council allows SC Montignies to use the Stade du Fiestaux as well as the Site 'Les Tourterelles' for lower team football and training purposes, while RAS Monceau, whose own Stade Victor Corbier had been damaged beyond repair due to a collapse of part of the pitch, plays its first team football at Fiestaux between the summer of 2017 and December 2018.
±2020 / Stade du Fiestaux must have been abandoned by SC Montignies the start of the COVID outbreak (early 2020), but possibly already earlier on. The ground has not seen any official football activity since. A new club called RACS (Racing Amical Cercle Sportif) Couillet (matricule 9369), playing at Les Tourterelles since 2020, cherishes the ambition to breathe new life into Stade du Fiestaux, but no permission has been granted by Charleroi's town council. Nowadays, the ground is hardly being maintained, but remains in use for the occasional 'wild' football match as well as recreation by local residents (cp. pictures 21-23 below).

Note: Below, a compilation of photos of three different visits: pictures 1-20 = match visit, August 2013 / pictures 21-27 & 29 = non-matchday visit, July 2022 / picture 28 = non-matchday visit, December 2009.